on being a woman in engineering

[tigery]

I'm a girl. I'm also an engineer. Yes, this makes me different. How different I ask you? Not very. Yet I still deal with flack. I've thrown things at people when I just get sick of being craped on. Turns out the function generator power cords fly really well. Also those ice cream cone toys that have the foam things that fly work well. I snap

Comments

[katskeep]

My doctor noticed my engineering iron ring when I was in there last week. She commented that when I'm out looking for jobs it must be great because so many companies must have hiring policies that encourage them to hire female engineers. I damn near got up and left.

That said, I'm surprised you've encountered so much hostility. The guys at my school were never angry at or cruel to females - the closest they got was the occasional insinuation that you got an interview because you were a girl (hence my response to the doctor). Other than that, it really didn't matter, and they were happy to have a girl to invite to parties, because that encouraged other girls to attend :P They knew I was better at the homework than they were. That's computer eng, but my best friend's doing her Masters in aerospace at Carleton University in Ottawa, and her experience has been similar to mine.

I'm always the token girl, and I've gotten used to it. None of my jobs have made a big deal out of it, and there are positive moments. I enjoy the looks on the faces of the classes I TA when I walk in the first day and they realize they have both a girl and someone who actually got her undergrad degree from this school as their tutorial leader. That's rare, and they always look confused. Does being a girl help you get interviews? Maybe. But I know I'm competent and the guys do too, so no one ever really thinks I get hired for something I can't handle.