Student

Women in Engineering

Challenges in Women Engineering

Challenges

What are the most significant issues, challenges, and opportunities facing women scientists and engineers today as they plan their careers? As a man I could only imagine what women today go through. I can only gather such information and write down what I have learned. Some of the problems I have gathered in my research of the subject matter are segregation, family, and the unwillingness for many women to venture out. The second section of my research are the opportunities for women in engineering or any scientific field for which I have learned seem to be endless.

When I talk about segregation I don’t mean like slavery where there were separate drinking fountains and special places to eat for women and men. When I talk about segregation I mean that many males would not want to study with women, become lab partners with women, or form study groups. Just because for some reason males thought women are in a lower class then them. This by no means has stopped women for going on and furthering their education. But I do believe it does discourage women a little bit as well as make them feel a little bit uncomfortable in midst of a male oriented student body. I know I would feel a little discouraged if I was excluded from study groups and left out to dry in the laboratory.

In another sense family takes a big influence in determining whether women want to become engineers. This is a challenge in itself because from what I have gathered many of the women I have read about or talked to would prefer to start early in starting a family. That is they do not want to be in their late 30’s or early 40’s trying to start a family. I mean there is the issue of juggling a family while studying and going to school or should they wait until after they are done with school to start a family. And if they do wait until they are done with school. How long after should they try to start having a family? Some women however I have found that really don’t think about it they just play it however life plays out.

Another challenge is harder to explain but I will try and hopefully get it right. I have asked many women who by the way are in college but are not engineers. Why they didn’t think about a career in engineering? The number one response was and I quote, “math is too hard” the second was “engineering is too hard”. So I believe this challenge is more of an issue of why women have put it in their