Saturday, November 17, 2012
Posted by
Janiece
at
8:00 AM
Sometimes I get discouraged at the appalling lack of women in my profession. As a female engineer, I'm often the only woman at the table, and even after all these years of mentoring, Junior Achievement, etc., it still feels like an uphill battle to encourage other women to choose engineering as a viable career. The field is not exactly welcoming, and oftentimes girls are not encouraged to get the education and training they need to break through.
Enter GoldieBlox, a new line of toys for girls that emphasize engineering tasks in ways that girls want to learn. The Kickstarter is over, and they're now taking preorders.
This makes me furiously happy. I've already ordered the first offering as a future Christmas gift for my Awesome, Awesome Niece, and anxiously await future developments. Bravo, Ms. Sterling. Bravo.
Ms. Samantha Sainopulos will be spending some serious time with her daddy and these toys . . . I'm hoping they come out with something for three year olds very soon!!
The Chair of the New York Section of IEEE, the largest section of the largest engineering professional society in the world, is a 30 year old woman.
She is also a young mother, working on an advanced degree and a very nice person. She first came to my notice, when I was Treasurer of said Section as our liaison with our student sections.
Warner, I'm glad she's leading the way, but the fact of the matter is that while women have higher college graduation rates compared to men, men still disproportionately outnumber women in the number of Science and Engineering (STEM) degrees received. Between 1989 and 2008, the approximate percentages of women receiving their Bachelor’s degree in any engineering field were approximately 18%. Not exactly "representative."
The same can be said for architecture, even though about half of my graduate program was filled with women switching from other professions into architecture. In our case, part of the problem is the culture of architecture: too long hours for too little pay.
I hear you, the screams of outrage I have gotten for trying (and I think succeeding) in getting a few women into the field have been incredible.
But just as there are a few old white men who voted for the President, there are a few old white men who think there should be more women in Engineering.
In the last 20 years I've worked on development and documentation such major engineering systems as HD-TV, Closed Captioning and Cable Modems at the national level, and HD-TV and Intellectual Property at the International level, I can count the technical women on the fingers of one hand. I can only hope this improves. [The head of technology of MPA, who took over one of my committees when I retired, is a woman, and an excellent engineer.]
I have worked with the Hudson Valley Engineering Expo, where we try and introduce jr. high and middle school students to STEM. I've seen some amazing young ladies win robotics and bridge building competitions. We can only hope.
I am a Hot Chick living in Castle Rock, CO with my fabulous family. We have a rescue dog named "Jackson," and she's a Basenji/Shepherd mix. She's something of a head case, but we love her. I'm a U.S. Navy vet, and I currently work as an Enterprise Solutions Architect, specializing in VoIP and multimedia contact center design. I care about social justice, libraries, science, the U.S. Constitution and the military. I'm a tax and spend liberal in a largely red county, but I try not to be stabby about it. I knit for charity. Stupidity, cupidity and wanton assholery piss me off, and I'm more than a little soft when it comes to dogs and those who serve others. I blog about whatever I feel like. I use foul language, so if that sort of thing offends you, feel free to fuck off now - if I'm unwilling to clean up my language for my fabulous Great Auntie Margie, I'm unlikely to do so for you. Newcomers are welcome here, especially those who disagree with me, but trolling and spamming will be met with the Shovel of Doom™.
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7 comments:
Ms. Samantha Sainopulos will be spending some serious time with her daddy and these toys . . . I'm hoping they come out with something for three year olds very soon!!
Thanks for the info, Janiece. I've got a five-year old grand-daughter that just might really enjoy something like this.
The Chair of the New York Section of IEEE, the largest section of the largest engineering professional society in the world, is a 30 year old woman.
She is also a young mother, working on an advanced degree and a very nice person. She first came to my notice, when I was Treasurer of said Section as our liaison with our student sections.
Balvinder Kaur
Warner, I'm glad she's leading the way, but the fact of the matter is that while women have higher college graduation rates compared to men, men still disproportionately outnumber women in the number of Science and Engineering (STEM) degrees received. Between 1989 and 2008, the approximate percentages of women receiving their Bachelor’s degree in any engineering field were approximately 18%. Not exactly "representative."
The same can be said for architecture, even though about half of my graduate program was filled with women switching from other professions into architecture. In our case, part of the problem is the culture of architecture: too long hours for too little pay.
I hear you, the screams of outrage I have gotten for trying (and I think succeeding) in getting a few women into the field have been incredible.
But just as there are a few old white men who voted for the President, there are a few old white men who think there should be more women in Engineering.
In the last 20 years I've worked on development and documentation such major engineering systems as HD-TV, Closed Captioning and Cable Modems at the national level, and HD-TV and Intellectual Property at the International level, I can count the technical women on the fingers of one hand. I can only hope this improves. [The head of technology of MPA, who took over one of my committees when I retired, is a woman, and an excellent engineer.]
I have worked with the Hudson Valley Engineering Expo, where we try and introduce jr. high and middle school students to STEM. I've seen some amazing young ladies win robotics and bridge building competitions. We can only hope.
Oh, I wish I had toys like this forty years ago. I also wish she sold in France.
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