women in engineering luncheon presentation at case 2013 (ieee conference on automation science &...

FIVE OBSERVATIONS ABOUT WOMEN IN ENGINEERING

9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

AUTOMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

LAURA MCLAY, PHD Associate Professor

Industrial & Systems Engineering University of Wisconsin-‐Madison

[email protected] @lauramclay on twitter

http://punkrockOR.wordpress.com

INFORMS Forum for Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (WORMS) •  https://www.informs.org/Community/WORMS

• @INFORMS_WORMS on twitter

• Women in INFORMS are not automatically members

•  Please invite your women students and colleagues to join

•  Luncheon and cluster of talks at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, October 6-‐9, 2013.

Laura McLay, CASE Conference 2013 2

OBSERVATION 1: WOMEN ARE GETTING ENGINEERING DEGREES


Women: proportion of all engineering bachelor’s degrees


0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

45.0

Wom

en as a pe

rcen

tage

of a

ll ba

chelor's re

cipien

ts

Math/CS

Engineering

Women: proportion of all engineering MS degrees


0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

Wom

en as a prop

ortion

of a

ll ba

chelor's re

cipien

ts

Math/CS

Engineering

Women: proportion of all engineering PhD degrees


0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

Wom

en as a pe

rcen

tage

of a

ll PhD

recipien

ts Math/CS

Engineering

OBSERVATION 2: WOMEN PHDS ARE MORE LIKELY TO GO INTO ACADEMIA


Where new PhDs are employed according to gender across all fields (2010) * among those who have jobs when they graduate


Engineering Physical Sciences

(including math/CS)

Type of Job Men Women Men Women

Academe 19.6% 23.2% 34.1% 44.1%

Government 12.9% 12.0% 9.4% 10.6%

Industry 62.1% 58.2% 51.1% 37.4%

Not for Profit 3.1% 3.7% 2.8% 2.5%

Other 2.4% 2.4% 2.5% 5.4% http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/sed/data_table.cfm

OBSERVATION 3: WOMEN DROP OUT OF

ENGINEERING


Women in the workforce As a percentage of all employees in certain sectors


0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

1983 1988 1993 1998 2003 2008

Percen

tage

of w

omen

in th

e workforce

Mathematical or computer scientist

Engineer

10.6% in 2009

A majority male environment leads women to leave engineering •  “Women actually don’t leave jobs in science at an above average rate. The difference…comes from the engineering sector.”

• NSF data from more than 200,000 people 1993 – 2003

• Hunt, J. (2010). Why do women leave science and engineering? (No. w15853). National Bureau of Economic Research.

http://punkrockor.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/five-‐articles-‐about-‐women-‐and-‐engineering/


Another study implicated the majority male environment in engineering • Women surveyed who left engineering cited working conditions and issues such as a lack of career advancement, low salary, condescending/patronizing tones

• Many women did not enter engineering after graduation due to a poor perception of the culture of the field

•  http://studyofwork.com/ by UW-‐Milwaukee

http://punkrockor.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/five-‐articles-‐about-‐women-‐and-‐engineering/


OBSERVATION 4: BUT WOMEN HAVE A WONDERFUL HISTORY IN ENGINEERING &

COMPUTING


The first supercomputer was powered by women


The original programmers of ENIAC computer were women. When the U.S. Army introduced the ENIAC to the public, it introduced the male inventors, but it never introduced the female programmers. The women have been inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/12_things_you_didn%E2%80%99t_know_about_eniac http://punkrockor.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/the-‐first-‐supercomputer-‐was-‐powered-‐by-‐women/

Retro computing pictures


Colossus 1944

IBM NORC 1954 http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/12/11/retro-‐delight-‐gallery-‐of-‐early-‐computers-‐1940s-‐1960s/

Honeywell 200, 1963

Bell Labs in the late 1960s

Courtesy of Larry Luckham’s delightful website: http://www.luckham.org/LHL.Bell%20Labs%20Days.html


Cosmopolitan magazine •  1967 feature story on women computer programmers

•  Programming is just like “planning a dinner”


http://blog.fogcreek.com/girls-‐go-‐geek-‐again/

And more recently…


OBSERVATION 5: WOMEN NEED

ADVOCATES, NOT JUST MENTORS


Women engineers need advocates: How to increase the visibility of women researchers •  Have at least one female plenary speaker if you are organizing a conference.

•  Nominate females for professional recognitions – from students to senior colleagues.

•  Invite female researchers to speak at your campuses.

•  Publicize the successes of the accomplishments of females in newsletters, media, press releases, etc.

•  Nominate females for professional society offices.

•  Appoint females to journal editorial boards.

•  And, when someone achieves, send a congratulatory note (a great idea for both male and female colleagues)

http://annanagurney.blogspot.com/2013/05/be-‐advocate-‐for-‐female-‐researchers.html


Thank you! My contact information:

•  [email protected]

• @lauramclay on twitter

•  Today’s slides are posted on my blog: http://punkrockOR.wordpress.com


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