In general, there is a large gap between the number of males who are in scientific fields and the number of women. However, engineering has significantly more males than females, and women frequently decide to leave the profession.

While some people may believe that their absence is due to family reasons, a new study suggests that it is actually due to the climate in the workplace. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (UWM) found that nearly half the women in their survey of females who left the engineering profession did so because of the negative working conditions.

Still, the study found that one in four women chose to leave because of family reasons. The survey was compromised of more than 3,700 women who had engineering degrees who left their profession after five years.

"Some women are leaving because of family issues, but that's not the majority of women who responded to our survey," said Nadya Fouad, UWM Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology.