Lack of Women Engineers

College Majors Engineering Majors
41

<p>"If women stay away from engineering it's better for us."
"All the women in engineering are UGLY!"
"There are plenty of attractive women in engineering here, but they're all so full of themselves."</p>

<p>ARE YOU LISTENING TO YOURSELVES?</p>

<p>I'm 23, I'm female, I'm an engineer. A darned good engineer. And I'm going to be hired, not because I'm a woman, but because I'm a good engineer and I'm graduating from good programs.</p>

<p>Listen to what you're saying! Is it any wonder why women who are good in science and math stay away from the field? It's because of gentlemen like yourselves who consistently assume that women are where they are because they wave their gender like a banner in order to open the locked doors of academia and the business world. If we weren't confronted by gentlemen with BAD attitudes towards women on a near-constant basis, perhaps you'd have some more female companionship!</p>

<p>As it were, in my time as an engineer, I have been accused of being a lesbian, I have been given the lowest grade in the class on subjective assignments (despite compliments from my classmates that I'd done extremely well, so imagine my confusion!) from male professors, I've had to take courses at the local boys' high school for science because my girls' school didn't offer them, I've been called "sweetheart" by colleagues who didn't bother to learn my name, I've been told that I didn't deserve to be where I am because of <em>what</em> I am, I've seen my female colleagues all get denied assistantships while all the males who applied received assistantships, I've been told by college admissions reps that "I don't know if you want to go into engineering, young lady... It's awfully hard," I have been asked by a colleague why I'm in this field anyhow since I'm just going to end up being a housewife some day, and one of my friends has been cornered and asked if she liked anal sex.</p>

<p>Where is the benefit here? What sort of edge do we women have over you, may I ask? We women may <em>get</em> that job before you men, but statistically, we will <em>not</em> be promoted before you, and we will <em>not</em> make the same sort of salary as you, and quite frankly, if we were just in it for the steady job and good starting salary like many of my male colleagues are admittedly in it for, we wouldn't stick around, because it's just not worth it for just a steady job.</p>

<p>This is why women who remain in engineering have to be DEADLY PASSIONATE ABOUT THEIR WORK.</p>

<p>So, attitudes like the ones expressed here really make me angry. I've dealt with enough crap in my time and kept quiet about it to my colleagues and higher-ups in order to not flag attention to my GENDER and instead have chosen to make intelligent comments in class to flag attention to my INTELLIGENCE (because if you cry discrimination in this field, it'll stick to you for the rest of your life), so I'm really not content to let you gentlemen have carte blanche to bash female engineers.</p>

<p>Work on developing your characters, because attitudes like this are why the general public sees engineers as being socially uncouth and inexperienced.</p>

<p>Shame on all of you who've been saying disparaging things about women engineers. I would not want you as colleagues.</p>

42

<p>wow, crappy experiences... i haven't faced anything like that yet...</p>

43

<p>right on, aibarr</p>

44

<p>I apologize upfront for the weird wording below.</p>

<p>ignoring the gender factor, what we need are hardcore engineers that are dedicated. i think guys are misguided when they assume that girls going into engineering are the ones who are soft and manipulative.. trying to get promoted etc based on sex appeal... as aibarr stated, most the girls in engineering are very dedicated and have to go over obstacles that guy engineers don't have to. the girls who graduate with an engineering degree have shown that they are capable of hard work, so seriously stop demeaning them.</p>

<p>Do you really think that all the engineering girls are ditzy cheerleaders who can't accomplish anything? Do you really think this is how colleges choose their engineers? <a href="http://chappie.stanford.edu/archives/1980s/hits_from_the_80s/USC_application/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://chappie.stanford.edu/archives/1980s/hits_from_the_80s/USC_application/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

45

<p>yeah i don't know where the perception that engineering girls are 'ditzy cheerleaders'.</p>

46

<p>And moreover, just because a female engineer is a cheerleader does not preclude her from being a brilliant engineer. I'm a former captain of my college cheerleading squad, and our squad has many brilliant MechEs, EEs, ChemEs, civil engineers, and aerospace engineers.</p>

