The Importance Of Women In Engineering

Engineering is considered a non-traditional career- meaning that over 75% of people are of one gender, in this case males dominate the engineering field. The lack of women in the engineering field is a major problem in today’s society. Overall, about 20 percent of undergraduate engineering degrees are awarded to women, but only 13 percent of the engineering workforce is female. There are many different ways you can potentially solve this problem and it can happen at all age levels. This paper will focus mainly on how to get more women in engineering at the workplace, after getting a degree, and how to keep them in the field as well. Below I will discuss the following: why the lack of women is a problem, how to fix the lack of mentors for women

One source said to follow Naomi Climer’s, the president of the institution of engineering and technology, advice and set some quotas for female engineers after she called upon the engineering sector to bring more female employees. Recently General Electric stated that by 2020 they will strive for 50-50 representation in all of its technical entry level programs. According to a source women who worked with greater numbers of women individuals in their work groups or departments were less likely than others to perceive barriers to career advancement. One woman, who remained anonymous said “There isn’t a strong network of females in engineering. You either need to learn to be “one of the guys” or blaze the trail yourself, which is very difficult. I deviated from engineering... but work now in construction, where I am the only female executive officer.”. While hiring a large amount of women may not exactly be the solution just committing to not having an all-male board could be a

One person said “[There is] no opportunity for advancement in a male-dominated field—the culture of engineering is male-centric with high expectations for travel and little personal time.”. One theory on why this is is called the "glass ceiling". “Glass ceiling” is a metaphor for the hard-to-see informal barrier that keeps women from getting promotions, pay raises and further opportunities. It is glass because it is not usually a visible barrier, and a woman may not be aware of its existence until she "hits" the barrier (Lewis, 2015). According to Baxter and Wright (2000) the concept of a glass ceiling is generally viewed as a set of impediments and/or barriers to career advancement for women and minority people. “ To advance, it seems as though you must be willing and able to work 50+ hours/week and often be on-call 24/7.” “... Provide clear, visible, and transparent paths to advancement by articulating the criteria for promotion, implementing fair, performance-based systems for promotion, and offering multiple opportunities for