Engineering no longer for men only
By Trudy Tynan
Associated Press
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — Liz Bartell thought she would major in Spanish or another of the liberal arts when she arrived at the all-women Smith College.
Associated Press
But she had always liked math, so, at her mother's urging, she took an introductory course in engineering her first semester.
Smith College senior engineering students, from left, Caitlyn Shea, Meghan Taugher and Cloelle Sausville-Giddings will be among the first 20 graduates of the nation's first engineering program at an all-women's liberal arts college.
"It was insanely hard and I didn't do well, but I loved it," Bartell said. "It was so challenging I just couldn't get enough."
Yesterday, the Houston native was scheduled to be among the first 20 graduates of the first engineering program at a women's liberal arts college in the United States. Then she's off for a job as a transportation engineer with a Florida company.
The Smith women aren't alone. Across the nation, about one in five of this year's engineering graduates will be women. By comparison, women made up about 2 percent of the engineering class in 1975.
The old image of an engineer as a white man sporting a pocket protector and a bow tie — so his neckpiece doesn't drag across his drafting board — is quietly changing. Work forces have become more diversified and the higher buying power of women has raised demand for products designed to accommodate their shape and needs.
This year, Georgia Tech handed engineering diplomas to 325 women, about 24 percent of the class.
The percentages are higher at elite engineering schools such as MIT and Cal Tech and even more so at several historically black colleges and universities, where more than 40 percent of the graduating engineers are women.
Historically, a major stumbling block for female engineering students has been "an attitude that they have to prove themselves," said Mimi Philobus, director of Georgia Tech's support program.
"When you have to struggle all the time, it becomes tiring," Philobus said.
All the universities generating large numbers of female engineers have vigorous outreach, mentoring and other efforts, including special prizes, dinners and scholarships, aimed at attracting and keeping their female students. Georgia Tech now has a retention rate of more than 90 percent.
The most extensive and determined recruitment effort has come from women themselves. For decades the Society of Women Engineers has reached out to middle school girls in hopes of interesting them early.
"When women in the field realized they were not alone, it made a big difference," said Amy Sue Bix, who teaches science and technology history at Iowa State and has studied the growth of women in engineering.
Women have been especially drawn to relatively new fields such as bioengineering and environmental engineering, said Thomas Magnanti, dean of engineering at MIT, where more a third of this year's graduating engineers are women.
At MIT, women make up 40 percent of the undergraduates studying chemical engineering and more than half of those in the combined civil and environmental engineering program.
Out of the 50 engineering faculty members hired at MIT in the last three years, 19 have been women, he said. Still, women make up only 14 percent of the engineering faculty at MIT and less than 10 percent of the engineering professors nationwide.
But some believe the professors' attitude is much more important than their sex.
"The women who come to us are well-prepared and win most of the top honors, but still you have to be encouraging," said Joseph Monroe, dean of engineering at North Carolina A&T.
"It's just a warm, open atmosphere," said Maranda McBride, who recently completed her doctorate in industrial engineering at North Carolina A&T after spending several years working in the industry.
To the industry, the issue goes beyond simple equity.
"If you are going to design and sell a product you need the different perspective women bring," said Andy Acho, director of environmental outreach and strategy for the Ford Motor Co. and chairman of the Smith engineering program's advisory board.
Nonetheless, women make up only about 12 percent of the engineering work force.
"Women still have a long way to go," said Margaret Ashida, director of university relations for IBM Corp.
The gains have been primarily around the edges, and increases may be slowing, she said.
William Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering, had no answer for why the extensive efforts haven't resulted in greater gains for women, but he suggested engineers need to promote the field's creative aspects and banish the "dead-wrong stereotype of a nerd working on something without social relevance."
Instead of devoting their first two years to math, Smith students are introduced early to problem solving, exposed to a variety of engineering disciplines and encouraged — even required — to take courses outside the technical fields.
Smith's president, Carol T. Christ, said the program aims to give women a wider foundation so they can more easily enter management later in their careers.
