Recent evidence suggests that schools with strong science and math curricula are particularly good at detailing STEM fields from masculine stereotypes. " I think women can bring a different perspective to the table. Equal representation is especially important in engineering, as engineers design products and solve problems that affect a male and female world. Imagine the greater advances that could occur in engineering if men and women were working together more often.
I think there are two reasons that turn women away from a career in engineering. Firstly, I think as society we have a misconception of engineering. Secondly, if you become an engineer you're going to be fixing cars, machines, collecting rubbish and things like that. TV shows also have a part to play: the popular comedy series, The Big Bang Theory, compares attractive Penny with socially-awkward, nerdy Amy. Who wants to be Amy? There's another myth that put women's off studying engineering, that women's are worse than men's at math and physics.A survey by National Innumeracy showed that 71 % of men describe themselves as "good or excellent" at math's, while only 59% of women do.
Girls have higher "math's anxiety" than boys. These statistics suggest that women's are becoming their own enemies by doubting their abilities. I asked my friends for their opinion and they said the issue of women in engineering is "overrated" No one is stopping girls from stepping up and joining in. From the aerospace sector to Silicon Valley, engineering has a retention problem.Close to 40 recent of women with engineering degrees either leave the profession or never enter the field.
Conventional wisdom says that women in engineering face difficulties, a lack of self-confidence and a lack of mentors. But psychologists who research deeper into the issue with a new study found that the biggest push backs female engineers receive come from the environments they work in. A psychologist Nadia Food surveyed 5,300 women who earned engineering degrees within the past six decades in order to figure out why so few stayed in engineering.Food reported that only 62 percent of respondents were currently working in engineering. Food said, "It's the climate, stupid! " she said during her presentation, referring to the "old-boys club" workplaces that she says still exists in many engineering organizations. Respondents in her study reflected her sentiments, with many calling the engineering workplace unfriendly and even hostile to women.
They also said they felt that many of these companies did not provide opportunities for women like them to advance and develop.Women's aperture from engineering is not just an issue of 'leaning in'. "It's about changing the work environment. " When women are frustrated with the office climate and choose to leave their jobs, they also end up leaving the engineering industry entirely. For the past two decades, 20 percent of engineering graduates have been women, yet only 1 1 percent of practicing engineers are women.
Compared with other skilled professions such as accounting, medicine and law, engineering has the highest turnover of women.The real reason why there are so fewer women in tech isn't because f discrimination, harassment or unequal pay. The real reason is that most women clearly aren't as interested in technology-related work as men are. Its a choice. And for whatever reasons, more women seem to choose other fields. Can we give women a little more respect for their ability to make their own choices? For those that do have in interest in writing code, building systems and becoming database experts there are as many opportunities available to them in this country as men if that what they want to do.
