Women in Engineering II 54

[lacajun]

Since the first post on this is closed, I decided to begin a new post.

This is a dated but interesting report that I'm working my way through. As I read through it, I see improvements that can be made to benefit women as well as men.

Women in Engineering: An Untapped Resource

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC
NSPE-CO, Central Chapter
Dinner program:

http://nspe-co.org/events.php

 

[havesealwilltravel]

As an old engineer, I would like to add my opinion of women in engineering.

I have worked with many women engineers over the years. Nearly all of them were excellent engineers - smart, hard working, well educated and creative. A few were fantastic. And, almost all of them got out of engineering. Engineers tend to be extremely task oriented and not very people oriented. (It's no secret that most engineers are woefully deficient in communication skills.) Many women find this very unattractive and left for law, medicine, etc. where they had more personal interaction and emotionally rewarding relationships. The prevailing attitude of "shut up and get this done quickly" was a turnoff to them.

There was also too much sexism. The women generally hated sexual comments, off color jokes and double intenders. People should not have to endure crude and offensive behavior from others. Several companies had harassment hot lines, but these were mostly managements early warning system rather than a problem resolution system.

 

[Ron247]

As another old engineer, I would also like to add to this thread. I have been in meetings similar to the quote below. Of what I have noticed, it seems many of us (male or female) have numerous encounters with the know-it-alls. When the comments are made in reference to a female engineer, I tend to see noticeably more head nods than I do when it is a male engineer. Later I will ask a head-nodder if they really agreed with the comments and they will say they do not. I then ask why they nodded their head. In most cases, the did not know they were nodding their head. I have no idea what they really think when verbal says one thing while body language says another. Also, I can not always tell if the head nods are simply understanding of what someone is saying versus agreeing with their premise. The main point of this, it seems a lot of technical people do not pay much attention to their own visual queues and really should.

when a male project manager who has no engineering expertise repeats the same comments everyone nods in agreement.

While I am a 60+ male who did not get his scars in Sunday School, I have had the same thing happen to me. It definitely seems to occur more often when female engineers are the target.

 

[IRstuff]

Lots of body language come from conflict avoidance, particularly with engineers, I think.

The rest comes from a subconscious perception of authority; I've noticed that certain people, who shall remain nameless, tend to carry their authority over to fields they know nothing about, and will argue their position, even to the exclusion of reality, science, or engineering certainty.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[moon161]

Ron 247, similar story. I'm a guy, 44 at the time. I was at a weekly general engineering meeting and training. Pizza included of course so people don't beef about working on the lunch hour. The director of engineering handed out a brain teaser saying 'ok count all of the 'r's in the paragraph' I counted the letters 'r' and thought 'somethings fishy, I'll add 2 to my count'. In a room of 20 or so, only myself and the young woman I was working for got the correct answer (count the letter 'r's and the word 'are' occurred twice also).

'There he is' said the director of engineering 'smartest guy in the room'.

 

[Ron247]

LOL Moon, well at least he said "smartest guy", not "smartest person". He left himself a loophole. That is why he is in management.

 

[IRstuff]

An interesting read:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-co...erceptions-versus-reality-in-nordic-countries

TLDR: The rosy picture of Nordic gender equality may not quite real. Wage inequality exists in comparable proportions, and sexual harassment/assault likewise appears to a significant issue.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

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