There is growth in the number of women in engineering and science careers, but the numbers are still small. I'd like to see SPIE do more advocacy for women in the field. We've all read that, in the U.S. at least, girls are turned off from science and mathematics at a pretty early age. The SPIE Education Committee is working hard on ways to help our members become more active in optics outreach in thier local communities. But to get back to your original question about women in sciences, what optics can do for women in engineering is what it can do in general science courses at a university for the student body as a whole, i.e., provide a broad exposure of optics to nonscientists.
Optics has the advantage of being flashy.
It gives us the unique opportunity to communicate to young children some of the excitement and some of the opportunities that are available in the science and engineering careers. If we can figure out a way to do that right, and target that to younger children, making sure there are no cultural biases built in, then nature should take its course, getting young girls interested in optics at an early age. Partnerships with K-12 schools and community science centers and museums are among the ways to do this outreach. Educating the general public about the role of optics in today's world and the opportunities for people in the profession I think is probably the most important thing we can do in education. And there certainly is more that SPIE can do.