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Formerly known as the Engineering Education Advocate
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Engineering Graphics Teacher's Guide |
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Civil Engineering Teacher's Guide |
Teaching Engineering Made Easy: A Friendly Introduction to Engineering Activities for Middle School Teachers |
The Musical Engineer: A Music Enthusiast's Guide to Engineering and Technology Careers |
The Fantastical Engineer: A Thrillseeker's Guide to Careers in Theme Park Engineering - Second Edition |
High Tech Hot Shots: Careers in Sports Engineering |
Is There an Engineer Inside You?: A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering |
The Awards Ceremony
Last night, I had the privilege of giving the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Awards to up-and-coming female engineering students at Springfield High School. The five awards I presented were well deserved. The girls all had high GPAs, great SAT scores, maintained part-time jobs and participated in community service projects. Their accomplishments were amazing.
Together, the students at this school won scholarships in excess of $1.3M. The ceremony was engaging, the students were proud and the parents were beaming. I couldn’t help but notice that of the 54 students in attendance, about 40 of them were girls.
So the question is, what creates the disparity? The National Center for Education Statistics reports that women are earning 60 percent of all associate’s degrees and 58 percent of all Bachelor’s degrees. Apparently, they are getting the majority of scholarships to attend college too. Do the women just apply for more scholarships? Are the boys not as deserving? Is it writing talent that won the scholarships? Do we need to help the boys more?
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Posted by Celeste Baine on May 22, 2008
Listed below are comments that reference The Awards Ceremony
From Tina Newman - Here at the University of Evansville we do a lot of outreach. So far this outreach has been concentrated on either an age group of boys and girls or just girls. The reason for this is that the money is there for girls. It is not there for boys. Nationally students enrolled in engineering is decreasing across the board. While women are still greatly underrepresented, there probably does need to be some attention paid to the overall picture and not simply the underrepresented factor. We have looked for money to launch a male version of our OPTIONS for Girls Programs which are camps to introduce girls to engineering and computer science in an atmosphere free of the pressure young girls often feel in competition with boys on such projects. We see a need to educate the boys as well, but the money is not there.
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 8:53 am PST
From Gene McGee - What creates the disparity? Perhaps years of promoting special interest groups instead of simply trying to attract qualified people to engineering regardless of gender, ethnicity, etc. has something to do with it!
The only way to promote equality is to treat all equally...but that wouldn't be politcally correct, would it?
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 9:05 am PST
From Mary Mccathy - Read "Where the Girls Are (2008)" from AAUW (American Association of University Women). The study concludes that focusing on girls, does NOT hurt boys. All groups are having a hard time getting boys and girls to enter engineering. This may change as the economy worsens (probably a great research project to see how economic conditions influence degree selection). When the economy was flying, it is hard to convince kids to buckle down and study for a HARD degree (engineering) when they see other kids cruise with the implied easier classes (business) and make insane salaries when they graduate. Until engineers are seen as something special, it will be hard to recruit kids. Look at how fast software engineering grew when it became cool and folks were making it big with stock options. Or how the space program influenced many people into aerospace/mechanical/hardware engineering. As to why more girls won scholarships than boys at your event here are a couple of ideas: girls and their families are more tuned into the scholarship situation and know that if the girl is even to go to college she NEEDS a scholarship OR girls applied for more scholarships therefore they win more. I'm sure there are many scenarios that could be imagined and researched.
But, remember when there was a glut of engineers? How hard is it to work hard in a field you like and then not find a job? Until there's a sense of another US engineering shortage (there are a LOT of engineering jobs going abroad) I don't think enrollments will increase. From the layoffs I see at engineering firms, I'm not sure folks see the sacrifice for an engineering degree is worth it.
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 9:57 am PST
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