Peer mentoring in engineering entrepreneurship: a learning environment for women students

Entrepreneurship in engineering is anintersection of two male-dominated domains and isparticularly prone to a gender gap. Entrepreneurshipeducation—the teaching of skills and cultivation of talentsthat students need to start businesses, identifyopportunities, manage risk and innovate in the course oftheir careers—is now a staple in many universities acrossCanada and around the world. However, theparticipation of women in such entrepreneurial programsremains quite low. This paper presents the novel Women'sStart-up Network program at the University of Ottawa.The objective of the program was to develop anentrepreneurial mind-set and competencies in femaleengineering and computer science students throughfacilitated peer mentorship training. Participants weresurveyed to determine the degree to which a peer mentortrainingprogram could increase participants’ knowledgeabout entrepreneurship and influence participants’entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intentions. This paperreports on the preliminary results of the program and theimplications for entrepreneurial learning and careerintentions among female engineering students.