Women-friendly engineering program

[GLC1968]

Women in engineering varies greatly by the major. I was an EE and there were very, very few women. Computer engineering had more women, Civil even more and Chemical had probably the most at my school...Mechanical? Almost none. Every school has it's specialty, too, so it would help to know what direction she would want to go.

I specialized in RF/wireless engineering because that was what my school was known for and it has since served me very well. Now I recruit for my company from the top RF/Wireless schools and I can tell you, that the top schools in engineering in general do not even make our list as the top schools for our specialty...so school choice/program choice can matter quite a bit. She can get top education at non-top schools (for less than top dollar!) if she can narrow down her direction. Thought I know this is asking an awful lot of an 18 year old (I surely wouldn't have been able to make that choice back then!)!

As far as the best programs for women, I will mention again that it can really vary by major. I definitely second the recommendation to check with SWE (Society of Women Engineers) as they have chapters in every engineering university in this country (and many internationally). If they track this, they'll be a great resource.

[jahnin24f]

I graduated with engineering major but in Industrial Engineering women dominated men by numbers and also in other majors(EE, CE, etc). However, in Mechanical Engineering only 2% of the class is women in 5 years. And it still the same figure nowadays.
One of the professor in that major told us that the course requires more physical skills and strength but the dealings of male students and other program are fine. I'd witnessed both of our female batch mate in that course graduated on time with us.

[Reesha]

Union College has a fantastic engineering program and there were plenty of women there. I think the liberal arts college environment creates a more appealing environment for female engineers as there are simply more women on campus to begin with. I have a number of female friends who graduated with engineering degrees from there (I graduated from there with a Geology degree). About 11% of all students are engineering majors, 8% of which are mechanical engineers.

Back when I was there they were very generous with their scholariship and aid packages. I'm not sure what it's like post-economic meltdown, but you should check it out

[Melalvai]

Thanks for the great suggestions and resources! This is exactly what I was hoping for.

A friend of mine in a CS program told me about going to a competition in another city with her CS club. As they were making plans, she realized that the faculty mentor had only booked one hotel room for the entire club. She asked "Where am I supposed to sleep?" and he looked startled. It hadn't dawned on him that he'd need a 2nd room because he now had a female in his program. (That was actually the least of her problems on that trip, as the faculty adviser didn't go with them, there was drinking, one guy harassed her, and her boyfriend--long since ex now-- was unsympathetic.)

That's a minor example, but that sort of thing adds up and feels very unwelcoming. When I was in the National Guard, for the first few years it was either just me or me and one or two other females. At our 2-week annual trainings, we had the most difficult time finding out anything, like when we were supposed to be where, which uniform, how to get supper. The guys just routinely forgot about us. My dad was the first sergeant, and I was not shy about complaining, so eventually they got a system in place, assigning a female to be present at all the staff meetings (even though she wasn't technically a squad leader), coming down hard on the squad leaders for being responsible for getting the info to ALL of their squad, and more women joined so it was harder to forget about us.

It's all little stuff, and it seems petty to complain about, but it adds up to create an unwelcoming environment. My daughter hates complaining so she puts up with stuff and then avoids going to whatever class or event that has the problem. I know she needs to learn a different way to cope, and I'm sure there will be other petty problems, but I don't want this sort of thing to be what drives her out of engineering or math.

Once she's in the field, and it's still male-dominated, maybe I'm naive, but I think these sorts of things go away at that point. Probably to be replaced by other bigger problems. But by then she's invested several years and gained assertiveness. Or maybe not and she'll resent it forever, who can tell.

[indysteel]

The guys just routinely forgot about us. My dad was the first sergeant, and I was not shy about complaining, so eventually they got a system in place, assigning a female to be present at all the staff meetings (even though she wasn't technically a squad leader), coming down hard on the squad leaders for being responsible for getting the info to ALL of their squad, and more women joined so it was harder to forget about us.

It's all little stuff, and it seems petty to complain about, but it adds up to create an unwelcoming environment.

This is what I experienced when I first went into private practice as a lawyer. Law school, itself, was diverse in terms of gender. In fact, I think there were more women than men. And my first job out, as a law clerk to state appellate court, was much the same way. From there, I went to a law firm that, at the time, had about 70 attorneys. For a variety of reasons, most of the young female attorneys that worked there had recently left, and I was the lone female associate for a period of time. There were a handful of female partners, but believe it or not, they weren't that much more supportive than the average male partner.

