Women in Engineering – Part Two

Why should we bring more women into the engineering field? Susan Metz of Stevens Institute of Technology gave several reasons in a 2006 presentation about why it is important to bring more women and minorities into engineering. For one, by not including them, we are ignoring over 50% of the country’s intellectual talent, and that by 2050, 85% of workforce entrants will be women and minorities. She also quoted Dr. William Wulf, President of the National Academy of Engineering, who stated: “As a consequence of a lack of diversity [in engineering] we pay an opportunity cost, a cost in designs not thought of, in solutions not produced.”

Why do less women than men pursue engineering? Why do some disciplines appeal more to women than other disciplines? What can be done to increase the number of women in engineering? This article will explore these questions.

According to a study done by Jacquelynne Eccles and Mina Vida at the University of Michigan, there are several factors contributing to girls shying away from careers in engineering and physical sciences. Girls and boys do equally well in math in high school, even though the girls rate their performance lower than the boys rate theirs. But this perception is not the primary reason girls drift from mathematics. Eccles states it comes down to a difference between the students beliefs in the “ultimate utility of mathematics, and how much they value working with and for people.” Boys placed more value on the utility of math; girls English. The girls also placed more value on working with people.

Why less women purse engineering begins when they are girls. Fifty five engineering organizations and coalitions, along with PBS station WGBH in Boston, undertook a study to find out why academically prepared girls were not pursuing engineering. A number of factors came to light, which included:

* Girls perception of engineering as “nerdy,” “hard,” “boring,” – they felt engineering was not for them, even though they did not have an understanding of engineering, other than thinking it was only for people who love both math and science. In addition, girls thought of engineering as primarily for men, and thus not really worth considering as a career option.

* The study also found a disconnect between what the career motivators were for the girls, and the messages they received about engineering. The factors most important to the girls were (in order): enjoyable work, a good work environment, able to make a difference, provides a good income, and gives them flexibility. The messages that are out there about engineering, though, are primarily:

o From influencers: teachers/guidance counselors, parents, peers.

- Many teachers/guidance counselors felt unprepared to guide students into engineering, and instead directet them to online sites or talk to others.

- Unless parents were in science fields they were not likely to be role models for engineering.

- Peers initial influence might be negative due to social perceptions of engineering.

o From engineering community.

- Engineering is challenging but rewarding, you problem solve using math and science.

The WGBH research indicated that to reach high school girls more effectively, the messaging about engineering needed to be more story based – informational stories about what engineering professions are about, and positive personal stories about actual engineers. And stories that illustrate how the girls motivators would be fulfilled by an engineering career.

Research done by Engineers Dedicated to a Better Tomorrow 2006 indicates that women’s interest in engineering as a career choice will increase when they see its “specific and tangible contributions to society and in bettering local communities, our nation, and the world.” This is reflected in the engineering disciplines favored by women mentioned in Part 1 of this article. In these disciplines, the connection to helping people and making a difference in the lives of others or of the world is a little more obvious. For example, biomedical engineers design devices and equipment that help diagnose illnesses, fight disease, and overcome disabilities and handicaps. Environmental engineers may find ways to reuse the earth’s resources, to prevent or eliminate pollution, or study impacts of toxins on wildlife or forests. Chemical engineers may do research in pharmaceutical companies or develop new food products.

In a study released by Sue V. Rosser in 2008, she cites several ways of making college level engineering courses more attractive to female students, including putting problems and assignments in a real-world context. This would make the student’s work more relevant to the students motivations, and would allow them to see how engineering helps people. Rosser’s research has shown that “women in particular do better at solving problems that are framed in relation to human needs.”

Statics, a basic engineering course, teaches students “the critical ability to abstract and define a problem by forming an appropriate idealized model.” According to the study by Eccles, college programs in engineering need to move from a concentration on abstract mathematics to one in which math is used as a tool to solve a problem that will solve the needs of a community. As an example, rather than figuring out the parameters for building a bridge, the problem should be framed in the context of how that bridge will benefit the people it serves. A real-world, make a difference context.

Women need to understand that far from being an isolating and strictly math-based career, engineering is a very creative, team-oriented profession. The interpersonal and communication skills that are women’s strengths are very valuable to the type of work done by engineers, especially as teams become increasingly interdisciplinary and global.

Koval Associates LLC

Author: Susan Koval
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