Women in Engineering

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!