I felt very alone there. Some of my fellow associates were nice enough, but a frat house atmosphere prevailed. At one point, I caught wind of a summer party that a partner was throwing at his lake house to which I had not been invited. It happened to be the partner whose office was next to mine--the one who never remembered my name. One of the other associates called him out on it and, to my face, the partner explained that he thought I'd feel awkward as the only woman. Well, I likely would have, but thanks for making me feel even worse. This was 1999, so we aren't talking the dark ages of gender equality. I left soon thereafter. I think the firm has improved since this, at least I hope so.

I can tell you this. The mere fact that I had a lot invested in my career at that point did not make the environment any easier. I went into the firm really naively, as I'd otherwise never felt particularly discriminated against as a woman. So, in some ways, it might be better if your daughter faces some of these challenges while still in school. Hopefully, it'll help her develop some constructive ways to deal with it or, perhaps, make her carefully evaluate whether it's something she really wants to do.

[divingbiker]

Many, many years ago I graduated in ChemE from Washington University in St. Louis, not too far from you. Even back then, there were quite a few women in the engineering program, so I don't think it's quite as "male-dominated" as you perceive. Based on the newsletters I get, they still have quite a few women in the program. It's worth checking out.

Other than invitations to AIChE (professional organization) meetings that were postcards with women in bikinis, and suggestive calendars from Ridgid hanging everywhere--all way back in the late 70s/early 80s--I never experienced any problems.

[Jserrty]

I am a women mechanical engineer in an Oil and Gas Multinational. Generally, we are treated the same as men. You are expected to know your stuffs and be good at it. But sometimes, we do get the perks from being female. They don't scream at you as loud. :-)

Professional Women Organization

[Grog]

Carnegie Mellon has made conscious efforts, research, and changes in this direction, and it's working (as exemplified by the testimonies on this thread):
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project...www/index.html

[shootingstar]

Jsserty's comment made me laugh.

Have any of you ever worked for a major construction engineering project? Whoaaaaa...

I think it helps for any discipline, to enroll in a university program where both genders are treated well as students and individuals.

But the big factor....is what the woman engineer does after graduation and where she goes to work in her career. Some types of organizations are inherently better than others --- government (I worked for a regulatory agency for a decade, that made a consicous effort to hire top female engineers. So there were 5 women, all different, civil, chemical, mechanical, all great people in a team of 18 engineers) vs. some private sector firms.

The oil firm that my partner spent most his career, made a serious effort to hire female engineers. And over the years, some of these women moved into senior management positions within the firm.

I am not an engineer, but 50% of my career I've had engineers as my client group. One does see certain patterns of promotion, non-promotion, certain types of assignments and stories... Construction engineering project where I was, it would have been tough for a female engineer. Out of 40 plus engineers, none were supervisors nor managers.

Really, it depends where one goes, career-wise.

I forgot --one of my nieces did her degree in geological engineering. (Queen's University, Canada). She works for a software firm that handles technical modelling in the geotechnical field. Their main clients are exploration firms, mining firms, etc. It's a male dominant industry where she is. Her clients are primarily male engineers, geologists, etc.

She is 26 yrs. old.

[Jolt]

It hasn't been mentioned yet, so I have to put in a plug for Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, MA. Of course I'm biased, because I went there (for biology/pre-med, not engineering) but I loved it and they have made a lot of efforts toward recruiting women--the ratio is still pretty skewed toward guys, but getting better. They have just about any kind of engineering program one could want, including fire protection as was mentioned in a previous post. It's private but fairly generous with scholarships. Another unique thing about the school is the projects program--there are three projects students do during their time there (one in the humanities, one dealing with the relationship between science/technology and society, not necessarily within one's major, and the final one usually done in the senior year being a project within the student's major, and students have a lot of freedom to decide what they want it to be). She could most likely design a project that has to do with disaster relief, which would help her get into that field when she graduates.

[Crankin]

I second WPI. Few people outside of this area know about it. It's a cool place.
My DH runs a division of a large software company; he is the "business" person, who is in charge of 250+ engineers all over the world. He has a difficult time recruiting women, as the people in his division have to travel frequently. He has hired few couples, though, as a "package."
Several of these engineers went to Michigan Tech, a school I never heard of before. Also, VA Tech, and Carnegie Mellon. But really, they went to all kinds of schools, including many overseas.