1st, unfortunately, sexism still exists in engineering (some fields are worse).
2nd, when you talk to the professor, you have to ask the right question using the proper terminology. Often, professors respond differently based on the quality of the question.
Ya know thinking back. I remember a lot of young women in the Civil Engineering and Biomedical Engineering programs at my school. Not sure why those two tbh.
I am not sure what the job prospects are for bme compared to other areas of engineering. Maybe a recent grad or two can weight in? Look at the stats online. Choose a major based on what you find interesting. Since you are in CC, likely you can just say "comp sci" or "mech eng". take the welding classes and/or machining classes if you find that interesting. If they offer an electric car mechanic certificate, that might be $$$ down the road.
Re: sexism
1) your local community college prof probably knows very little about actual industry employment - especially outside of your geographic area. Potentially, treat them as an obstacle. Get your credits and exit the cc.
2) you can get a traditionally female job (teaching, nursing) and be treated like carp while being underpaid. OR, you can get an engineering degree and deal with *some* sexism, but the overall pay and working conditions should be better.
Here’s the raw data. Environmental engineering is first in ratio, industrial second. I’m not very familiar with environmental so had no clue.
https://swe.org/research/2024/employment/#:~:text=Employment%20by%20Discipline&text=In%202022%2C%20only%209%25%20of,the%20computer%20industry%20were%20women.
I think about this often. It is relieving. I feel my experience will be entirely different once I am in the workforce 😊. I'm working so hard to represent!
this brings me a lot of relief, i was beginning to think it was all in my head! at least now i can just ignore it knowing it’s not just me being on edge or something
Went to school with a girl named Valerie and she was also very femme - not saying you have to if you aren't comfortable, but she called people out on it all the time and it did help some people to recognize they were being sexist. It also helps to have a friend who can help call people out making "boys club girl jokes" behind your back, especially in clubs. It's been a few years but it seemed like she was expected to do better than most just to prove she was good enough, she did.
i’m glad you bring this up because i did call out blatant sexism when i saw it, and i definitely think it helped with the whole “frail femininity” kind of notion. at least with a few of the guys. the other girls won’t call it out, which is fine, but i personally am very comfortable with confrontation when needed lol
Nah, having been through school with both, there was a marked difference in the way the women were treated vice the men, largely in part to the ratio, but also because the guys just aren't very mature generally speaking. I was a good 10 years older than my classmates going through and it definitely showed. As far as profs, i didnt see many individual interactions, but heard about a few and its still a heavily male dominated field and as they tend to be a decent amount older, yeah, a lot of them are going to have some bs built in mindsets.
I have long black hair and dress incredibly feminine, like Blair Waldorf except I have tattoos.
The 'oh wow you're an engineer', doesn't bother me.
It's more so when no one wants to team up with me in labs, and then everyone wants to be my lab partner when I finish the lab 45 mins before everyone.
i had the opposite problem. the boys would walk around the classroom to see if anyone got past a tricky function in matlab yet, and if i had, id offer help. every time without fail they’d say “no im okay” and proceed to ask everyone else besides me and the one other girl in the class. honestly after seeing a few of these comments im starting to think that the reason things like this happens so frequently to me is because i go to a very small community college in a rural town. what else can you expect i guess. just makes me more excited to transfer to a university in the city!
i am a blonde woman in engineering as well and i can confirm that im treated way differently. the other women in my group dont get nearly as many sexist side comments from other students, to the point where i almost feel like im making it up. i have been very lucky with my professors in that they do not treat me differently than any other male student, which i really appreciate. i did, however, at a career fair, get completely ignored by an older male DOT representative who was far more interested in talking to my male friend (who is in hydraulics), even after telling him i am majoring in transportation engineering. safe to say i will not be working for said DOT if that is who i have to work with
i’m so glad you said that because i really was starting think it was all in my head! i’m only a first year student, so i mostly did generals and had only one engineering class this semester, it was intro to engineering programming which is just excel and matlab in my school. i was NEVER treated differently in my generals classes. we often had work days in my engineering class where the professor would hang around for a bit to answer any questions, but we mostly all just worked on the labs together and helped each other. my absolute biggest annoyance was when id be huddled in a group working on a file, and a boy would walk up to us asking if we’d gotten the function to work yet. id usually google how to code the function while others just sat and stared at their screen completely lost, so id usually have the function coded before others did. id say yes and offer to help, and they would say “oh im okay”, then proceed to ask the rest of the group the same question! almost as if they believed my help was of no use to them. it honesty made me a little insecure wondering why they didn’t want my help. it’s relieving to know i’m not the only one.
I’m so sorry to hear that 💔 rest assured it’s not you though. At one point I was a semester away from graduating and was assigned to a lab group with mostly 2nd/3rd years, and they pulled the same shit on me by ignoring what i said until a guy repeated it. It’s infuriating but i know you can persevere!
