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Engineers are societal caregivers, solving problems for the betterment of society. However, both practitioners and students of engineering struggle to make concrete connections between empathy and their role as engineers. While general empathy scales exist, these scales do not describe empathy in specific engineering scenarios and other helping professions have unique empathy scales. To address both the empathetic nature of the engineering discipline and the lack of discipline specific empathy understanding, our research team has set out to create an engineering empathy scale (EES) funded by the National Science Foundation. Our research is guided by two research questions: How is empathy conceptually perceived, experienced, and shown in engineering specific situations? and Can engineering specific situations be used to measure empathy in engineering students, faculty, and practitioners? In this article, we present a systematic literature review of empathy in engineering and engineering education. Based on our selection criteria, we found 48 peer reviewed articles. Three themes of the articles emerged focusing on empathy in engineering: teaching and learning, design, and the role of empathy in engineering. We analyzed the articles to determine what areas of connection to the constructs of empathy and the current model of empathy in engineering are supported and which need more research to support. Lastly, we present our research plan to create and validate the EES, which will be aided by this literature review.