Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ora!ambar From: jill@cirrus.com (Jill Wilker) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Engineering Females Message-ID: <9104152033.AA00820@ss260.cirrus.com> Date: 18 Apr 91 17:42:16 GMT References: <1991Apr9.203133.2551@aero.org> Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz) Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc. Lines: 50 Approved: ambar@ora.com >I think Muffy B. wrote some/all/none of this. > I am not saying women CANNOT do this type of work, I'm saying women are > choosing not to. I am also not about to give the reasons why. Whether > they are intrinsic to the female character or are purely placed by > society is a question I can't answer. >How do you know that they are choosing not to? You haven't shown this >in your article. Can you give something to support this? While attending Purdue University, I happened to talk to the "head" of one of the technology schools there--I know that this is not the same as the engineering school--he mentioned that they (they = Purdue officials, I gathered) have found that over 80% of the female freshman students in the engineering and technology schools had a "close" male family member (father, uncle, grandfather) who was in a technical field. For the male freshman student, the percentage was something like 50%. The other "opinion/ fact" that he mentioned was that the female students were in the upper 10% of their high school class, and had a "A/B" average in math/science high school classes. The male students were in the upper 25% of their class, and had a "B/C" average in math/science high school classes. Anyone at Purdue have this "study" ? One of the conclusions that we (during this conversation) came to, was that a female student entered into a technical field more as a result from family experience (possibly guidance) than from excelling in math/science subjects in high school. What motivated your studies in a technical area? Do "guidance" counselors still "guide" females in more "traditional" areas? From my own experience, during my junior (11th) grade, my Cincinnati, OH high school sent two participants to a "Engineer for a Day" program. My chemistry teacher picked me as one of the participants. Although I excelled at Math, Chemistry was dismal for me. I have always been astonished that I was chosen for this. The basic goal for the program was that each participant tagged along with an engineer for half a day (2 total). The participant got to choose which two fields of engineering to experience. Anyway, my father is also an engineer. It was destiny for me... ugh.... :-) I believe that the Society of Women Engineers group at Purdue asks members to go back to their high school to promote engineering to all. Could someone from Purdue SWE verify this? Beyond this 1-day program, there was never any mention from any one else (teachers, guidance counselors, etc) that a math/science field would be a good match for me. In fact, I didn't receive any career suggestions, good or bad, for my future. Is this any different for males? Jill