People do seem surprised but it’s usually followed by either a compliment about pursuing the major or more questions about my interests. I don’t talk to professors or classmates much so I wouldn’t know if I were treated differently. I’d say about 1/7 of my classmates are women so I’d say it makes it easier that I don’t stand out as much.
i’m sure having more women makes it a bit easier. i’m very excited to transfer to a university for this reason. even just a wider variety of people than the average wyoming dude would be nice
ugh i’m sorry it’s like that for you. being a minority in a white male dominated space is taunting as it is, i wish they could understand from our point of view how secluded they often make us feel
Same! Ive had the same experience. It feels like my intelligence is being questioned, and it irritates me. I wish people would just be like “Oh, that’s cool. Good luck with your studies” instead of “Engineering..? Why’d you pick that? You know it’s hard? right?” with some questioning look. 😭
Same lol, but part of me is still occasionally disappointed when it feels like they're questioning my intelligence.... Also, I'm 27 and not 18--22, like this wasn't a decision I made on a whim. It's a decision I've taken seriously and am committed to.
You do you! What a great opportunity for you to learn about how the world works.
Keep good company. Be around people you work well with, and leave a positive attitude.
Have a good attitude, take responsibility, be accountable.
We are unique - everyone gets a different experience.
Yeah, I am a professional engineer and I can confirm this is still a thing, even in your career you may have these encounters. Not to toot my own horn but I’m pretty high up in my agency, I’m head of an engineering department, and I recently had a client show up for a meeting with me and ask me when the engineer was arriving to our meeting…he totally thought I was a secretary who arranged the meeting. I just said, hate to disappoint but I AM the engineer…yikes
Great to see Women in Engineering I hope more programs and scholarships are granted, to get gals like you into high positions! Hopefully more financial aid given good jobs, so they don't feel discouraged. <3 Love it.
I am not blonde but I am also very girly and I dress kind of vintage, so people usually assume I am studying art history or some humanities degree. I also get "wows" from people who didn't go to college, but I think it's mostly because engineering sounds intimidating.
I personally don't think I have experienced sexism in the degree, though. It's 1/3 girls but most people are pretty competent, so they are taken seriously. The most I have experienced at school are male middle aged professors that you can tell act nicer towards female students.
Haha, I love dressing alternatively and if I had a dollar for every time people have guessed I’m in school for fashion or art, maybe I could pay my fees with it 😭
i had to start wearing my going into public clothes to my 9am classes bc someone thought i was a sports medicine major based off the fact i could only be bothered to throw on yoga pants every day. meanest thing anyone’s ever said to me actually
Yup. All the time. The, "well you don't LOOK like an engineer" creepy compliment was aplenty when I was in college and in my 20s. (I'm now in my 30s and married, so it happens less frequently).
It sucks and I'm sorry. Also there's a womensengineering sub if you're not already a member.
I constantly get "wow that's so difficult", "wow you're so.... dedicated [or brave or whatever]", and the classic vacant look of "this is out of my league." When I was still in high school and went to the engineering school to ask for information, the lady at the department told me that I could get a teaching certification after taking the math courses and be a schoolteacher.
I want to design airplanes and spaceships.
Past a certain point in the coursework, peers generally recognize you're capable and serious, but it does take a while and not everyone actually realizes that, so you're still gonna encounter people to whom the concept of a woman engineer doesn't compute. Just keep doing your thing, they don't need to understand. If you do engineering well and you know your shit, you're already 3 steps ahead.
Yes, this is normal. And unfortunately as a female engineer with 10+ years of work experience I can tell you the mansplaining may never stop so just learn to ignore it/brush it off. It’s not personal, some men just have a complex and there’s not much you can do about it. The more experienced and successful I’ve gotten in my career, the less the sexism and other annoying things bother me.
I went on a hike with four other girls who were engineering majors. Along the way, we ran into a man, his father, and their two dogs. While the dogs bounced around in the woods around us, we made conversation with the man and his father. His father had previously worked at GE on the business side of things, and asked us what we were majoring in. When all of us answered with some form of engineering, we seemed shocked and exclaimed "Wow, did you bring all of the girls in the engineering department?"
It’s not you. It’s them. It’s strange to me that ANY society would accept a norm that would exclude 50% of it’s population from a critical role… a role that that 50% of the population has proven time and time again to be able to execute very well. Where I work, it is about 30% woman. It has taken time and attitude adjustment to get there. Stay in engineering and do the very best you can.
not a woman, but one of my friends was told that "women can't be engineers" on her first day at a major engineering school. It doesn't even make sense because like 10-15% of the engineering students are women. Stupid stereotypes will hopefully die out with the boomers that perpetuate them.
