REPRESENT.
I had a visit to the University of Illinois this past weekend (since we had school off Monday for Polaski Day). I've been accepted into their Bioengineering program (yay me).
I had the usual admitted student presentation and tour; however, because I was a "Woman in Engineering" (let's call it WE to save my fingers) I had a few other opportunities. The most blatant was the WE luncheon. Now, I'm not one to turn down free food or free information, but at the same time, I felt odd being part of this group. They were very helpful but I thought it was odd to have a need for such a group.
I may be biased because I've grown up with only brothers and boy cousins, taking the selective math classes, in debate, and other stereotypical "guy things." I may also not understand since my major by far has the most women engineers in it - about 1/2. Other majors such as mechanical can have roughly only 10%.
With that said, let me reiterate: I liked going to this group. I like having it available just liked the Living-Learning Community of WIMSE. I think my opinion can be reflective of most Feminist views; having support systems aren't bad, especially if they make women feel more comfortable in such a male dominated domain. However, I hope one day it wouldn't be necessary to have such groups and select activities. Wouldn't it be nice for it to be normal to be a woman in engineering? Maybe we aren't at that point yet, but maybe not drawing attention to an issue will help eliminate it - not making it out of the ordinary, and not making the woman seem like they need added help.
Fire away the attacks or comments about anything related to this post!
Alyssa, I'm not sure I agree with your idea of not drawing attention to the issue of women being underrepresented within the engineering field. Sounds a lot like color blind racism to me, though in this case that would be gender blind sexism, I suppose. Women and men bring different things to the table, and a group of women engineers would only serve to empower students more and provide them with support when confronting sexism or feeling alone because of their gender. It would be great if women felt more empowered to become engineers and the male:female ration was more equal, but we're not there yet, and having a community of people sharing in the same struggle would only help engineering change in the long run.-- Kate H
ReplyDeleteKate -
ReplyDeleteOverall I agree with your idea; I think it's a great service and program to have.
I guess a less combative way for me to put it would be to ask 'Why are there so many Women in Engineering groups, but no Men in Engineering groups?' These groups may be doing good things, like empowering these individuals, but I think it's still a shame that they're necessary. It's a shame that women in this field are in a struggle that there needs to be this support group.
Maybe we aren't there yet, but if they are going to support a Women in Engineering luncheon, why can't they have one for Engineers in general or for specific departments? I thought I highly benefited from talking to some of the current students and asking them questions like how they accomplished getting a minor in a different college. That's something everyone should be able to appreciate.
Especially in a field like this with such intelligent individuals, I have some faith that they don't need to be bombarded with 4 different organizations, all for "women in engineering", to be able to find support.