Call Me a Pioneer

When I was seven or eight, I joined a Parks and Rec soccer team. It was coed. I don't think many girls were interested in playing at the time. I think there may have been other girls in the league, but I am fairly certain that I was the only girl on my team. It generally wasn't a big deal. Most of the boys were fine. I didn't mind too much that there weren't other girls playing. Occasionally, a boy would tell me that I was bad because I was a girl, but I usually found a way to prove him wrong. I played for about three years. I think during that time, the number of girls in the league increased. I don't think it ever mattered to me. Playing soccer was fun.

Twenty years later, I see girls playing soccer everywhere. Mia Hamm is a household name. So many young girls play that I see leagues of them every time I run through Cass Park.

And I am still one of very few women playing a "boy's" game.

Only 20% of engineering undergraduates are women, and in the real world, women make up only 10% of the engineering workforce⁽¹⁾. In my office, I am the only mechanical engineer who lacks a Y chromosome (out of 8). There's also a female electrical engineer (Yan); she's one out of five. Lots of people are trying to figure out why there aren't more of us. Even more are working on increasing our numbers. I bet your area has at least one program aimed at increasing the number of women in engineering and the sciences. I know mine has several. Some members of Congress⁽²⁾ have even suggested that we should apply Title IX to engineering schools. Title IX is the measure that was used to help increase the number of women's sports programs.

I would love to see more women in engineering. There is absolutely no reason that an intelligent woman who enjoys math and problem-solving should avoid engineering. If our society is consciously or subconsciously telling women and girls that they should stay away, then we have a problem to fix. And I can see how such a problem might exist. Girls generally take more flak than boys for being geeky. Girls are supposed to be interested in dance and cheerleading camps, not science camps. Barbie is a progressive woman. She was a doctor even when I was a kid. But to the best of my knowledge, there is no engineer Barbie, no rocket-scientist Barbie. And Barbie commercials seem to focus on fashion and modeling.

I think that we should probably shift the way we present career opportunities, math, and science to young girls. PSAs encouraging kids to be more active and to study more should show girls in the lab with the boys. I think it'd be helpful to focus our efforts on kids when they're still in elementary school, before all the stereotypes and peer pressure becomes entrenched.

But Title IX for engineering schools? Rabidly pushing women into engineering, even when maybe it's not what floats their boats? That's a problem. Women who don't like engineering are not going to make good engineers. And I don't want anyone thinking that I got my job just because I'm a woman. Women engineers need to be as good and as passionate as the men, or all women will suffer. I hope that Congress (16% women) will not let this Title IX in school idea go anywhere.

All things considered, I don't know how to approach the subject of women in engineering. Maybe I'm naive, but I think our numbers will increase naturally.

Maybe engineering just needs its own Mia Hamm.

I don't think that designing and analyzing satellite components has much of a chance of giving me the kind of fame really needed to inspire young girls. But I am doing my best.

I hope engineering will turn out to be like soccer.

Twenty years from now, I might just be seeing women engineers everywhere.

^{(1) Girls are ready for engineering if engineering is ready to share.
(2) Sex, Bias and Data}