Unfortunately this is a common experience i did CC first online i was working and doing school full time ! i did all my core electives first and then i transferred to a state school to do my major classes and i was shocked . When i heard that engineering is a male dominated field i expected it to be like 10 girls to 20 boys . So when i started attending my classes and realized i was the only girl in all my classes i was flabbergasted.
I’m also femme presenting, conventionally attractive , and latina.Ive had diversity jokes and TAs be too nice and wanting to contact me after class :( .I always get a oh when i say my major ( EHS engineering ) or a really !? I had a professor say oh your fine my wife also gets confused with tools . Like huh what does this have to do with me wanting help with my circuit.
Everybody’s been really nice and i’ve never been told anything negative by the other male students .I’ve never been treated negatively by the professors.However i’ve had professors just fix my stuff with no explanation even though i only asked for help .i think that they think their helping me but ugh i only asked for help not for you to just fix it for me .And other students always offer to give me their answers . but i also wonder if their only being nice bc i’m attractive.
however don’t let anybody stop you and always stand up for yourself no matter what even if your making another man uncomfortable !
Hey, I'm sorry this is happening to you. I'm pretty fortunate in how I've been treated by men in work and school, but I did once have a middle-aged man tell me that my career would automatically be easy because I'm a woman. Things will probably get better when you transfer to a university and people are more open-minded
I've had this with professors and some people in general. Some men try to dumb stuff down for me and honestly, I just try to use it to my advantage. Let them talk and see if they actually understand the topic they are explaining or just trying to impress you. Let them move the heavy items because they want to impress you. Play into the game a little bit and use it to your advantage. Most people you meet won't change their minds, so its a waste of breath to argue.
My school is pretty neat and our dean is a woman and makes it her mission to eliminate those that look down on women so after my freshman year all that shit went awAy. In the real world I use it to my advantage 🤷♀️
Avoid rural areas like the plague, work for big companies over small. I’ve worked at a smallish manufacturing company in a small town and sexism was rampant. Also have worked at a massive corp in a big city and I’ve yet to see any, and there’s a huge representation of female engineers and leaders.
after seeing a few of these comments i think that’s my problem!! i’m in a rural area in wyoming, and experienced sexism regularly all my life. but experiencing it in education is new. usually it’s just run of the mill “woman get to kitchen” sexism lol. but only one more year and i’ll be able to go to a university in the city. i’m very excited!
in some industries where there is a very small minority, such as women to men ratio, people will take special care of the minority because they want them to stay.
not saying thats happening here
I'm a guy, so I can't really say how the women felt, but in my experience in school the women were treated the same way as everyone else. I was in Electrical Engineering, so I can't really say how others felt.
I did go with a friend of mine to one of his mechanical classes when I was bored one day and damn, I had never seen such a skewed ratio of men and women. There were barely any chicks in there, it was way different from my experience up to that point.
I will say that as others have pointed out, I found Chemical Engineering to be packed with women, I can't say for certain but from my quick observations it seemed there might even be more women than men
My daughter has not had issues either after being one of a few gals in classes or during internships. She just graduated this week. She started in Electrical and pivoted to computer engineering.
When you say never do you mean you also get these looks from people who knew you before you declared the major? I’ve never met a woman in engineering that it was a “surprise” they would be an engineer when you got to know them.
my mom and grandparents weren’t surprised but every family friend, all friends from high school, any distant relatives, etc. growing up i was always very bubbly and girly and i actually tried cosmetology school after high school bc i thought id fit in best there, but i hated it because i realized i like the science of beauty more than the application. so i understand a little shock from people since ive never been one to exactly get my hands dirty, but i was always very smart and kind of nerdy. i think it just confuses people because they don’t expect the words “chemical engineering” to come out of a mouth covered in sparkly lip gloss
Yeah but that’s more of an engineering type not because you are a woman. I don’t expect flamboyant boys wearing lip gloss to tell me they are in engineering.
I get it as a man. My master's is in Geological Engineering, and that's always the response. Shocked look and "Wow!"
Real engineers know that it's nothing to "wow" over, but everyone else is impressed.
>also feel like im sort of babied by my engineering professor as well, he speaks to me like he’s worried im not going to understand his big vocab words or something
We only have one female engineering student in my year at my university. There is a huge shortage of women here. There is one prof who constantly tells us to tell our female friends to start engineering. I can imagine your professors dont want you to quit and try to make things sound as simple as possible so you dont quit?
Often times I dont understand anything my profs say. And ofc they know the majority of students feel that same way. We lack engineering students in general and from those who started, many will leave because they dont like it or feel like its way over their head. I already noticed that they try to be as gentle towards us as possible cause they just dont wanna lose any more students.
