Women in Engineering - Term Paper Example

? Women in Engineering You’re 11th April Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Body 4 Engineering Colleges: A male Bastion 4 High Dropout among women Engineers 5 Reasons for the high drop out 6 Working Conditions 7 Family issues 7 Sexism 8 Organisational Culture 9 Limited Career Advancement 10 Solutions 10 Mandatory “STEM” Studies 11 Use Affirmative Action 11 Market Engineering 11 Flexible Organisational Culture 11 Incentivize Child Care 12 Career Counsellors 12 Strict Anti -Harassment Policies 13 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction “Scientists discover the world as it is, but Engineers make the world as we want it to be”. Engineering is a very important subject which has played a great role in our modern world. Everywhere we look – the trains that run in our country, the computers on which we complete our assignments, the television which has become our favorite time pass and even the gas we use to cook our food are a result of engineering marvel. There is hardly any profession which has impacted our modern world more than engineering. However when we think of an engineer, the image which inevitably comes to our mind is that of a male . Engineering is perhaps one of the professions where women equality women or the feminist movement has made no impact whatsoever. According to a report from congressional Joint Economic Committee there are only 14% women engineers in the country (Www4.uwm.edu). What is it about engineering which keeps the fairer sex away from the profession? Do they lack engineering acumen or there are systematic problems which keep them away from the professions. Women have busted many male dominated professions lately like medicine , college education and even started joining the army. There are of course the professions where women have always been more successful as compared to men such as nursing and teaching. Then what is it about Engineering that keeps women away? The small number of engineers that we do find are working in the field of computer Engineering , there are almost negligible women working in core engineering fields such as civil , mechanical or electrical. In this term paper we will try to examine the reasons for the low representation of women in engineering and also discuss some steps which can be taken in order to ensure that number of women engineers increase in the USA. No field can be said to be truly marvelous if almost 50% of our workforce is excluded from it. Body The main reason for worry for USA is not that there are very less number of females who are engineers. The bigger worry is that number of women graduating from engineering programs has declined by about 5.2% by 2009 (Fouad and Singh.).At present about 20% of women graduating from engineering colleges are women – a figure which has remained static for the last 15 years. The bigger worry is that even Islamic countries like Qatar , Pakistan are producing more percentage of engineers than USA. There is no indication that this figure is likely to increase any time soon. At a time when China and India are producing engineers in much larger number, USA cannot afford to close its doors on women engineers. We are already facing outsourcing of backend jobs to these countries , if the number of engineers in USA keeps on decreasing , we will soon see even research jobs being outsourced. A beginning has already been made with companies like Yahoo and Google opening their research centers in India. The thing which is sad is the fact that although 20 % of women graduated as Engineers, in 2011 only 11% of them was actually working in the engineering field (Shellenbarger). Thus not only do women not prefer to opt for engineering but 50% of them who do engineering consider it as a mistake and do not take up engineering careers. In order to find out the reasons for this we will start to have a look right from the engineering colleges and then move up to the work place. Engineering Colleges: A male Bastion If you move around the campus of any engineering college , you do not require figures to come to the conclusion that the number of females is very less as compared to women. Not only students but there are a dearth of women even in the faculty. The number of women taking up engineering courses varies from 43 % in MIT to only 15 % in the University of Wisconsin (Fouad and Singh.). Women are better represented in disciplines such as environmental engineering, computer engineering or biomedical engineering. The number of females who opt for advanced math and physics in high school required for engineering career is now very high. The gap between males and females is not high anymore in the mathematics class. Then why do these women prefer not to enter engineering. A study conducted by Intel says that women are more attracted to the field where social relevance is high or where soft skills are required .The Intel study says that women are more interested than men in solving social problems and hence they take up environmental or biomedical engineering as compared to civil or mechanical engineering. Apart from this women are also apprehensive in joining engineering because of the perceived male bias in the field. They do not pick up engineering as they consider it unlikely for them to get a job and even if they get a job , they consider success in engineering a remote possibility. There is a lack of proper role models for them to follow. They are much more comfortable taking up teaching or medicine as a profession where they know that they are well represented and will be able to succeed. Women also face discouragement from friends and families if they try to take up an engineering career. They are warned about the pitfalls they will face and how their career is going to be grounded even before it takes off. Thus the naysayers dissuade many women from embarking on