Why So Few Women in Engineering?

The whole nature vs nurture thing.

I think women tend to be more 'people' orientated whereas men are more 'thing' orientated...
Now, there, I've said it, if this sounds sexist then feel free to to castigate me, tie me up with your finest silk cord and spank me thoroughly.

Del

For most of the years I worked in Civil, Geotechnical, and Structural engineering, I loved it. I encouraged college women to join the ranks, was an active member of women in construction organizations, and happily told little girls about all the adventures and opportunities that can be explored and enjoyed in engineering.

However, in one way, it was for me like the proverbial frog in a pot that comes to a boil so slowly, although he can jump out, he doesn't notice the heat until he's boiled to death. With my peers and, as I got older, with my younger "brothers" in the field, I mostly enjoyed equal and supportive treatment, cooperation, respect, and often lasting friendship. Yet, there was a masculine heirarchy that, top-down, infused a sexism into many of the professional paths, hobbling women and nurturing a sustained belief in a difference in capacity by gender alone. When it morphed into an assault on my age as the dominant limitation, I let the adventure go.

The 'what' that engineers get to do is infinite and marvelous. The 'how' that is still used in some situations may definitely be excluding women. It is a pity to think of all the brilliance lost that any large group of talented minds can add to projects in an exceedingly competitive world.

I would go further and observe that that attitudes of instructors and students in schools and universities is still very chauvinistic that it is too strong a deterrent for young women.

I have two sisters who avoided the sciences because the 'boys' wouldn't date them if they seemed 'smarter' then the 'boys'. The few young women in my physics and calculus courses were seen as geeks and were sometimes somewhat homely and reinforced the belief that they were undesirable as potential mates. The women who succeeded were often very driven and didn't date.

The lowest rate of women in engineering seems to be in electrical. It is a shame to have so many men in such an important industry without much appreciation for the viewpoint of the other half of humanity. The products created seem to reinforce this idiotic macho attitude and often don't seem to meet the needs of the entirety of humanity.

Wat i noticed in technical school is that women (Girls then) would prodominantly choose Mechanical engineering and sometimes automotive engineering but "never" in Electric Engineering. The only time i saw females was in the economical classes (i had electric engineering with economics degree, makes it easier in Holland if i wanted to start a buissiness).

Even at my job in Holland Female engineers were rare.

$$$$$$$$ Is usually the problem or the lack of $$$$$$$

HAVE YOU EVER ASKED A WOMAN FOR DIRECTIONS?

Well, as "Dell the cat" has stated, it a MALE THING! (.....and thats the way it is) James

Why do so few women go into engineering careers?

In most cases, they get pushed into engineering school by feminist idealogues, only to discover that they really don't like engineering very much. So they either become sales engineers or they leave the field completely to pursue whatever it is they would have chosen if they had been left alone to make up their own minds in the first place.

What could be done to encourage more to enter the field?

Why would we want to do that when it is so painfully clear that we are already encouraging far too many? Since "only 27% of women with degrees progress into associated careers," it was obviously a mistake to push the other 73% into engineering school in the first place! We should stop wasting all that time and money trying to make women into what a bunch of shrill feminazis think they should be, and just let women make up their own minds what they want to do with their lives.

I think things may be changing slightly.

I have been mentor and assessor for the Engineering Education Scheme for the past two years with my respective employers. In the first year '06-'07 I mentored 4 A-level students, one of them being female. She was quiet but very intelligent and did a lot of the groups research work. Last year ('07-'08) I mentored a group of 3 A-level students fro mteh same school. This time there were 2 female and 1 male. I was pleasantly surprised by the group as a whole (considering none of them spoke during the first meeting) and in particularly the two females who were very confident in the presentations and really knew their engineering for their age.

Kev Brown

I am not technically an engineer, but I am a biomedical electronic technician. My job is to test, calibrate, and repair medical equipment. I have been doing this for about 13 years and got my training through the military. I can tell you that I have dealt with sexual harassment at work - being called the B, a whore (this by the manager of the regular engineering dept., and this guy doesn't even know me!), I have had a camera put on me - the only female technician in the department - with the feed going to our computer guy - one of the employees sexual harassing me - telling me he has sexual dreams about me! I would not care about the camera if it went to my bosses, but, since it went to this creep, I had huge issues with it! I have told both the management as well as the Human Resource personnel about the actions of my co-workers, and I have been laughed at, I have been told that 'oh, that's so and so just being himself', but nothing is done about this in my workplace(the camera did come out after going to HR, but the other issues have not been resolved). I work on my own home projects, including wiring, plumbing, re-pointed brick, sheet rocking, etc. I love to learn different things. I had been in the army reserves for 14 years. The training NCO's didn't know anything about getting training for Biomeds, therefore we didn't get much if any (yet getting shipped overseas, we would be expected to work on things from sinks, pumps, monitors, lamps, hvac, generators and power distribution equipment, x-ray, ct-scanners, O2 generators etc. I have had commanders and first seargents tell me that 'I shouldn't worry about training,;you just don't have enough confidence in yourself'. Yeah, O.K. buddy, this is not McGuiver you know, and I hope you remember this is what you told me when the equipment fails that needs to fix your butt, and I don't know what/how to fix the equipment or don't have the parts, or tech support, or necessary tools to do my job.... My own boss told me I could not go to training on computers because he said I don't work on them. Almost every medical system I work on at work is either computerized, networked, or some sort of programming. The other guys I work with go to any schools they want with little or no discussion about it. You would think in this day and age, this kind of blatent discrimination in the workplace would not even exist. I love what I do, but hate fighting to maintain my dignity on a daily basis. I hope and pray that I am the only woman out there dealing with this..... I had also worked in two other jobs. I watched the 'boys club' very diligently, but subtley, put the women engineers 'in their place'. It was a continual challenge for the women. I have no respect for the women out there that are 'sleeping' their way into their jobs. This also makes it harder for those who try to do a job the regular way - hard work, knowledge and sweat equity..... Think of your daughters guys - you want your co-workers slobbering on them? Thanks for listening. D

I think, as others have stated, that it tends to be more of an "interest" thing. Males tend to be more interested in gizmos - probably because they are encouraged to be so from early age. Females tend to be more interested in "people" - also because that is where they are socially-conditioned from an early age.

That said, I have one sister who is an engineering professor and one who went the "touchy-feely" people route.