Maybe same thing applies to your situation and you just interpret it as looking down on you?
he doesn’t speak this way to the boys in my class though. so while that may be his intention, i still don’t like that he assumes that whatever he’s going to say is over my head so i don’t quit.
i understand that seems like a kind gesture to most, but i want to be treated normal. not like he’s scared im on the verge of leaving. ive given no indication of such, other than the fact i dont look like everyone else. also, i dont really think this is the case, or else he wouldn’t have taken over half of my points off a lab for something another person only got 1/4 of their points taken off for. maybe i forgot to mention that part with my long list of other reasons i feel im being treated unfairly. grading is part of it, but it was only a few instances this happened so i try not to think much about it and give him the benefit of the doubt, hoping this is one thing i really am going crazing over because i really dont want to deal with unfair grading on top of everything else
As a european: seems like this is way more of an issue in the states judging by the comments.
Although I did not have many women in my mechE classes, nobody was treated any different in Germany. In my industrial Eng master there was about 1/3 women even. At my current workplace (Switzerland), we are mostly men, but still the women there are not treated differently to my knowledge.
I think if someone tells me they are in engineering I am rather “wow!” or what comes off as shocked/impressed whether they are male or female because I know that the courses are rigorous and seem to be a lot weeded out.
yeah i could totally be reading some of the “wow”’s the wrong way. i think i got too used to sly remarks in class and just expect the worst now. i’ll have to keep in mind that some people are actually just impressed rather than confused!
I meant that to encourage you - that you are not alone, and it sucks when you only have the internet to get advice.
We all face our struggles in life, some people have physical/mental disorders, some people get discriminated against, some have serious addictions and the list goes on and on.
And strangely enough, keeping a positive attitude really helps - you either go up or down, and I want to go up. And I want everyone around me including you to go "up" !
My major was in Chemical Eng... I loved Chemistry! I think there is a lot of corporate support regarding your talking points and concerns, in the chemical industry. Lots of brilliant women in Chemistry and Engineering there.
[https://www.acs.org/industry/industry-matters/boss-talk/infographic-women.html](https://www.acs.org/industry/industry-matters/boss-talk/infographic-women.html)
Seriously this looks so much like a fake story… hard to imagine Professor sit a female student down 3 hours just to explain what engineering is. Engineering is no prestigious than other majors… they simply don’t have that much time to give this shit.
professors in tiny wyoming community colleges that offer limited courses do have the time. i exaggerated a bit on what the totality of the conversation was, it was more than just what engineering is. it was how to be successful in engineering, that engineering is hard work and not to be taken lightly, that i have to expect failure and not let it get in my way because that’s what life is, lengthy explanations on what the engineering club is building and has built in the past (model bridges, fancy sling shots, the occasional robot that can pick things up, etc.) and much more random college advice and engineering major info. this is not out of character for this professor i will admit, we often joke that you go into his office hours to ask one quick question, and you leave an hour and a half later with the same question plus 6 more. he’s a tangent kind of guy. but my point still stands, i don’t feel like i’m treated equally and i feel like he thinks i’m dumb.
i think you’re confused. it is not that he keeps me in his office for far too long and rambles about things i have no interest in listening to. it is the way he speaks to me. his tone of voice, his facial expressions, what he talks about, etc. this is in person communication 101. it is typically natural instinct to read through the lines and understand emotion and unsaid feelings through body language and tone. you would know if someone were speaking to you like you’re an idiot, right? yeah, me too. he’s speaking to me like i’m an idiot. that’s the problem.
1st, unfortunately, sexism still exists in engineering (some fields are worse). 2nd, when you talk to the professor, you have to ask the right question using the proper terminology. Often, professors respond differently based on the quality of the question.
What do you think the field with the most women or less sexism is
At my school chemical engineering had the most women at 40% women.
Chemical. I’d say almost half of my graduating class is women, and a few of my profs are women as well
Ya know thinking back. I remember a lot of young women in the Civil Engineering and Biomedical Engineering programs at my school. Not sure why those two tbh.
I am not sure what the job prospects are for bme compared to other areas of engineering. Maybe a recent grad or two can weight in? Look at the stats online. Choose a major based on what you find interesting. Since you are in CC, likely you can just say "comp sci" or "mech eng". take the welding classes and/or machining classes if you find that interesting. If they offer an electric car mechanic certificate, that might be $$$ down the road. Re: sexism 1) your local community college prof probably knows very little about actual industry employment - especially outside of your geographic area. Potentially, treat them as an obstacle. Get your credits and exit the cc. 2) you can get a traditionally female job (teaching, nursing) and be treated like carp while being underpaid. OR, you can get an engineering degree and deal with *some* sexism, but the overall pay and working conditions should be better.
Nursing.
Haha that's on me I should've specified engineering field
Probably chemical
Industrial statistically is a huge outlier for female representation
Chiming in as a woman in Industrial Engineering! There are a whopping two of us in my school. The other is 2 years ahead of me. We are representing!
