The Importance Of Women In Engineering

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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 (Ismail et al. 19). The lack of women in the engineering field is a major problem in today’s society. All in all 20 percent of engineering degrees are earned by women, but 13 percent of the workforce in engineering is female (Dizikes). There are many different ways you can potentially solve this problem and it can happen at all age levels however the most prominent place for improvement is at the workplace. Topics will be discussed as follows: why the lack of women is a problem, how to fix the lack of mentors for women in engineering, how to make women feel like there is opportunities for advancement,…show more content…
The reason that contribute to the problem are partly historical. Women were at first not allowed to pursue engineering, or any form of higher education, women were supposed to stay home and behomemakers, while men were considered breadwinners (Ismail et al. 18, 22). Even today engineering is still perceived as a masculine career field. The engineering sector is primarily male dominated and the gateway for future talent is unsatisfactory to meet the future demand of engineering (GE Reports Staff). It is a widely known fact the baby boomers are at the retirement age and will leave many openings in the job market, with fewer people to fill them (Schneider). According to GE Chief Economist Marco Annunziata “Unless we bring more women into technology and manufacturing, there will be a significant negative economic impact on the sector. This is a problem for business to actively address.”(qtd. in GE Reports Staff). This is why there is a need for more women to enter and stay in the engineering field. It not only impacts the engineering sector but the business and economic sector as well. But what are the upsides to having more women in engineering? It has been found that closing the gender gap could increase the Gross Domestic Product up to 10 percent in the United States and could increase revenue by 41 percent (GE…show more content…
“‘[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.’” (Fouad). One theory on why this is, is called the "glass ceiling". The glass ceiling is a barrier or a set of barriers that block women from advancing in their career, that is generally invisible until one hits it (Ismail et al. 30 ). Some women feel that in order to advance in their career they have to put in excessive work, such as putting in over 50 hours a week and sometimes being on call 24 hours a day(Fouad). According to a government study, companies need to adopt a set plan for the promotion of female employees (United States 58). This can be done by establishing criteria for advancement, fair work based systems, along with multiple ways to be promoted (United States

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