Why Don't We Have More Practicing Women Engineers - Case Study Example

Women in Engineering INTRODUCTION Women have a major role to play in the engineering sector. This role can be emphasized upon by looking up recent news article clippings that have mentioned it. An analysis of the article quotes would further throw light onto the specific role of women in engineering with respect to the economic sector. The first six clippings are analyzed in detail whereas the rest of them are summed up into an aggregate account in the end. The analysis throws light on the overall perspective which is affecting the economy of the US nation as a whole. FIRST CLIPPING “Women who leave engineering jobs after obtaining the necessary degree are significantly more likely to leave the field because of an uncomfortable work climate than because of family reasons, according to a study being undertaken at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).” (Science Daily, 2008) The above mentioned news clipping revolves around the most current problem that is being faced by women engineers nowadays. The overall ethical structure of the society and more importantly that of a workplace has deteriorated so very much that day by day it is becoming increasingly difficult for the fairer sex to take advantage of it. The above mentioned current problem is very moral negating. After spending years pursuing a relatively challenging degree of Engineering the working climate forces women out of the practical exposure of their respective discipline. Since women form a major part of the country’s workforce this is a potential setback upon the economy of a country that a significant majority of their economy generated personnel are drifting away from the field in which they have specialized. SECOND CLIPPING “Women who graduated with an engineering degree but who did not enter the field are using the knowledge and skills gained in their education in a number of other fields.” (Science Daily, 2008) Potential areas where women or any other engineer for that matter, would want to work in are the areas that involve practical exposure to their field of study. Recent observations noted that over the past few years the ongoing trends in the society have been such that instead their own field the studies done by engineers are being utilized in other fields like teaching etc. The above research was the outcome of a latest study conducted in Milwaukee using about half a million grant by the National Science Foundation. The study was based on an online survey. Around 3700 women who had done their engineering degree from over 230 countries participated in the survey. Among the four type of respondents women who never entered their practical engineering field constituted a considerable part. THIRD CLIPPING “As the need for engineering professionals grows, educators and industry leaders are increasingly concerned with how to attract women to a traditional male career. A new University of Missouri study found the impact of the engineering curriculum and obstacles, including self-efficacy and feelings of inclusion, can impede women’s success in the predominantly male discipline of engineering.” (Science Daily, 2008) Engineering is a predominantly male discipline. The structural difficulties and obstacles encountered by students pursuing this career needs to be taken into account when realizing the reasons behind its being predominantly male. Engineering is mainly a tough field. The excessive hours spent in it along with the harsh conditions involved in the practical environment of engineering are not apart from the difficulties that are faced by engineering students during their studies. Rigid mathematical calculations involving calculus are just a few of the obstacles that the engineering curriculum involves. This scenario is making it troublesome for industrialists because lesser and lesser women are entering the field of engineering day by day. The need of the day is that steps should be taken that would persuade women and would convince them to opt for engineering as a preferred field of study. FOURTH CLIPPING “We compared the students’ assessments from each year. The results indicate that women students show positive progress in some self-efficacy measures, but they show significant decrease in progress on feelings of inclusion,” Marra said. “We hope that the results of the study can be used to influence engineering education practices, both in and outside of the classroom, which can impact the success of women studying engineering.” (Science Daily, 2011) The preface of this study is that a study was conducted around 196 women. These women were undergoing undergraduate studies at different public sector institutions in the US. The study spanned over a period of two years. The points under consideration were the students’ willingness to study engineering, their belief about their own ability and capacity to accomplish the task of pursuing engineering as a career, the confidence they possessed in the studies of mathematics and engineering that they were undergoing and their perception of the outcomes of this study. The over all efficacy of the women engineering students was well assessed as a result of the conducted study. Moreover, it was desired that since the aptitude and mind stream of women would be clearly assessed in the results of the report measure can be attempted to modify the engineering studies a, little bit so as to accommodate more women pursuing engineering as a career. FIFTH CLIPPING: “Statistics published February 28in a report titled "Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2011" show that 26 percent of blacks earned S&E bachelor's degrees from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in 2000, while only 20 percent earned them from HBCUs in 2008” (Science Daily, 2011) The above clipping, taken from an article in science daily (Feb 28, 2011) highlights the fact that the trend in decline of women (among other minorities) opting for science and engineering related fields is declining steadily. This study specifically involved the blacks that form the minority of the nation. It was observed that ever since the promulgation of the human rights act of minorities in 1964 he blacks had continued to get themselves enrolled into universities for higher studies. Recent trends however noted that women, along with the minorities of the nation were not opting for engineering related disciplines. Since science and engineering fields are the running force behind a nation this trend is considered as being substantially alarming as a continued decline in it over the subsequent years would pose a threat to the economy of the nation as a whole. SIXTH CLIPPING “One important application of this