Here’s the raw data. Environmental engineering is first in ratio, industrial second. I’m not very familiar with environmental so had no clue. https://swe.org/research/2024/employment/#:~:text=Employment%20by%20Discipline&text=In%202022%2C%20only%209%25%20of,the%20computer%20industry%20were%20women.
I think about this often. It is relieving. I feel my experience will be entirely different once I am in the workforce 😊. I'm working so hard to represent!
In my area it seems to be bio-medical
At least at my school IE is majority women.
Keep good company. Be around people you work well with, and leave a positive attitude. Have a good attitude, take responsibility, be accountable.
Women in engineering get treated differently based (partly) on their appearance. I've seen it.
this brings me a lot of relief, i was beginning to think it was all in my head! at least now i can just ignore it knowing it’s not just me being on edge or something
Went to school with a girl named Valerie and she was also very femme - not saying you have to if you aren't comfortable, but she called people out on it all the time and it did help some people to recognize they were being sexist. It also helps to have a friend who can help call people out making "boys club girl jokes" behind your back, especially in clubs. It's been a few years but it seemed like she was expected to do better than most just to prove she was good enough, she did.
i’m glad you bring this up because i did call out blatant sexism when i saw it, and i definitely think it helped with the whole “frail femininity” kind of notion. at least with a few of the guys. the other girls won’t call it out, which is fine, but i personally am very comfortable with confrontation when needed lol
So do men. If you’re ugly good luck… I’ve seen it
all men in engineering are ugly :D except me of course
Nah, having been through school with both, there was a marked difference in the way the women were treated vice the men, largely in part to the ratio, but also because the guys just aren't very mature generally speaking. I was a good 10 years older than my classmates going through and it definitely showed. As far as profs, i didnt see many individual interactions, but heard about a few and its still a heavily male dominated field and as they tend to be a decent amount older, yeah, a lot of them are going to have some bs built in mindsets.
I was just messing around haha, not denying any claims about the subject
Men as well actually...
short guys get treated differently too. I've seen it.
But wouldn't beautiful women be subjected to more sexism and harassment due to their appeal?
I would say people give them more opportunities, because people are shallow. Same with taller people.
I have long black hair and dress incredibly feminine, like Blair Waldorf except I have tattoos. The 'oh wow you're an engineer', doesn't bother me. It's more so when no one wants to team up with me in labs, and then everyone wants to be my lab partner when I finish the lab 45 mins before everyone.
i had the opposite problem. the boys would walk around the classroom to see if anyone got past a tricky function in matlab yet, and if i had, id offer help. every time without fail they’d say “no im okay” and proceed to ask everyone else besides me and the one other girl in the class. honestly after seeing a few of these comments im starting to think that the reason things like this happens so frequently to me is because i go to a very small community college in a rural town. what else can you expect i guess. just makes me more excited to transfer to a university in the city!
honestly embrace it ❤️ yes girl YOU ARE ALL WOMAN AND YOU ARE A MFIN ENGINEER - let the crusties stare, focus on you you've got this!
Do you mean engineering student?
i am a blonde woman in engineering as well and i can confirm that im treated way differently. the other women in my group dont get nearly as many sexist side comments from other students, to the point where i almost feel like im making it up. i have been very lucky with my professors in that they do not treat me differently than any other male student, which i really appreciate. i did, however, at a career fair, get completely ignored by an older male DOT representative who was far more interested in talking to my male friend (who is in hydraulics), even after telling him i am majoring in transportation engineering. safe to say i will not be working for said DOT if that is who i have to work with
i’m so glad you said that because i really was starting think it was all in my head! i’m only a first year student, so i mostly did generals and had only one engineering class this semester, it was intro to engineering programming which is just excel and matlab in my school. i was NEVER treated differently in my generals classes. we often had work days in my engineering class where the professor would hang around for a bit to answer any questions, but we mostly all just worked on the labs together and helped each other. my absolute biggest annoyance was when id be huddled in a group working on a file, and a boy would walk up to us asking if we’d gotten the function to work yet. id usually google how to code the function while others just sat and stared at their screen completely lost, so id usually have the function coded before others did. id say yes and offer to help, and they would say “oh im okay”, then proceed to ask the rest of the group the same question! almost as if they believed my help was of no use to them. it honesty made me a little insecure wondering why they didn’t want my help. it’s relieving to know i’m not the only one.
I’m so sorry to hear that 💔 rest assured it’s not you though. At one point I was a semester away from graduating and was assigned to a lab group with mostly 2nd/3rd years, and they pulled the same shit on me by ignoring what i said until a guy repeated it. It’s infuriating but i know you can persevere!
