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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: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:44AM
I shall eagerly await the programs to get more men in healthcare and education.
William K. Schubert Minority Nursing Scholarship [minoritynurse.com]
Criteria: Student should be a member of one of the underrepresented groups in the registered nursing profession. Underrepresented groups include male nurses / nursing students and nurses / nursing students
Effective Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Nursing Programs [nche.edu]
As the U.S. struggles to find solutions to the current nursing shortage, one strategy to address the emerging crisis continues to surface: Nursing schools need to strengthen their efforts to attract more men and minority students.
Male Nurses Break Through Barriers to Diversify Profession [rwjf.org]
Men provide unique perspectives and skills that are important to the profession and society at large, according to the IOM report, called The Future of Nursing: Leading Health, Advancing Change. The nursing profession, the report states, needs to place a greater emphasis on recruiting more men to the field to meet a larger goal of a more diverse nursing workforce.
This information is not hard to find...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @08:59AM
And yet it doesn't get thrust into our faces every week on the national news, so it doesn't enter the social consciousness. Instead what we're fed with is a constant drip of women-this and women-that, patriarchy and white guilt.
Makes sense though, since marketing and PR are favored careers of the oppressed female minority.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @10:19AM
Not that it matters or will convince anyone, but by the numbers women are a majority of the total population.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:40PM
And of the student population. Which one might imagine would be celebrated but weirdly it instead seems to be hushed up as if its a dirty secret.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 30 2015, @03:33AM
As a male student I don't really mind the ratio (not just socially, I'm a man so I have to suck it up and not complain or be called a mysogynist shitlord of the patriarchy in the middle of class*). But what does bother me is women really truly are privileged with more opportunities and far, far more money dedicated exclusively or via affirmative-action to them. It is really frustrating to fill out 40 financial aid applications and 34 of them say they hold preference to women and minorities. I have a very high GPA, no income, and received just one scholarship out of 40. That is frustrating. Worse, I am expecting to be attacked for even pointing it out.
*only slightly exaggerating
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:43PM
Goal Posts Successfully Moved:
I shall eagerly await the programs to get more men in healthcare and education.
I provide evidence.
And yet it doesn't get thrust into our faces every week on the national news, so it doesn't enter the social consciousness. Instead what we're fed with is a constant drip of women-this and women-that, patriarchy and white guilt.
So you admit the AC I was responding to was wrong, then?