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from the we'll-all-be-getting-dates-now dept.
Lina Nilsson writes in an op-ed piece in the NYT that she looks with despair at estimates that only about 14 percent of engineers in the work force are women but that there may be a solution to the disparity that is much simpler than targeted recruitment efforts. "An experience here at the University of California, Berkeley, where I teach, suggests that if the content of the work itself is made more societally meaningful, women will enroll in droves," writes Nilsson. "That applies not only to computer engineering but also to more traditional, equally male-dominated fields like mechanical and chemical engineering."
Nilsson says that Blum Center for Developing Economies recently began a new program that, without any targeted outreach, achieved 50 percent female enrollment in just one academic year. In the fall of 2014, UC Berkeley began offering a new Ph.D. minor in development engineering for students doing thesis work on solutions for low-income communities. They are designing affordable solutions for clean drinking water, inventing medical diagnostic equipment for neglected tropical diseases and enabling local manufacturing in poor and remote regions.
According to Nilsson, women seem to be drawn to engineering projects that attempt to achieve societal good and cites MIT, University of Minnesota, Penn State, Santa Clara University, Arizona State, and the University of Michigan that have programs aimed at reducing global poverty and inequality that have achieved similar results. For example, at Princeton, the student chapter of Engineers Without Borders has an executive board that is nearly 70 percent female, reflecting the overall club composition.
"It shows that the key to increasing the number of female engineers may not just be mentorship programs or child care centers, although those are important" concludes Nilsson. "It may be about reframing the goals of engineering research and curriculums to be more relevant to societal needs. It is not just about gender equity — it is about doing better engineering for us all."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:23AM
Definitions:
Social: You are invited and you go to the party
Asocial (like asynchronous or asymmetrical): You are invited to the party but you don't go
Anti-social: You are NOT invited to the party but you go anyway
Really Anti-social: You go to the party and try to kill everyone there
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday April 29 2015, @05:00AM
I stand corrected. "Asocial" was the term I was looking for.
Yes, I was invited to lots of social gatherings during my university days, however I knew I had a lot of work to do, and put that first. You know, that old "Ant and the Grasshopper" meme. I chose to be the ant.
Knowledge of Ebers-Moll models or thermodynamics do not help me nearly as much as a good network of people who would hire me because they knew me in College.
Thanks!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @09:24AM
And what are you if you are not invited to the party, and don't do?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday April 29 2015, @09:41AM
Either compliant or oblivious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday April 29 2015, @01:12PM
Dont know why this was modded down. It is the missing option.
Strange it was missed because in fact it is vastly the majority option. If you live in the USA just think of all those parties in Russia you are never invited to and never go.