<p>Negative stereotypes about smart women are lame.</p>

47

<p>There are not many nice, down to earth, dedicated female engineers who are attractive. don't burn me for saying this!! This was just my experience with female engineers. Often the female engineering majors are either really nerdy to a point of being annoying, or think she is way too hot and cool to be an engineer.</p>

48

<p>hahahaha</p>

<p>(10 chars?)</p>

49

<p>While women don't tend to major in Engineering, in the Mathematical and Physical Sceinces I say there are about as many women as men. So it isn't that women don't like math or science needed for engineering.</p>

50

<p>My supervisor is female and I don't have a problem with that.
In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing more females around the office (admittedly for more than one reason).
And it's been my experience that those I've met are quite capable and talented.</p>

<p>In addition, aibarr is hot. :-)</p>

<p>(All of the above statements are true.)</p>

51

<p>LOL. Thanks, Will.</p>

52

<p>jeffl: "There are not many nice, down to earth, dedicated female engineers who are attractive. don't burn me for saying this!! This was just my experience with female engineers. Often the female engineering majors are either really nerdy to a point of being annoying, or think she is way too hot and cool to be an engineer."</p>

<p>And the MEN in engineering are.....what exactly? Drop-dead gorgeous? Sexy underwear models? </p>

<p>...Or do they spend all their free time playing Halo 2? Fill me in here. Notice how many threads there are on the stereotypes of male engineers.</p>

<p>Don't talk to me about female engineers being "nerdy to the point of being annoying" until you've dated a male engineer who finds it hard to balance girlfriend time with Half-Life time.</p>

<p>...</p>

<p>I've been there. And it ain't pretty.</p>

53

<p>While women don't tend to major in Engineering, in the Mathematical and Physical Sceinces I say there are about as many women as men.</p>

<p>i dont now where this happens. if anything i've noticed in the mathematical sciences, there are even less women, considering the pure sciences are much more theoretical than engineering classes tend to be. at least i meet girls in engineering. i dont think i've ever met a girl who's in like computer science or physics. </p>

<p>and LauraN. everyone knows that all underwear models are gay, and teh benefits of playing halo 2 & counterstrike source far outweigh potential benefits from female companionship. i mean at least in a game when i aim i can hit something. i'm rather surprised that you have finally come to this conclusion. </p>

<p>besides i always thought that males were more or less more 'equalized' amongst female eyes. i read somewhere in some psychological magazines that females generally factor visual appeal as much lower than males in terms of 'attractiveness'. i think they did an experiment with a 'hot' male and a 'average' looking male side to side. average looker was in business suit and 'hot' male was in janitor's clothing. females overwhelmingly thought that suit was hotter than sweat.</p>

54

<p>i was kidding about the gaming part, although i do it with a a few of my friends because i think its somewhat fun and i make money off it from tournaments (i quit my sub-par 10hr a week minimum wage paying job for this). wasn't kidding about the latter half though.</p>

55

<p>hdotchar well that was my impression from the classes I have had. Most of my T.As in my math and sciences courses have been women, and I see a lot of women in my math and sciences courses. Also most of women I know have majors like Math, Statistics, Engineering, Physics or Chem.</p>

56

<p>really. when i took vector calculus 1st semester fresh year there were probably four girls in the class. the same went for the quantum physics i took that semester as well. most, i take that back, ALL the girls i know that having science majors are in biology and or chemistry. most girls i know are either majoring in business or some sort of liberal arts type degree.</p>

57

<p>
[quote]
i dont think i've ever met a girl who's in like computer science or physics.

[/quote]

<em>cough</em>
Female CS major, used to be a mathematical physics major :p
There's 60 people in my year majoring in CS... 6 of us are girls. Marvellous.</p>

58

<p>didn't say they didn't exist. just said they're far and in-between. our school has something like between 120-180 cs. majors. i believe you can count the number of girls who are in C.S. in two hands.</p>

59

<p>Does it really make a difference if 20% of engineers are women instead of 30% of women?
I am all for equality of opportunity, but it seems a bit obtuse to pursue equality in outcomes. If women want to be engineers, so be it. I do not understand the irrational desire to have in every industry equal gender ratios. It seems like half the guys here support it for selfish (think relationships) reasons.</p>

60

<p>well people tend to pursue things because of self-interest. what exactly is wrong with that anyways.</p>