[Sosfbay-discuss] Gender and Engineering

[alexcathy at aol.com]

Dear Green Friends,

It is Women's History Month.  So, once again it is time to play:


"Let's-Everybody-Pretend-the-USA-is-the-World's-Greatest-Techno-Meritocra
cy!"


Prof. Sheppard sounds like a fascinating person and this was, no doubt, 
an interesting presentation, but, once again, not one word about the 
pervasive discrimination and harassment in the industry.  It is 
unthinkable that a Stanford Professor would have an unkind word to say 
about even a crude sexist pig like the notorious T. J. Rogers of 
Cypress Semiconductor.

Why do people ALWAYS apologize and cover-up for these corporate 
bastards on this question?

I don't get it.

Certain "Lefty" professors at Stanford and Berkeley have no problem 
suggesting these corporations are in gigantic conspiracies to spread 
bird flu for profit or in league with the governments of Israel and the 
United States to dump on the Arabs and rule the world.  But no one can 
ever dare say that the reason more women and certain "minorities" do 
not go into engineering is not the "the way the profession is 
perceived, if not practiced" but because of the way the profession, in 
fact, is practiced by that tiresome group of geeky "good old boys."

(sigh!  Liberals!  Pain-in-the-ass Liberals!)


Alex Walker


-----Begin Original Message-----
From: Tian Harter <tnharter at greens.org>
To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
Sent: Tue, 07 Mar 2006 23:34:16 -0800
Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Gender and Engineering


Sheri D. Sheppard

Gender and Engineering

Sheri Sheppard has been at Stanford University in the Design Division
of Mechanical Engineering

since 1986. Besides teaching both undergraduate and graduate design
related classes, she conducts experimental and analytical research on 
weld fatigue and
impact failures, fracture mechanics, and applied finite element 
analysis.  Last year Professor
Sheppard participated in a forum organized by Stanford's Institute for 
Research on Women and
Gender in response to remarks by Harvard University President Lawrence 
H. Summers suggesting
that gender played a role in women succeeding in science.

Sheri will describe her experience at the forum and her thoughts on why 
while representation
in the scientific world is increasing slightly for women, they still 
only hold 9 percent of jobs in
engineering. At Stanford, women make up 23 percent of the faculty as a 
whole, but only 15
percent of the faculty in science and engineering. In addition, Sheri 
is co-Principal Investigator
with Professor Larry Leifer on a multi-university NSF project for 
reforming undergraduate
engineering curriculum, and is involved with several projects focused 
on increasing the
presentation of underrepresented groups in the engineering workforce.

.  .  .

 Dr. Sheppard began by explaining that only about 1% of the American
population lists itself as Engineers of one kind or another. Of those,
only about 9% are women, making them a rare breed among a rare breed. 
In
her own case, that meant being the only woman among the 36 faculty in
Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University for many years.

She explained that among bachelors degrees, Engineering is one that is
most likely to lead to a job with good pay. Among engineers, women are
not the only under-represented minority. Blacks, Hispanics, and Native
Americans are also under-represented. The only group that is
over-represented (relative to their representation in the general
population) is Asians, who are about 4% of the general population and
11% of the Engineering workforce. Engineers are respected enough that
almost every parent would be proud to let their children join the
profession, even though engineers are generally not considered creative.

Women engineering students are underrepresented among college freshmen,
but not as much as they are among engineering college graduates. 
Studies
show that the reason is not a question of ability, because the woman 
who
leave engineering are of higher grade point averages than even many of
the guys that stick it out and get an engineering degree. Partly it is
social factors like teachers singling them out or being the only female
in a classroom situation. Many express a desire to "work with people
instead of machines." Professor Sheppard thinks that reshaping the way
the profession is percieved, if not practiced, can change some of this.

.  .  .


-----End Original Message-----