Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day (page 3)

Oh sad scoobydoo......you might want get a sit down and have a scooby snack for this one.....OK the point is men are welcomed and even THRIVE in traditional female jobs. You mentioned hairdressers, it is not weird or uncommon for men to be stylists today. It is now weird or uncommon for men to teachers today. It is not weird or uncommon for men to be interior designors. They are not met with hostility when they enter these fields. However, like it has been pointed out women are still met with hostility when they try and enter typical "male" dominated fields and that is why there are programs like "Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day."......

garyneal

Darn, none of my posts worked under IE 9.

Switching to firefox

Married to the Mob

Introduce a girl to engineering has been round for years. However there is not only a shortage of female engineers but also men who wish to become engineers. Its just not seen as "sexy"

A lot of it can be blamed on popular culture as the easy way to get rich as the moment seem to be get on a reality tv program!

The other is money. Working as a professional engineer the money is horrendous! Compared to bankers, lawyers and alike, engineering is no where as well paid, unless you are top of the tree and getting there is decades of hard work.

Engineering can be cool, fun and exciting. In the name of my job, I have been diving, climbed down some very famous buildings, fired chickens(dead) at windows and set fire to entire railway vehicles.

On the down side I travel over 100k miles on planes a year in coach, spend up to 7 months of the year in hotels, and spend a lot of time dealing with people who have no concept of what they have asked for, because "they don't do details!".

But to start with engineers need to be rewarded appropriately and in turn help the perception that being an engineer is an attractive prospect.

MTTM. PE, C.Eng, Eur Ing

Caedes

I concur with MTTM, I wouldn't introduce anyone to engineering male or female. The wages are very low for the amount of studying required, you end specialising in one field of engineering which means it's difficult to switch jobs. Jobs, at least in the south west of the UK, are few and far between, you have to travel a lot and the title of engineer garners little to no respect.

If you are bright enough to be an engineer you can probably go for any career so pick anything but engineering.

Perhaps if the title of engineer were protected, it would be a more lucrative and sensible career path. As it is any technician can claim to be an engineer.

garyneal

Well, I was going to post something to Scooby Doo's and Razziel's points (which I tend to agree with) but I guess it has all been said now.

Sorry to hear that women in the field meet with hostility, from my experience they are prized but I will admit that I do not see too many women engineers. Another thing I notice is that engineers are somewhat hostile all the way around (to men and women) due to the fact that many of them feel like they have this 'special knowledge' or even feel like the others should know what they know (particularly if they are engineers).

So I doubt it is all as gender based as it is pointed out, perhaps some women may take the 'hostility' more personally than men.

I've worked in an environment that is predominantly female and I often found that my female bosses did not appreciate logic. They were easily offended and showed a bit of hostility to men. I am so glad I do not have a female boss now. Frankly, people have bad days and sometimes we say and do things on our bad days that a good boss would understand and overlook. That's the types of bosses I have now.

Are there female bosses like this, sure. But not in my experience.

Scooby-Doo

If in 2011 you find this "bizarre," there really isn't anything that anyone on this board can do to help you understand. : ) Additionally, I don't think you're that obtuse but were just baiting responses. But why don't you ask TD? Apparently, he didn't realize that his daughter has the amazing opportunity to be a hairdresser.

I was not trying to bait anyone. I have no need to.

What i was trying to say is that i find it bizarre that an Introduce A Girl To Engineering day actually exists. I know why it exists, they obviously want more girls in that field, i'm not dense. I could understand having a day dedicated to introducing youth to engineering but i don't really see the need to increase the female to male ratio of engineers.

I didn't ask TD anything because i don't know him. If his daughter is an engineer then that's great. It wouldn't make a difference to me whether or not she was a hairdresser, an engineer, a doctor or if she drove a truck for a living. I only used the example of a hairdresser because that was the first female dominated field that i thought of.

And yes, if you are passionate about it and love hairdressing, then that is an amazing opportunity for a young person. Likewise for engineering.

Oh sad scoobydoo......you might want get a sit down and have a scooby snack for this one.....OK the point is men are welcomed and even THRIVE in traditional female jobs. You mentioned hairdressers, it is not weird or uncommon for men to be stylists today. It is now weird or uncommon for men to teachers today. It is not weird or uncommon for men to be interior designors. They are not met with hostility when they enter these fields. However, like it has been pointed out women are still met with hostility when they try and enter typical "male" dominated fields and that is why there are programs like "Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day."......

As a male entering into a female dominated field i completely agree that men are welcomed by the female majority. But when it comes down to it, i'm not going to get extra points just because i'm a guy. My results are graded exactly the same as every other student regardless of gender, and when i enter the workplace my performance will be judged exactly the same as everybody else.

That's sad, if they are met with hostility. I don't know where you live but in my country there are laws against discrimination based on gender. If you were hostile towards an employee or work colleague for no other reason than their gender then you would be reported and an investigation would be launched.

Anyway, the event is providing kids with information to help them decide what they want to do with their future. That can only be a good thing.

TD

Scooby,

The reasons why science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers have traditionally been dominated by men make this question a little more complicated than just a general question of career choice.

I hesitate to mention that men and women in general each have their respective strengths because it seems to drive people up the wall, but it's true. To take two examples: Women as a group almost always outscore men in language assessments. Men as a group almost always outscore women in spatial skills.

Spatial skills are not absolutely necessary for a STEM career, but they are a huge asset. If a person cannot visualize in 3d and do it well, they will never, ever understand how the spider-gear basket in a differential acutually works, for example.

Until recently, it was thought that these differences were mostly organic, but there is a lot of evidence out there that suggests that learning plays a huge role and that children begin learning these skills at a young age.

Of course you shouldn't force a child to build model airplanes if they'd rather cook, but it's just as important not to force them via societal expectations, stereotypes and peer pressure to cook if they'd rather build model airplanes. If the desire is there, it should be encouraged, which is all this is about.

Marvin Shilmer

TD,

I once introduced a young girl to a good engineering school. Before it was over, it ended up costing me, in round numbers, about $250,000 greenbacks.

Marvin Shilmer

meangirl

The point is programs like this help to discourage negative stereotyping that could result in girls loosing out on great opportunities. Maybe girls feel like they shouldn't be good at math and that only boys are. That is proven that is a negative strereotype that even teachers have been known to subconsciously promote.

Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day

Share this