I’d like to comment on the idea “if few females want to go into engineering, then so be it”. Although I don’t have any issue with it in principle, it misses the larger issue. Few females want to go into engineering because it is dissuaded by our culture. Gender roles, which are entirely artificial constructs of our society, are beat into us early and then continually through our development. Subliminally (and sometime explicitly) we are told that engineering is a male profession. Parents by their daughters Barbie’s and their sons Lego. Daughters help their Moms with the baking, sons help their Dads in the garage. It’s also no surprise that woman who grew up around and worked with technology at a young age tend to be the ones that go on to become engineers. We don't really choose the field we go into, it's a by-product of our upbringing, culture, parents, friends, etc.
This brings up the next question, is there anything intrinsically wrong with lower numbers of female engineers? Why should we actively try to increase the number of females that enter the field? A discipline based around creativity and innovation, such as engineering, benefits greatly from diversity. Different minds, different backgrounds and different perspectives allows for a greater spectrum of ideas and solutions. Furthermore, and more importantly, technical fields are the highest paying (undergrad) disciplines on average and are also those that females are steered away from by cultural norms. The societal cycle of undervaluing females is reinforced by deterring females from entering highly valued (in terms of both remuneration and respect) fields of employment. Don’t think that’s the case? Watch
this great/simple experiment which highlights our gender bias when it comes to career vs family.
Now the tricky part, how do you effectively change this situation? I agree, in part, with people that say it’s silly to put in some abstract quota to fill. It doesn’t matter if you have to fill 20 out of 50 spots reserved for females if you don’t have 20 (qualified) females who want the spots. However, this tackles the issue of more overt sexism. Although the more obvious forms of sexism are lessening they are still there and still need dealing with. Female only scholarships to technical programs is a little better of a solution. It makes it more appealing to enter into technical fields but only financially, it doesn’t do anything to (directly) combat the cultural deterrents.
Having said that, both these initiatives get more females into the field, which is important. As the percentage of females in engineering increases, it will be more attractive for young females to enter the field. One of the biggest issues I’ve heard (both in articles and anecdotally) is the alienation that females feel being one of few females in classroom dominated by men. Furthermore, attempting to tackle the core issue (the issue of culture) is much more difficult. How do you shape and mold culture to have a desired output, what will the unintended side-effects be? Perhaps it is more effective to address the issue at the end of the cycle (employment) rather than the beginning (development). Maybe the core of the issue can be solved by fixing the surface issue.