an engineering career even if they are inclined to become one. High Dropout among women Engineers The society for women engineers has stated that one in four women who enter engineering leave the field as compared to one in ten male engineers who leave the field (Society Of Women Engineers). The dropout among female engineers is four times the drop out among doctors and more than 3 times the drop outs among lawyers and judges. Even field which pay less than engineering such as teaching or nursing career have about 30% less drop out of female workers as compared to Engineering (Fouad and Singh.). From the above figures it is clear that engineering is a hostile profession for women to be in. Majority of them drop out after reaching the age of 30.Very few women work to reach the zenith of career in engineering. In the next section of this report we will try to analyze the reasons for this high dropout rate. Perhaps the high dropout is one of the reasons that few women actually take up engineering. They realize that their chances of success are low in the field and thus they prefer not to opt for it. Reasons for the high drop out In this section we will analyze the reasons for the high drop out among female engineers. According to the Wall Street Journal women land 53% of entry level jobs in the economy, their presence fall to about 25% at the director level and in only 19% among the top executives (Shellenbarger). Thus they face discrimination in every industry in the country. However the situation in Engineering is even worse. Only about 15 % of entry level jobs are filled with women, so it is pointless to talk about the presence of women at the top level. The thing which is disturbing is that women usually graduate engineering with grades with is at par or higher than their male counterparts. So there is no question of lack of ability. Their ability is equal if not more than the male engineers. This means that external factors which are outside their control are responsible for women leaving their career midway. Working Conditions 80% of the women who left engineering between 2005 -2010 are still working in some other fields (Eccles). Thus leaving work altogether in favor of family was not a reason for these women to stay away from engineering. Most of these women have cited working conditions as the reason they tend to stay away from women. A study undertaken by University of Wisconsin has blamed working conditions as the number one reason even above family issues for women to leave engineering (GALLONI). As an engineer they are expected to work on the field with limited facilities. Many work related sites do not even have separate washroom for women engineers. Apart from this, an engineer has to cope with a lot of work related travel, high stress work environment, long working hours and slow salary increase. Family issues Nearly 25% of the women who leave engineering career cite family reasons for doing so. They either leave the field to move to a different place with their husbands or leave the jobs when they conceive. Engineering is a project based field. Engineers work on time bound projects – whether they are computer engineers or civil engineers, they are expected to work on projects and complete them in limited finance and time. Companies consider investing in women a waste of time due to the reason that many of them leave the project midway due to family issues. This means that the project faces hurdles in between. They have to bring a new engineer who takes time in coming up to speed. This proves one major hurdle for companies in hiring female engineers. A woman likely to conceive has to be given office posting , maternity benefits and many other provisions which are not required for male employees. In fields such as teaching or nursing it is easy to find a replacement but in a highly technical and specialized field like engineering companies find it difficult to find immediate replacement. Although we claim to have moved ahead toward equality for women but women biology still comes in the way. Women are still considered a liability by engineering firms for trying to give importance to their families. Till the time the dichotomy between family and work is solved and more men take up household activities and volunteer to take care of their children , the discrimination against women hires due to family reasons is likely to continue. Sexism “Being a blonde , blue eyed female does not help when interviewing for a manufacturing setting” This statement sums up the plight of women engineers (Fouad and Singh.). They have to face bias in engineering right from the stage they give the interview. It is usually considered that females are not suited for hard core jobs like engineering and should consider some other profession. Being a female engineer means constantly being in minority. Engineering field is a male dominated field and female engineers have to face patronizing attitude from the males. Nobody expects much from a female engineer. They are usually given postings which are considered as soft and thus ideal for women. Even if they have entered the world of road building, it is usually expected that being a female they will work on the files rather than go out in the field and actually oversee the operations. Engineering firms have very neatly segregated male and female jobs. Females are usually paid less and given less important job than their male counterparts. They find it difficult for them to be taken seriously. The views presented by them about decisions are either ignored or shot down as irrelevant. Women engineers also find it difficult to obtain support from the contractors, supervisors and the laborers. The find it intimidating that they have to report to a female and are much more comfortable working with a male engineer. Apart from this there is always the problem of sexual assault on women. One in four