Right to Choose

I think it's really important to make a special effort to encourage women to enter engineering. Not because women need a "step up" (the affirmative action logic) and not because it's important to have diversity (although it is) - but because women deserve to have a choice about the matter.

For me, being a feminist means being conscious of the implications of gender. I didn't have trouble deciding to become an engineer. I was lucky enough to have two parents with engineering degrees, a mother who often told me that an engineering degree is the best degree to have, and a close bond with the science department at my high school. I even had the opportunity (well insisted on having the opportunity) to participate in a pilot hands-on Women in Science and Engineering program that my high school started my senior year. So it's hardly a surprise that I'm here studying engineering today.

However, for hundreds of other women, deciding to study engineering is a much bigger deal. There's a lot of implicit socialization out there silently convincing women to not become engineers before they even have the chance to consider it. Just as an example, there are tons of girls out there who are talented in every subject who have no idea what they want to do with their lives - why don't they all study engineering? After all, an engineering degree is arguably one of the most versatile degrees out there. Instead they're advised to become a doctor, lawyer, scientist - all noble professions, but is engineer on the list? I guess it depends on the advisor. We need to make sure that engineer is on that list.

Then once they do decide to become engineers, the battle continues. When you feel like you don't belong in a profession, it's so easy to drown yourself in negative self-talk. Maybe you have a bad day and bomb a test, what's your first thought? Oh man, I bombed that test because I had a bad day? Nope. It's - God, I don't belong here. That's why women drop out - it's not because they're not smart enough.