Verified Document

Women In Engineering Gender Has Term Paper

Dr. Hayden believes the reason for this change at the school level is due to greater recruitment efforts, financial and academic support, and more women role models to provide encouragement. Dr. Hayden sees a similar situation happening in the engineering field. Dr. Lin, a male electrical engineer, on the other hand, somewhat ironically, seems to feel that women face a tougher challenge in engineering than Dr. Hayden stated. According to Dr. Lin, women can succeed as an electrical engineer if "they are determined." This is clearly a male-oriented view of how to succeed. According to typical male beliefs, success is an individual achievement. If you work hard you will succeed. If you do not succeed, it is because you did not work hard enough. However, Dr. Hayden emphasized in her response to the same question the role of peer mentors, academic support and other outside resources. This is typically a more feminine view of success, which one cannot succeed alone but only with the help of others.

This difference in views of success can be one of the reasons women are underrepresented in the field of engineering. As a predominantly male-dominated profession, the support and resources that Dr. Hayden discusses are likely to be non-existence. Men will simply expect women to succeed on their own and if they don't, this is the reason for fewer women in engineering. However, this is an outdated mentality as it is now common practice in education to use support networks to reach success. (Baker, 2000). As individuals graduate under this educational model, they will likely carry it into the workforce. This too is an example of how the state of education will eventually effect the state of the engineering field, particularly the role of women within the field.

Another interesting difference between the interview responses of Dr. Hayden and...

Lin is to the child-rearing question. When asked what, if any, effect having kids has on a female engineer's career success, Dr. Hayden responds with a positive answer. She highlights her pride in raising a family and working as an engineer. Her answer displays a mentality of work-life balance; where neither one has to interfere with the other. Dr. Lin, on the other hand, responds with a more negative answer. According to him, raising children could "take away time" from the job. This is a typical male response; displaying the mentality that work and family or life cannot be commingled. However, again, this is a mentality that is quickly changing. The generation coming out of college now has a more feminine work-life balance mentality. (Fuller, 2006). In other professions this is seen in the increase of in-house day cares, work at home opportunities, and more personal/vacation days.
In summary, although women lag behind men in terms of numbers in the engineering field, this is likely to change in the future. As more and more women graduate with advanced degrees in this field, more and more women will find themselves in leadership positions within their fields. More so, as this change happens, traditional gender barriers, such as definitions of success and work-life balance will also change, opening up even more doors for female advancement.

Bibliography

Baker, Wayne. Achieving Success Through Social Capital. New York: Jossey-Bass.

Dr. Hayden. Personal Interview. California Poly Pomona. 2006.

Dr. Lin. Personal Interview. California Poly Pomona. 2006.

Fuller, Georgina. "Recent Graduates Expect More from their Employers" Personnel

Today. 31 March 2006.

Society of Women Engineers. Program Statistics. 2002.

A www.swe.org/SWE/ProgDev/stat/stathome.html

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

Baker, Wayne. Achieving Success Through Social Capital. New York: Jossey-Bass.

Dr. Hayden. Personal Interview. California Poly Pomona. 2006.

Dr. Lin. Personal Interview. California Poly Pomona. 2006.

Fuller, Georgina. "Recent Graduates Expect More from their Employers" Personnel
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Women and Gender Bias the
Words: 13238 Length: 42 Document Type: Thesis

Under these circumstances, an ethical dilemma is born. Should society control its development or leave it to chance? And in the case that it should control it, which categories should it help? If the person in the above mentioned example is helped, we could assume that in a certain way, the person who was not helped because he or she already disposed of the necessary means, the latter one might

Women's Rights Equality in the Workforce Equal Pay
Words: 4388 Length: 12 Document Type: Term Paper

WOMEN'S RIGHTS: EQUALITY IN THE WORKFORCE, EQUAL PAY Women's Rights: Equality in the Workplace, Equal Pay Legislative background. The word "sex" is always an attention-getter, and when used in legislation, it can be polarizing. Public Law 82-352 (78 Stat. 241) was passed by Congress in 1964 as a civil rights statute. The Law made it a crime to discriminate in all aspects of employment on the basis of race and sex. Representative

Women Participation in Marine Industry the Relation
Words: 2063 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

Women Participation in Marine Industry The Relation Ship between the Participation of Woman in Maritime Sectors and Various Policy Organizations Women represent a considerable portion of the world's labor force. However they face the hurdles of wage discrimination, harassment, and occupational segregation which ultimately limit their economic advancement. Historically, marine industry does not tend to be a successful career path for women. However, with the passage of time women have penetrated quite

Women's Higher Education From 1920 to 1945
Words: 1023 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Women's Higher Education From 1920 To 1945 The female college students from 1920 to 1945 have had a lasting impact on women's education in the United States, which is not surprising since that generation of women was the first generation to attend colleges or universities in large groups. One of the most significant impacts is that they helped shift the face of higher education, so that women at colleges and universities

Gender, Sex, and Gender Socialization
Words: 1070 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

II. WHAT WAYS to TRADITIONAL GENDER EXPECTATIONS FACILITATE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT? The traditional gender expectations that have passed through many generations greatly facilitate personal development of the individual. For example, it is well-acknowledged among researchers that girls are less-often geared toward the mathematics and engineering fields by teachers, parents, and other's known to impact the life of the young individual in college and career choices. For instance, when viewing the following two

Women's Issues Socialized to Be
Words: 1108 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Boys pretty much dress like they have always dressed - baggy pants and a t-shirt or baggy shirt or sweats. There is a huge socialization difference between how girls and boys dress, and how they see each other by the time it comes to high school. I was socialized to always look my best and always try to be attractive to the boys who paid attention to me. I

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now