women in USA has experienced some or other form of sexual assault. According to the society for Human Resource management 56% of the companies surveyed have seen some form of sexual assault against women employees (Green). No separate data has been made available for sexual assault on women engineers by the society but the chances of sexual harassment increase considerably in a male dominated industry. Many women do not even like to report cases of sexual assault for the fear of being blacklisted by other companies. There is already a bias against hiring women engineers and if they are seen as trouble makers, then their careers obviously takes a nosedive with no one willing to hire them. Organisational Culture Most of the women who do not like their first jobs end up giving up engineering as a career altogether. Thus the organizational culture in which they are working plays a very important role in deciding the number of women engineers that we have today. Wall Street Journal claims that most engineering firms do not have enough support system for women. They face sexism and family issues in all other jobs but this is compounded in engineering with the lack of sponsors and people who can advocate for them. People in the top management usually assume that women are not looking for tough assignments and tend to give them soft jobs which do not require much hard work and also do not provide opportunities for career advancements. Women engineers have to usually work twice as hard in order to be noticed and taken seriously in this male dominated field. Apart from this there are limited role models for them to follow. Although we have recently seen many high flyer women like Genevieve Bell of Intel Labs, Jocelyn Goldfein of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook but these role models are few and far between. Women encounter failures more often in their day to day lives and they are encouraged to give up engineering just like others who did so. The other problem is that most of these role models are in the field of IT engineering – a fact which again reinforces the attitude that women are fit for only soft jobs and are ill suited for the world of mechanical or civil engineering. Limited Career Advancement Many women leave engineering due to the limited career growth opportunities in the field. The Glass ceiling may have been broken in many other fields but it remains firmly in place in engineering firms (Today, Knowledge@Wharton). We hardly see women senior executives in a construction firm or a firm engaged in road building activities. Women are discouraged to see the limited growth avenues in engineering career and prefer to either shift to management or some other career which is led biased towards them and offers much more career growth and advancement. Solutions We have discussed most of the problems which women face in engineering firms and the reasons for the very few number of women engineers our country is producing. India and China are knocking at our doors. They have 3 times the population that we have and are producing much more engineers that we are doing. If USA needs to retain its technological edge than we need to produce and retain more engineers. Given our population constraints, we cannot do so by keeping 50% of our population aloof from this career path. Here we present some of the solutions which can be implemented right from school in order to ensure that more women enter and stay in the engineering field. Mandatory “STEM” Studies Schools should set up a common K-12 curriculum of science, technology , engineering and math. More girls should be exposed to the world of science and engineering. This will increase the number of women who end up taking engineering as a career. Use Affirmative Action Many countries such as India have reserved 20% of engineering seats for women (Murray) .This ensures that a many women engineers are produced who work as role models for more women to enter the field. Thus a vicious cycle is created which ensures that number of women increases in the field. Although I would not suggest outright reservation for girls in engineering colleges but colleges should try to have as much girl intake as possible. It is even advisable to reduce the qualifying criteria for girls and then bring them up to speed by holding special classes for them. Market Engineering As pointed out above women look for jobs which have a social relevance and which can make a contribution to the society .This point should be used to market engineering courses. They should be made aware of the immense contribution which engineering has made to the human society. Position engineers as game changers who have transformed our society. Use role models like Marissa Mayer (CEO, Yahoo) to show that women can make it big in engineering (Bort). Flexible Organisational Culture Women should not be penalized for starting lives. Engineering firms are still way behind other recruiters in providing facilities for women. It should be made mandatory to provide flexible working culture in which women are not considered a liability and are not penalized for starting a family. Flexible work timings should be encouraged in jobs where it is possible to do so (Schelmetic). This is already being done in IT firms , even design firms can follow suit to give women engineers the flexibility to take care of both home and their office work. Apart from this facilities like creches and child care should be provided by firms which have a sizable section of women employees. Incentivize Child Care Most working women find it difficult to find nannies for their children. The day care centers are usually very expensive and cost prohibitive (Shellenbarger). These changes require government intervention. Child care should be incentivized by the government by giving tax breaks and other facilities for more people to take up child care. This