<p>Now this question is for my older sister. She wants to go back to school for engineering. Do you think women are treated any different from men by classmates? Professors? Or what about in the workforce?</p>
<p>No in academic environment. The top (highest GPA) of my engineering class was a woman.</p>
<p>Yes in the workforce. There are still some male chauvinism out there. Furthermore, I think women engineers need to be outspoken in order to get along with a group dominated by men.</p>
<p>I know schools/scholarships love woman engineers</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>Being a woman, or any underrepresented minority, is actually a HUGE asset in the workplace. Both in hiring and promotions.</p>
<p>First, in school she will be a true minority. Sounds obvious, but think what taking a class might be like where you are the only guy in a room of thirty women. Depending on the school and the field, she should be ready for this.</p>
<p>Professionally, it’s better than it use to be. Getting the job and holding the job may indeed turn out to be easier (bias in her favor), but I’ve seen a lot of women get the raises but not the promotions. As long as she’s willing to fight or switch to find a good place, with skill and determination she can do as well as anyone.</p>
<p>I’m not an engineer but my daughter is about to start at Virginia Tech - engineering major. In evaluating schools, it became evident that there just aren’t a lot of women entering these fields. I think just 15% of the entering class at VT college of Engineering is female. I would encourage your sister to look for a school that had a real commitment to women engineers and did not just pay lip service. VT has a very strong commitment to women engineers through its Hypatia group - its a living learning community for freshmen. the students have their own academic advisor, upperclassmen mentors, a leadership class that focuses on resumes and interships, in addition to being assigned to a particular dorm and taking the same classes.</p>
<p>Penn State had a Women in Engineering group but they weren’t as proactive as Vt. RPI had very little if anything.</p>
<p>I am a female engineering student at Carnegie Mellon, where the split is about 70/30 in the engineering college and about 80/20 in my major, Mechanical Engineering. Keep in mind that this is at a top, private school that puts a premium on recruiting women - so you can imagine the balance at those that don’t! That said, I haven’t really encountered problems being one of few women. I mean, one certainly has to get used to being the only female in many, many situations. And expect faculty to be almost all male - I think women make up around 1% or so of the mechanical engineering faculty here (yes, really!). </p>
<p>I’m really not very coherent because it’s the end of a looong workday for me (where I am the only female working in an all-male office), but I may come back later and make more intelligent comments :p</p>
<p>The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is on many campuses nation-wide, has a strong presence, and is a great organization. Their magazine for members often has current women engineers write about the challenges of being an engineer; perhaps some of these articles may be able to be found on line?</p>
<p>Thanks! This is all very helpful</p>
<p>I’m a female engineer, and I never had ANY problems in school. I was “one of the guys,” most of the time. I did meet my husband in grad school, though - we had two classes together.</p>
<p>I’ve had very few problems at work. One draftsman always talked negatively about women. Looking back on it, I probably should have reported him, he was so bad. I can think of a couple of comments from other guys that were probably not appropriate (as to my ability as a woman), but that’s over a span of 25 years! Almost everyone is fine with women engineers.</p>
<p>At my first job, the company did a survey to check the compensation of women vs. men employees. Lo and behold, I got a raise of about 15%!</p>
<p>Now my husband and I have our own two-person firm, so I don’t have to worry about salary raises or promotions.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>