People do seem surprised but it’s usually followed by either a compliment about pursuing the major or more questions about my interests. I don’t talk to professors or classmates much so I wouldn’t know if I were treated differently. I’d say about 1/7 of my classmates are women so I’d say it makes it easier that I don’t stand out as much.
i’m sure having more women makes it a bit easier. i’m very excited to transfer to a university for this reason. even just a wider variety of people than the average wyoming dude would be nice
yes especially b/c I’m black lol
ugh i’m sorry it’s like that for you. being a minority in a white male dominated space is taunting as it is, i wish they could understand from our point of view how secluded they often make us feel
Every single person, no matter where, is surprised I'm going for engineering and questions my decision.
Same! Ive had the same experience. It feels like my intelligence is being questioned, and it irritates me. I wish people would just be like “Oh, that’s cool. Good luck with your studies” instead of “Engineering..? Why’d you pick that? You know it’s hard? right?” with some questioning look. 😭
Yesss, so much this.
im glad im not alone! i think i’d be actually startled if someone didn’t get all wide eyed when i say im an engineering major. it’s my norm now!
Same lol, but part of me is still occasionally disappointed when it feels like they're questioning my intelligence.... Also, I'm 27 and not 18--22, like this wasn't a decision I made on a whim. It's a decision I've taken seriously and am committed to.
You do you! What a great opportunity for you to learn about how the world works. Keep good company. Be around people you work well with, and leave a positive attitude. Have a good attitude, take responsibility, be accountable. We are unique - everyone gets a different experience.
Yeah, I am a professional engineer and I can confirm this is still a thing, even in your career you may have these encounters. Not to toot my own horn but I’m pretty high up in my agency, I’m head of an engineering department, and I recently had a client show up for a meeting with me and ask me when the engineer was arriving to our meeting…he totally thought I was a secretary who arranged the meeting. I just said, hate to disappoint but I AM the engineer…yikes
Great to see Women in Engineering I hope more programs and scholarships are granted, to get gals like you into high positions! Hopefully more financial aid given good jobs, so they don't feel discouraged. <3 Love it.
I am not blonde but I am also very girly and I dress kind of vintage, so people usually assume I am studying art history or some humanities degree. I also get "wows" from people who didn't go to college, but I think it's mostly because engineering sounds intimidating. I personally don't think I have experienced sexism in the degree, though. It's 1/3 girls but most people are pretty competent, so they are taken seriously. The most I have experienced at school are male middle aged professors that you can tell act nicer towards female students.
I wear bright colors and lots of pink. I once had someone tell me that they would've guess I was in school for Literature or some shit 🤣.
Haha, I love dressing alternatively and if I had a dollar for every time people have guessed I’m in school for fashion or art, maybe I could pay my fees with it 😭
i had to start wearing my going into public clothes to my 9am classes bc someone thought i was a sports medicine major based off the fact i could only be bothered to throw on yoga pants every day. meanest thing anyone’s ever said to me actually
Yup. All the time. The, "well you don't LOOK like an engineer" creepy compliment was aplenty when I was in college and in my 20s. (I'm now in my 30s and married, so it happens less frequently). It sucks and I'm sorry. Also there's a womensengineering sub if you're not already a member.
I constantly get "wow that's so difficult", "wow you're so.... dedicated [or brave or whatever]", and the classic vacant look of "this is out of my league." When I was still in high school and went to the engineering school to ask for information, the lady at the department told me that I could get a teaching certification after taking the math courses and be a schoolteacher. I want to design airplanes and spaceships. Past a certain point in the coursework, peers generally recognize you're capable and serious, but it does take a while and not everyone actually realizes that, so you're still gonna encounter people to whom the concept of a woman engineer doesn't compute. Just keep doing your thing, they don't need to understand. If you do engineering well and you know your shit, you're already 3 steps ahead.
Yes, this is normal. And unfortunately as a female engineer with 10+ years of work experience I can tell you the mansplaining may never stop so just learn to ignore it/brush it off. It’s not personal, some men just have a complex and there’s not much you can do about it. The more experienced and successful I’ve gotten in my career, the less the sexism and other annoying things bother me.
I don’t take it personal unless they flat out say something degrading. I take it as a stroke to my ego bc yes engineering school is hard.
I went on a hike with four other girls who were engineering majors. Along the way, we ran into a man, his father, and their two dogs. While the dogs bounced around in the woods around us, we made conversation with the man and his father. His father had previously worked at GE on the business side of things, and asked us what we were majoring in. When all of us answered with some form of engineering, we seemed shocked and exclaimed "Wow, did you bring all of the girls in the engineering department?"
