July 22, 2022 - On the occasion of Women in Engineering Day, The Asia Foundation sponsored the 2022 Expert Group Meeting hosted by the Korea Foundation for Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology (WISET) on June 23, 2022. The purpose of the meeting is to deliberate means to increase the inflow of female talents and bridge the gender gap in engineering.

The event began with opening remarks by President Hye-yeon Ahn, and congratulatory remarks by National Assembly Member Sang-hee Kim and Jane Sloane, the Senior Director of the Asia Foundation Women's Empowerment and Gender Inequality program, followed by presentations and panel discussions by experts from both the U.S. and South Korea.

During the first session moderated by Qistina Kamaurddin, a consultant from The Asia Foundation, Prof. Andrew N. Meltzoff of Psychology at the University of Washington, USA, and Prof. Soonhee Hwang in the Department of Liberal Arts and Science at the Hongik University each gave a presentation. Prof. Meltzoff emphasized the necessity of society's effort to address stereotypes such as ‘Engineering is for boys.’ to improve educational equity for young girls. Prof. Hwang contended that it is necessary to influence their career choices in engineering by providing them the opportunity to experience repeated success and increasing their sense of self-efficacy.

The two presenters and five participants joined the panel discussions: Ms. Abby Bullock, Senior Software Engineer from Google, Dr. Chaeyoung Shin, CEO of NAMUH, Prof. Myongsook S. Oh, President of The Association of Women in Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Korea (KOFWST), Prof. Hyunjoo Lee at KAIST, and Dr. Sohyun "Sophie" Chung, Principal Professional from Samsung Electronics. They shared experiences as women in engineering and exchanged various opinions. The panels agreed with providing programs for women in engineering to experience success and appropriate feedback to increase their engineering self-efficacy. It is also important to accept the difference between men and women rather than compare and focus on developing each individual's capacity.