Three years ago, when I was an undergraduate in India, I remember staying late after my Kinematics of Machinery class to sort out my notes. A security guard passed the classroom, peeked inside and threw me a smile and a question. “I noticed the session for the past week. Have all the other girls in the class been absent?” I smiled ruefully and replied, “No, this is a mechanical engineering class, and I am the only girl who took this, along with 62 guys.”
SWE members Noah Hibbard, Laura Zeitler, Elise Larson, Piotr Starosta and Erin Karweik pose with their portable heating system for the Boeing Team Tech National Design Competition. SWE supports women in engineering, and is open to both males and females.
Photo Credit: Sean MetcalfGender diversity in engineering is still a much-discussed, yet little-resolved issue around the world. In the United States, women make up only 20 percent of undergraduates in engineering. Worse, only 11 percent of practicing engineers are females. What could be the reason for such alarmingly low proportions?
The answer is simple. As reports worldwide indicate, schoolgirls think that engineering is challenging and consists mostly of math and science. Surprisingly, the reason for the spread of this myth is the engineering community itself. What should we be doing, as responsible engineers, to see that engineering doesn’t remain a mystical dream, but becomes an enjoyable reality to many aspiring young women?
The answers come from women who have already taken that step into engineering. Professor and chair of the industrial and systems engineering department at UW-Madison, Patricia Brennan, has three things to share with young girls. She says, “First, it’s not either-or. You can have science and sports, math and music. You need to think about the set of things that make you happy. Next, thinking about what society needs and how you can uniquely respond to that is the best career guide. Science and engineering give so many more tools than you can imagine. Lastly, worry about making friends, but if you and they are not on the same page [on career-choices], it’s okay.”
Professor Brennan’s research involves creating and evaluating technologies for home care that people could use to take care of themselves. Her research spans areas such as human computer interaction, layout design, workflow modeling and nursing. She has recently been chosen a theme leader in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, and will be developing a virtual reality chamber that will recreate almost any household environment in the world. This will help designers create tools that could fit into people’s everyday lives and understand the behavior of people in those households.
Photo Credit: Sean Metcalf
“There remains a framing of engineering that is more congruent with our sociological concepts of male–reductionist and non-emotional. If we were to engage more women in engineering, I think we would have a switch, a reframing of the valuing of solutions. Diversifying the engineering workforce with women and people of different economic and cultural backgrounds would bring a better sense of judgment in solutions,” Brennan says.
What should a woman expect when she rises to a position of power in an engineering career? “That she can’t go into the men’s room with the boys,” Brennan says. “If you are walking down the hall with three colleagues and they turn into the men’s room, then you are stuck. It is a matter for recognition, that some of the informal communication pathways which are essential for any organization’s running are gendered.”
A group of eight undergraduate females from the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at UW-Madison met with the magazine to share their experiences of transcending the gender barriers of engineering. When posed with the question of why girls don’t step into engineering so often, the group came up with two possible reasons. First, most women want a career that they could flex at a later point in life to accommodate a family and children. Second, societal expectations edge men on to jobs with higher pay and status, while women are pushed towards degrees that don’t take as much effort and time.
Do females feel out-numbered or left out by the lack of other women? “I guess I don’t feel left out by any means,” Kimberly Miller, a UW-Madison senior in chemical engineering, says. “There are definitely less women than men, but [the numbers are] improving and there are equal opportunities for both genders.”
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Boeing Tech team works on a portable heating device for the national Boeing Team Tech Competition, for which they won second place.
Photo Credit: Sean MetcalfKim is currently the president of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at UW-Madison. SWE works to promote women in science and engineering fields. One of its goals is to introduce engineering to younger girls by making them more informed and ready for any career choice they may decide on in the future. SWE also works to create a better environment on campus by having upperclassmen mentor underclassmen. “We work a lot with companies, and have corporate sponsors provide professional development in all fields. They [companies] look for female engineers and we work together to get ourselves ready for the workplace,” Miller says.
Jasmine Vadgaama, an electrical test engineer with Danfoss Drives in Illinois says, “Engineering has often been a difficult career choice for women – but that may be largely due to the fear of the unknown.” Vadgaama has been designing and implementing automated test equipment for Danfoss since early 2008. She loves what she does and stresses that she has no regrets about her choice to pursue a career in engineering. “It is extremely fulfilling to see something that you designed working like it should,” she says. “Getting my hands dirty was challenging at first, but that is by far the best way to learn something new.”
What is it like to be classified under the moniker ‘woman engineer’ in today’s world? “Awesome and loaded with opportunities,” Ms. Vadgaama says. “From personal experience, over the past few years, the industry has been extremely receptive to women in engineering and there has been no better time to make an impact in this area.” She adds, “It is definitely very challenging but probably not as much as it was five years ago. Times are changing, and a lot of women have chosen careers in engineering. There is a higher acceptance level for women engineers in the work environment.”
Whether it is cleaning up the world’s lakes and rivers, making the world plastic free, mapping the ocean floors or designing artificial retinas for the blind, it is all in a day’s work for engineers. Apart from the constant intellectual challenge, science and engineering provides a strong arena for creativity and intuitive reasoning. Women have the unique ability to bring an emotional tone to that creativity and when combined with technical skills that makes for an impeccable combination, one that ought to be more prevalent in a differential equations or analytical chemistry classroom.