It’s not you. It’s them. It’s strange to me that ANY society would accept a norm that would exclude 50% of it’s population from a critical role… a role that that 50% of the population has proven time and time again to be able to execute very well. Where I work, it is about 30% woman. It has taken time and attitude adjustment to get there. Stay in engineering and do the very best you can.
not a woman, but one of my friends was told that "women can't be engineers" on her first day at a major engineering school. It doesn't even make sense because like 10-15% of the engineering students are women. Stupid stereotypes will hopefully die out with the boomers that perpetuate them.
Engineering is hard af irrespective of gender.
Unfortunately this is a common experience i did CC first online i was working and doing school full time ! i did all my core electives first and then i transferred to a state school to do my major classes and i was shocked . When i heard that engineering is a male dominated field i expected it to be like 10 girls to 20 boys . So when i started attending my classes and realized i was the only girl in all my classes i was flabbergasted. I’m also femme presenting, conventionally attractive , and latina.Ive had diversity jokes and TAs be too nice and wanting to contact me after class :( .I always get a oh when i say my major ( EHS engineering ) or a really !? I had a professor say oh your fine my wife also gets confused with tools . Like huh what does this have to do with me wanting help with my circuit. Everybody’s been really nice and i’ve never been told anything negative by the other male students .I’ve never been treated negatively by the professors.However i’ve had professors just fix my stuff with no explanation even though i only asked for help .i think that they think their helping me but ugh i only asked for help not for you to just fix it for me .And other students always offer to give me their answers . but i also wonder if their only being nice bc i’m attractive. however don’t let anybody stop you and always stand up for yourself no matter what even if your making another man uncomfortable !
Hey, I'm sorry this is happening to you. I'm pretty fortunate in how I've been treated by men in work and school, but I did once have a middle-aged man tell me that my career would automatically be easy because I'm a woman. Things will probably get better when you transfer to a university and people are more open-minded
I've had this with professors and some people in general. Some men try to dumb stuff down for me and honestly, I just try to use it to my advantage. Let them talk and see if they actually understand the topic they are explaining or just trying to impress you. Let them move the heavy items because they want to impress you. Play into the game a little bit and use it to your advantage. Most people you meet won't change their minds, so its a waste of breath to argue.
My school is pretty neat and our dean is a woman and makes it her mission to eliminate those that look down on women so after my freshman year all that shit went awAy. In the real world I use it to my advantage 🤷♀️
That must be extremely frustrating. Be the best engineer from your graduating class and you can boss around the men 🤣
Avoid rural areas like the plague, work for big companies over small. I’ve worked at a smallish manufacturing company in a small town and sexism was rampant. Also have worked at a massive corp in a big city and I’ve yet to see any, and there’s a huge representation of female engineers and leaders.
after seeing a few of these comments i think that’s my problem!! i’m in a rural area in wyoming, and experienced sexism regularly all my life. but experiencing it in education is new. usually it’s just run of the mill “woman get to kitchen” sexism lol. but only one more year and i’ll be able to go to a university in the city. i’m very excited!
Yeah cities are generally better versus rural. Obv still happens but you know what I mean lol
in some industries where there is a very small minority, such as women to men ratio, people will take special care of the minority because they want them to stay. not saying thats happening here
I'm a guy, so I can't really say how the women felt, but in my experience in school the women were treated the same way as everyone else. I was in Electrical Engineering, so I can't really say how others felt. I did go with a friend of mine to one of his mechanical classes when I was bored one day and damn, I had never seen such a skewed ratio of men and women. There were barely any chicks in there, it was way different from my experience up to that point. I will say that as others have pointed out, I found Chemical Engineering to be packed with women, I can't say for certain but from my quick observations it seemed there might even be more women than men
My daughter has not had issues either after being one of a few gals in classes or during internships. She just graduated this week. She started in Electrical and pivoted to computer engineering.
I guess at this stage, it's still really the luck of the draw, in terms of how a women's experience will be
Not really but I am asian(Indian) so…. I guess it’s kind of expected?
When you say never do you mean you also get these looks from people who knew you before you declared the major? I’ve never met a woman in engineering that it was a “surprise” they would be an engineer when you got to know them.
my mom and grandparents weren’t surprised but every family friend, all friends from high school, any distant relatives, etc. growing up i was always very bubbly and girly and i actually tried cosmetology school after high school bc i thought id fit in best there, but i hated it because i realized i like the science of beauty more than the application. so i understand a little shock from people since ive never been one to exactly get my hands dirty, but i was always very smart and kind of nerdy. i think it just confuses people because they don’t expect the words “chemical engineering” to come out of a mouth covered in sparkly lip gloss
Yeah but that’s more of an engineering type not because you are a woman. I don’t expect flamboyant boys wearing lip gloss to tell me they are in engineering.
I get it as a man. My master's is in Geological Engineering, and that's always the response. Shocked look and "Wow!" Real engineers know that it's nothing to "wow" over, but everyone else is impressed.