will ensure that more women can take up difficult and demanding projects in their engineering career when they know their child is being taken care of . Career Counsellors It should be made mandatory for the engineering companies to have career counselors in order to guide women how they can further advance their careers (American Association for the Advancement of Science.). These career counselors need not be specialists but can be the employees of the company. One example which can be followed by companies is the process used by Thought works Technologies .In this company each employee is provided a sponsor who is usually a senior employee having the same qualifications as you. The job of the sponsor is to guide you in making the right career choices which will advance your career. A sponsor is given the freedom to suggest switching to another firm if that will further the career .As women usually fail to find adequate support in engineering , this method of having sponsors who act as your career counselor can go a long way in increasing women engineering career (Society Of Women Engineers). As the number of women employees is usually less , it may be difficult to find women sponsors inside the company. One of the solutions to such problem is to have an inter-company group of sponsors. One such example is “Girls Who code”. These are a group of women techies who take out time to guide more women to take up IT jobs (Andrew). Strict Anti -Harassment Policies After passing of the civil rights act of 1991, employees who face sexual harassment can sue their companies (Stock). However this law has defeated the very purpose for which it was built. Companies now do not hire female employees before making them sign the arbitration policy which says that before going to the courts women needs to sit for arbitration in order to solve the matter. The law needs to be changed to make firms secure that they won’t have to pay millions of dollars for the mistake of a male employee. Firms should have a zero tolerance policy against any kind of harassments in order to make women confident that they would be safe and respected in the workplace. Conclusion The number of women in engineering paints a dim picture. This number has almost remained constant and is one of the last male bastions which the females have not been able to encroach. The reasons for less number of engineers are many as discussed above. We need to take systematic steps in order to increase the number of women engineers in the country. Engineers build the nation and no nation can be perfectly built if half its population does not have a say in nation building. It is necessary for USA to increase the number of women engineers not just for the sake of equality but also to fight of competition from emerging economies like China and India which are threatening to take over our technological superior position. References Andrew, Jason. "Girls Who Code’ Seeks to Train Women for Tech Fields." The Wall Street Journal. 26th January 2012. 2012. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/06/26/girls-who-code-seeks-to-train-women-for-tech-fields/]. American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Barriers for Women Scientists Survey Report." 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2013. . Bort, Julie . "The 25 Most Powerful Women Engineers In Tech ." Business Insider . 5th March 2013. 2013. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://www.businessinsider.com/25-powerful-women-engineers-2013-3?op=1]. Eccles, J.S. "Where are all the women ? Gender Differences in participation in physical science and Engineering". Why aren't women in science : Top Researchers Debate the Evidence. By Ceci, S.J. and W.M. Williams. 1st ed. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2007. 199 - 210. Print. Fouad, Nadya A. and Romila Singh. Stemming the Tide : Why Women Leave Engineering. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, 2011. 1 -64. E-book. GALLONI, ALESSANDRA et al. "Industry by Industry: How to Move Forward." The Wall Street Journal. 10th April 2011. 2011. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703280904576247131232952542.html]. Green, Jeff . "The Silencing of Sexual Harassment." Business Week . 17th November 2011. 2011. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-silencing-of-sexual-harassment-11172011.html]. Knowledge@Wharton Today. "Knowledge@Wharton Today | Do Women Shy Away from Promotions?." 2012. Web. 11 Apr 2013. . Murray, Alan . "Where are all the senior-level women?." The Wall Street Journal. 10th April 2011. 2011. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013604576246774042116558.html#articleTabs%3Darticle]. Murray, Alan. "Women in a Man's World." The Wall Street Journal. 7th May 2012. 2012. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304743704577380032730814466.html#articleTabs%3Darticle]. Schelmetic, Tracey . "Where Are America’s Women Engineers?." Thomas net News. 19th February 2013. 2013. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/2013/02/19/where-are-americas-women-engineers/]. Shellenbarger, Sue. "The XX Factor: What's Holding Women Back?." The Wall Street Journal. 7th May 2012. 2012. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304746604577381953238775784.html]. Shellenbarger, Sue. "In Science and Technology, Efforts to Lure Women Back." The Wall Street Journal. 25th February 2009. 2009. Web. 11th April 2013. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123552495529565395.html]. Society of Women Engineers. "Where are all the women going?." 2007. Web. 11 Apr 2013. . Society of Women Engineers. "Women in Engineering : a Review of literature." 2009. Web. 11 Apr 2013. . Stock, Kyle . "Women Unplug From the Tech Industry - Technology and IT Jobs News and Advice." 2011. Web. 11 Apr 2013. . Www4.uwm.edu. "News Story Details." 2011. Web. 11 Apr 2013. . Read More