Today I had the opportunity to attend a "Women in Engineering" panel through Arizona State University. This panel consisted of three current female engineering students who currently attend the university and one admirative person who oversees the Fulton colleges of engineering. All three students were members of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) that advocates for a higher female presence within the STEM fields in order to create a balanced team environment. Throughout the session, I learned a lot about the real experience of females within the engineering field, however, I also gained a glimpse into a possible motivation of this post.
Upon asking "What do you think the driving force behind this movement is" I received a few surprised looks and a delayed response. I knew immediately that the reason behind this reaction was because it's not normally a question people have been asking. That's truly the motivation behind my project because while the implications of the movement can clearly be seen statistically just by analyzing the number of females entering the field, the actual reason behind this huge movement is a bit clouded. For example, ASU's current engineering program is twenty-one percent females which places the university slightly above average. However, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact reason behind this universities attempts to incorporate females into their engineering programs.
One of the answers that I received was very interesting.. one of the freshman female engineering students stated that "engineering is a state of mind... you nearly need to have the confidence to succeed and others will treat you with respect despite the differences in gender. After all, why not all struggle through it together." While the rest of the group chuckled at the end of her response, the beginning really caught my attention. Does the answer to my research question really just rely on the fact that females now have the boldness to pursue a degree in a male-dominated field? Based on this question, I intend to pursue the social influences that may have contributed to the confidence boost that many are seeing.
A more concrete answer that I received was from the only male sitting in the room (what a change!). Also in an administrative position, he offered an opinion sourced outside of the university. He suggested that this movement is driven by the industry itself. He said, "companies are recognizing that by only having one gender's point of view they can only solve half of the world's problems instead of all of them." As evidence, he brought up a company that developed the seat-belt. A past friend of his worked on the project and despite all the testing that was run on crash test dummies and the numerous protoypes that were developed when the final product actually it the market it ran into a lot of complications. The designers of this seatbelt failed to consider how the seatbelt might work on a female, who had different body builds. Furthermore, they didn't account for how it might strap into a baby's carseat would strap in with the build of the seatbelt. All in all, the company realized that by exluding the female perspective they limited the success of the final product. In a world dominated by innovation and success, failure is not an option and so companies want to include both perspectives in order to further the influence of whatever product they might be developing.
In the next few weeks, I also plan on looking into how both of the genders approach problems and the manners in which the approaches are similar and/or different! Keep your eye out for that! :)
-Elizabeth
This was a fantastic post. It answered my earlier question of how would being a woman engineer benefit the workplace. Along those lines, multicultural diversity would also benefit. Another great point you brought up is that engineering is a state of mind. You do not truly understand it until an employer asks you to create something that no one has ever done before and your only response is “of course I can”. That is when it gets real. So when do you believe this confidence can be instilled in a person?
ReplyDeleteHi Mr. Weber,
DeleteI personally believe that this confidence is instilled when an individual is given the opportunity to create something or given the ability to take initiative on a project. From personal experience throughout high school, I gained confidence in a subject when I was able to apply the academics into something tangible. I think this idea holds true for anyone beginning their career, especially engineers, because it is in that moment when one is actually making something tangible that they acknowledge their abilities.
Your project sounds extremely fun, and is really important for application in today's society! Would you say that more females are encouraged to enter the field of engineering partly due to gender roles breaking down as well? We've talked about the fact that women tend to struggle in math on standardized tests when more men are in the room. Maybe the SWE are pushing this movement because they want to encourage more girls to pursue engineering, if it's what they love. This topic branches into so many subtopics: advantages of both genders, female empowerment, and shifting concepts of what men and women can do. I'm really excited to see the results of your project!
ReplyDeleteHi Avani!
DeleteI would whole-heartedly argue that a major component to this movement is society's shifting views towards gender roles. Just as females are moving into engineering, many males are moving into traditionally female fields. A great example is cosmetology. All over Instagram you can see both female and male tutorials on makeup. In the past, males would have been social ostracized for posting material such as this on any form of social media. However, technological advancements in media sights such as Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube have encouraged people to branch out into new fields. I also think that this, as well as other factors, has resulted in a more accepting mentality throughout our society. The combination of these factors are making people in general more confident to pursue new ideas in non-traditional manners.