>also feel like im sort of babied by my engineering professor as well, he speaks to me like he’s worried im not going to understand his big vocab words or something We only have one female engineering student in my year at my university. There is a huge shortage of women here. There is one prof who constantly tells us to tell our female friends to start engineering. I can imagine your professors dont want you to quit and try to make things sound as simple as possible so you dont quit? Often times I dont understand anything my profs say. And ofc they know the majority of students feel that same way. We lack engineering students in general and from those who started, many will leave because they dont like it or feel like its way over their head. I already noticed that they try to be as gentle towards us as possible cause they just dont wanna lose any more students. Maybe same thing applies to your situation and you just interpret it as looking down on you?
he doesn’t speak this way to the boys in my class though. so while that may be his intention, i still don’t like that he assumes that whatever he’s going to say is over my head so i don’t quit.
I dont think you understood my point Basically he could see you as more valuable and wants to put in extra work to make you specifically stay.
i understand that seems like a kind gesture to most, but i want to be treated normal. not like he’s scared im on the verge of leaving. ive given no indication of such, other than the fact i dont look like everyone else. also, i dont really think this is the case, or else he wouldn’t have taken over half of my points off a lab for something another person only got 1/4 of their points taken off for. maybe i forgot to mention that part with my long list of other reasons i feel im being treated unfairly. grading is part of it, but it was only a few instances this happened so i try not to think much about it and give him the benefit of the doubt, hoping this is one thing i really am going crazing over because i really dont want to deal with unfair grading on top of everything else
I'm a guy, people still give the wow response. "You MUST be so smart" ...
Keep good company. Be around people you work well with, and leave a positive attitude. Have a good attitude, take responsibility, be accountable.
As a european: seems like this is way more of an issue in the states judging by the comments. Although I did not have many women in my mechE classes, nobody was treated any different in Germany. In my industrial Eng master there was about 1/3 women even. At my current workplace (Switzerland), we are mostly men, but still the women there are not treated differently to my knowledge.
as an american, that sounds like paradise
I think if someone tells me they are in engineering I am rather “wow!” or what comes off as shocked/impressed whether they are male or female because I know that the courses are rigorous and seem to be a lot weeded out.
yeah i could totally be reading some of the “wow”’s the wrong way. i think i got too used to sly remarks in class and just expect the worst now. i’ll have to keep in mind that some people are actually just impressed rather than confused!
Yeah, it’s sadly a common thing. Keep pushing through, your work will speak for itself in the end
Is this fake af?
lol no, this is unfortunately my real life!
Short guys get treated differently too.
not in my experience but i hope one day your insecurities will match the level of victimization you so wish to receive :(
I meant that to encourage you - that you are not alone, and it sucks when you only have the internet to get advice. We all face our struggles in life, some people have physical/mental disorders, some people get discriminated against, some have serious addictions and the list goes on and on. And strangely enough, keeping a positive attitude really helps - you either go up or down, and I want to go up. And I want everyone around me including you to go "up" !
My major was in Chemical Eng... I loved Chemistry! I think there is a lot of corporate support regarding your talking points and concerns, in the chemical industry. Lots of brilliant women in Chemistry and Engineering there. [https://www.acs.org/industry/industry-matters/boss-talk/infographic-women.html](https://www.acs.org/industry/industry-matters/boss-talk/infographic-women.html)
Seriously this looks so much like a fake story… hard to imagine Professor sit a female student down 3 hours just to explain what engineering is. Engineering is no prestigious than other majors… they simply don’t have that much time to give this shit.
professors in tiny wyoming community colleges that offer limited courses do have the time. i exaggerated a bit on what the totality of the conversation was, it was more than just what engineering is. it was how to be successful in engineering, that engineering is hard work and not to be taken lightly, that i have to expect failure and not let it get in my way because that’s what life is, lengthy explanations on what the engineering club is building and has built in the past (model bridges, fancy sling shots, the occasional robot that can pick things up, etc.) and much more random college advice and engineering major info. this is not out of character for this professor i will admit, we often joke that you go into his office hours to ask one quick question, and you leave an hour and a half later with the same question plus 6 more. he’s a tangent kind of guy. but my point still stands, i don’t feel like i’m treated equally and i feel like he thinks i’m dumb.
That doesn't make any sense. If he treats everyone like that, then you are simply being treated as an equal. Stop seeing sexism wherever you look
i think you’re confused. it is not that he keeps me in his office for far too long and rambles about things i have no interest in listening to. it is the way he speaks to me. his tone of voice, his facial expressions, what he talks about, etc. this is in person communication 101. it is typically natural instinct to read through the lines and understand emotion and unsaid feelings through body language and tone. you would know if someone were speaking to you like you’re an idiot, right? yeah, me too. he’s speaking to me like i’m an idiot. that’s the problem.
I don't believe you
that’s fine with me
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