Breaking Down Barriers to Women

FYI - There's been an ongoing disussion about this subject in Common Purposes, MillMatt's blog on CR4.

It is about time women pulled them selves up to the big boys table. They can blame men for holding them back all the want. I will still find it hard to discuss lateral strenght with someone wearing eye liner and dressed in pink. Glad some are finally forcing the doors open. Since 90% of all marketing to aimed at women they should be the ones designing the products.

women are well represented in engineering these days. It varies with the specialty, often there are more women than men.

You're quite right, aurizon. For example, computer science is part of electrical engineering on our campus, and 60% of our computer science students are female… but *still* we hear the mindlessly repeated manta: "There aren't enough women in computer science!" Not enough for what? And according to whom?

If we had a "Society of Men Engineers," we would be accused of discriminating against women. Therefore the logic is inescapable that the Society of Women Engineers, by its very nature, discriminates against men. Why are we putting up with such discrimination?

There is not now, and there never has been, any kind of deliberate barrier set to exclude women from engineering. When left alone to make up their own minds, women tend to exclude themselves from engineering… simply by choosing to go into some other field that appeals to them more! So, given that we're clearly not serving women by pushing them into engineering when many of them would rather be somewhere else doing something else, we really ought to ask, whose agenda are we serving?

[rant]

I just finished a degree in engineering and it's not really correct to say that they are undermined or forgotten...just take a look at the number of scholarships available! There are uncountable grants and scholarships for minorities and special interest groups (of whatever kind) but try having a family to take care of at home AND competing for the "academic merit" scholarships that are about the only thing available to the average while male. Currently a good majority of the scholarships in engineering (that I heard of) are going to females that don't even continue to work in engineering...THIS I have a problem with.

I also have a problem with "equal opportunity employers" that try so hard to prove that they will hire anyone, that they overlook non-minorities to make sure there's enough minorities on their roster...I believe that resumes should be checked out without any identifier on them so employers only see qualifications. Interviews should be done by 3rd parties and transcribed so accent and physical appearance had no bearing...

I don't mean to digress...if anything this has led me to understand the plight that women have faced...having the "unnamed extra responsibilities" to have to worry about that make them dissapear....this is VERY incompatible with many long projects that might span several years. Throw in a maternity leave and you're so far out of the loop that nobody even remembers your name!

[/rant]

I am glad to see that I am not the only one who feels this way. I would hazard a guess that there are few who feel that there are not enough men in, for example, nursing, and that we should push to get it up close to 50%. Why then is it perceived as such a problem that women aren't represented in Engineering in the same ratio as in the general population? As long as the awareness of opportunity is there (and I don't recall any gender splitting of classrooms with Engineering discussed in one and Nursing in the other), everyone will go where they feel the most comfortable.

To give further context to my comments --> I am a women engineer in a senior position with 20 years of engineering experience. I have participated as a mentor in numerous events promoting engineering and science to girls of various ages from Grade 7 through Grade 12, as well as general outreach in the schools, at Career Days, and at Trade Fairs, and I am currently serving on the committee for our local Engineering association looking into Engineering and Science education from Kindergarten to Grade 12. All of this is done with the intention of ensuring that all children are aware of the opportunities that are open to them, should they wish to pursue them.

What about the profession?

Is it more important to polities engineering or ensure competent engineers?

When you stop picking the best & brightest and start giving scholarships based on politics aren't we asking for problems?

Where will we be as a profession when are ranks are full of special interest groups like women who's main qualification is they bitched the loudest?

Is it right to keep men out of college just because they are men?

I guess this is all crap. Should a company say to a brilliant candidate for a job : Sorry, although you are the best in the tests we HAVE to hire some one from the opposite sex who is less competetive ...

In my country edcation is free for ALL. And for boys, AND for girls. There is no school allowed where they refuse boys OR girls. Every boy or girl has free choice to go to whatever school they want. Our governement supports (pays for) ALL choices of all boys and all girls. So where's discrimination ? If girls/women tend to like more (or less) jobs in a certain area, what's wrong with that ? If men seem to be more attracted to some field than women, what's wrong with that ?

Please, when are we going to accept that there are diferences between men and women ? I don't mean differences in rights...

paulvandenbossche@monti.be

One problem women have is they often leave the work force for marriage and raising of families.

If we have 60% women enrolled in Computer Science (as an earlier comment stated), can we then expect to see this % as they age and assume rolls in the job world?

I think that if you plotted the ratio on a graph you would find that a greater % of women leave for other pastures so that by the time 10-15 years have gone by would you end up with ~30% women. A 2% annual defection to child rearing would do it.

The numbers are just guestimates.

How many women would then return after the children have fledged, after 20-30 years as there may be several separated by some years.