Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by CoolHand on Wednesday April 29 2015, @12:46AM   Printer-friendly
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."

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday April 29 2015, @06:06AM

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday April 29 2015, @06:06AM (#176490) Journal

    Its not a new trend at all.

    I went to high-school in the mid 60s and girls were encouraged to take automotive shop, (and did), boys were offered special "Home economics" class, (where I learned to run a sewing machine). Don't know any of the girls in my class that stayed in automotive industry, and I decided not to become a seamstress^^er.

    Most people gravitate to things they are interested in, and a lot of people seem to think that is a bad thing.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @08:21AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @08:21AM (#176508)

    I think I was the only guy who took typing in high school that semester... all the rest were girls.

    I went through on my mom's old mechanical Smith-Corona, which I still have.

    That course served me well. I had no problem in college ( in the early 70's ) preparing typed papers.

    Naturally, the new computer keyboards delighted me! ;)

    The sewing machine skills will come in very handy for you... soooo many times I have wanted to either fix some little rip or fabricate some piece of special apparel but did not know how to sew.

    I bought one of those little battery powered thingies, but I never got a decent looking job out of it. My work only gave evidence I was apparently quite drunk on the job.

    I saw a beautiful old Singer pedal-powered machine exactly like my mom used to have at my neighbor's garage sale. I passed on it because I had no idea how to use it. But judging from what my mom did with the same model of machine, she made stuff better than one could get in the stores... errr... until those computer guys in Japan developed that seamless garment loom.

    Don't ever pass up knowledge. If all else fails, ( unless you get a stroke or something ), you will still have it and no-one can steal it from you.