Women and youth empowerment through learning

Abstract

Women remain underrepresented in engineering worldwide, and their participation is further shaped by learning environments that provide limited opportunities for leadership, peer interaction, and hands-on practice. Empowering women and youth therefore requires course structures that intentionally promote collaboration, visibility, and confidence-building. Implementing such approaches can be challenging in contexts where prior educational experiences emphasize reservation, pride, structured instruction, and limited teamwork, as is common for many students entering engineering programs in Kuwait. To address these constraints, the American University of Kuwait (AUK), in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology, redesigned an engineering Bachelor course to prioritize technical development alongside empowerment through continuous interaction, trust building, transparency, and structured leadership opportunities. Nine interventions were introduced, including external-stakeholder projects, free topic selection, explicit leadership roles for women, team contracts, iterative peer-to-peer feedback, staged presentations, mentorship-oriented instruction, equal-opportunity facilitation, and transparent assessment criteria. Evaluation combined constructive alignment with pre- and post-course surveys measuring technical skills, teamwork, and perceived empowerment. Thirty-one students completed the six-week module (58% female). Pre-course data indicated limited prior exposure to engineering design and 3D printing, while post-course results showed increased confidence in design steps, CAD modelling, and additive manufacturing. Students also reported improved teamwork, clearer understanding of peer contributions, and enhanced confidence linked to defined roles and structured deliverables. All students met the intended outcomes. Future work will extend the redesign to additional Bachelor courses within AUK, from introductory modules to more technical and graduation projects, to establish a coherent, well-aligned and empowerment-focused engineering curriculum.