Does Not Fempute!
As a female engineer, I have always expected to be in the minority. It’s no secret that achieving true acceptance of women in positions of power and intelligence is a struggle in progress. But, given the escalating progress that women have been making in the fields of medicine, law, and politics, I assumed it was just a matter of time until it would be irrelevant for me to prefix my profession with my gender.
I assumed it was just a matter of time until it would be irrelevant for me to prefix my profession with my gender.
However, it turns out that I should have been checking the facts before idly waiting for equality to evolve.
I stumbled upon this article on MSNBC last week that uses the following statistic to support a story about the gender disparity in using debugging programs:
“As it is, the percentage of bachelor’s degrees in computer science awarded to women fell from 37 percent in 1985 to just 22 percent in 2005, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, even as women made gains in other science and math-based fields.”
We’re regressing?! How can that be? Women are making gains in almost every corner of society, why are we retreating from what is perhaps the most important field of science in modern history?
Women are making gains in almost every corner of society, why are we retreating from what is perhaps the most important field of science in modern history?
I did a little more searching to find that the static representation of women in engineering is also dismal: only 18% of graduating engineering students and 9% of employed engineers are women. Not content to only be depressed by national statistics, I also turned to my inbox to find that approximately 0.7% of the job applications I’ve received in my 8 months at Synthesis have been from women.
I can’t speak to all the psychological and sociological reasons for this – but, I can offer some insight into my personal experience. I have, at times in my life, had doubts about pursuing a technical field. As has likely been true for other members of a minority trying to prove themselves in the wider world, I believe the major reason for this has been the feeling of vulnerability that comes with standing out in a crowd.
When I was in high school, already blessed with a certain degree of the stereotypical social awkwardness that comes with being a technically inclined individual, I found myself fighting incredible insecurity in my science and math classes. Though not necessarily any more challenging than the humanities classes, being the only girl in a class with 32 boys is an intimidation that I did not encounter elsewhere in my life. Although my close female friends were also drawn to the math and science classes, the logistics of class assignments and personal preferences between the courses often diluted us among different classrooms. Generally alone, I can distinctly remember the two times that I raised my hand to answer a question in any of my science and math classes. And, yet, I can also recall carrying on chatty discussions in my other classes. Answering a question, right or wrong, seems to carry more weight when you’re seen as “the girl” rather than just another kid in the class.
Things changed for me in college. I had the opportunity to attend MIT in an undergraduate classes with a nearly 50-50 gender split. Finally, I had a sea of female peers, and being a girl wasn’t a distinction worth mentioning. I began raising my hand and class, taking proactive role in study groups, and envisioning a career in engineering. This environment helped me gain the confidence and assertiveness necessary to be successful in the academic and professional world.
As pleased as I am to have found a truly encouraging atmosphere, the statistics mentioned above suggest that most women are not that lucky. Though I am certain there are a multitude of reasons for the scarcity of women in engineering, I do believe that trying to avoid a life of being the only girl in a room, either intentionally or subconsciously, is a significant part of the problem. I suspect that this is also a reason why Synthesis has received resumes from a tiny fraction of the already small number of female programmers. Although Synthesis is 29% women, this is a rarity in the field. The technical start-up environment is a notorious boys club.
How do we attract more women to engineering? I think a good first step is to start blatantly telling women we want them to become engineers.
How do we attract more women to engineering? I think a good first step is to start blatantly telling women we want them to become engineers. The main reason MIT was so successful in attaining gender parity in the late 1990s was due to the “Women’s Weekend” program in place at the time. Rather than try to change the advertising or atmosphere to be more appealing to women and hope for the best, they cut to the chase. They sent mail to each and every woman applicant saying that they wanted more women to attend MIT and inviting them to a special weekend program so they could demonstrate how much they meant it. That program has since ended, but it did its job: the MIT undergraduate gender split is even while other top technical schools are still at 80-20.
So, to put this into action on a small scale: Hey ladies, Synthesis Studios wants more job applications from female programmers. Please send your resume to jobs@synthesisstudios.com.
To figure how to conduct this outreach on a larger scale, I will also be attending the She’s Geeky conference in northern California October 22-23. Though there are many interesting topics to discuss, I am most excited to talk with other female “geeks” about how to encourage more young girls to become engineers.
Tags: engineering, female, women
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