research could be in helping to attract more women to the mathematical sciences and engineering. Since spatial skills play an important role in these professions, bringing the spatial skills of young women up to the level of their male counterparts could help to change the gender balance in these fields that are so important to our economic health,” (Science Daily, 2007) The above quote refers to the fact that women can be prepared and transformed for entering the fields of mathematics and engineering. Studies have been reported to have shown that if women and men alike are exposed to activities that involve the use of their analytical and spatial skills the level of skills in them enhances considerably. For example, teams of both men and women were exposed to a few hours of analytical video game playing continuously. The readings taken and the observations made showed that the rate at which both the teams were performing was inclined more towards men at the onset of the gaming venture. However, as few hours passed the performance of women became better and they started playing just as well as their male counterparts. Thus it was ascertained that it was just a matter of training that would enable women to do just as well as men in fields related to mathematical analysis and engineering. SEVENTH CLIPPING “The French government has decided to replace Anne Lauvergeon, the longstanding chief executive of state-controlled nuclear engineering giant Areva SA and one of France's most high-profile women.” (Amiel, John. 2011) EIGHT CLIPPING “Ms. Mayer: There is a decline in women graduating in computer science and engineering and that is concerning, but the simple fact is we just aren't producing enough computer scientists, so I view it as less of a gender issue. So if we can produce more computer scientists the absolute numbers of women will grow and we'll achieve more balance.” (Efrati, 2011) NINTH CLIPPING “Women can be either encouraged or discouraged to take on the role of engineer through communication. Encouraging women to take on the role of engineer is imperative because of the lack of women currently in engineering.” (Efrati, 2011) TENTH CLIPPING “A study done by the National Science Foundation in 1998 found that only nine percent of working engineers were women as reported by Amy Sue Bix in her 2004 article “From ‘Engineeressses’ to ‘Girl Engineers’ to ‘Good Engineers’: A History of Women’s U.S. Engineering Education.” (Brown, 2005) ELEVENTH CLIPPING “In 1997, only 9 percent of engineers and 10 percent of physicists and astronomers were women, but women comprised 63 percent of psychologists and 42 percent of biologists. Last year, 43 percent of the incoming University of Michigan Medical School class was women, but the portion of women seeking doctoral degrees in the College of Engineering was only 14 percent.” (IBITimes, 2011) TWELFTH CLIPPING “one survey respondent wrote, "At my last engineering job women were fed up with the culture: arrogant, inflexible, completely money-driven, sometimes unethical, intolerant of differences in values and priorities. I felt alienated, in spite of spending my whole career trying to act like a man." (Proquest, 2003) THIRTEENTH CLIPPING “Engineers have a responsibility to properly inform government officials and the public regarding engineering and science issues to ensure that all aspects and implications of policies are properly scrutinized. Having engineers integrated in all positions of society as educators, medical doctors, leaders and even as leaders of government will not only bring attention to the importance of engineering but will also help elevate more women into leadership positions.” (IEEE, 2008) FOURTEENTH CLIPPING “Over the last few decades it has been observed that women prefer sciences to engineering and in today’s context of cross disciplinary education, the thematic network ESTIA-Net proposed the birnging forward of a complete set of women –friendly course programs.” (IEEE, 2008) FIFTEENTH CLIPING “As a young woman working towards her PHd degree in the cross disciplinary topic of BioMedical Engineering at UGent, I found great pleasure in finding that most of the issues discussed were helpful hints and encouraging thoughts.” (IEEE, 2008) CONCLUSIVE ANALYSIS A joint analysis of the remaining clippings and of those six elaborated above clearly state the diminishing aptitude of women towards engineering oriented studies and jobs. The uncomfortable man oriented field tasks as well as the practically-inclined studies of engineering do not go hand in hand with the usual frame on which women have been molded by God. At present, research results reveal that only about 9% of engineers are women. Other sectors like biology and psychology etc are pretty much dominated by women as compared to engineering. Therefore this cannot be ascertained that women basically do not want to work. It is just the male oriented nature of the engineering like jobs that are inhibiting their involvement in concerned tasks. How this is affecting the economy of the US nation is the key to this entire study. Engineering and its related fields are the backbone of a country. The lesser skilled workers there are in engineering, the more adverse it is going to be for the country’s economy on the whole. Thus, it is advised that a constant revival and polishing of analytical and mathematical skills, as mentioned in one of the clippings above, may lead to betterment in the aptitude of a woman in attempting to decipher as her preferred field. WORKS CITED: “Work Climate the Main Reason Women Leave Engineering, Survey Suggests” ScienceDaily 3/10/ 2011. Web. 7/19/2011 “Education Practices Influence Women Engineer Shortage”. ScienceDaily. 12/30/2011. Web. 7/19/2011. ScienceDaily. “Share of Black Science and Engineering Degrees from Historically Black Colleges and Universities Declines in 2008”. 2/ 28/ 2011. Web. 7/19/2011. “Playing Video Games Reduces Sex Differences In Spatial Skills” ScienceDaily 10/26/2007.Web. 7/19/2011 Amiel, Geraldine., John, Biers. “France Replaces Areva's CEO”. Wall Street Journal. 6/17/2011. Web. 7/18/2011 Efrati, Aamir. Tech Executives See Paths for Women, Especially Geeks. June 16 2011.Web. 7/19/2011. Brown, Sarah. “Communication and Women in Engineering.”10/27/ 2005. Web. 7/18/2011 IBTimes Staff Reporter. “Why don't we have more practicing women engineers?” Ibitimes. 3/11/ 2011. Web. 7/19/2011. ProQuest Information and Learning Company. “Attracting women to engineering”. Findarticles. November 2003. Web. 7/18/2011 IEEE. “Welcome to IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine”. IEEE WIE Magazine.Winter 2007/2008. Web. 7/19/2011 IEEE. “Women Engineers Fight Numbers lag.”. IEEE WIE Magazine.Winter 2007/2008. Web. 7/19/2011 Read More