International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) provides a clear call to women to shape the world. Taking place annually on June 23, INWED is an international awareness campaign celebrating the work and achievements of women engineers. The creation and participation in these events are fundamental for the growth of the women’s workforce in the field.
There are several areas in which women are still under-represented, and engineering is one of those. According to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, only 14% of professionals working in engineering are women. In the US, this number is significantly lower than the percentage of women in the workforce. In Costa Rica, according to Deloitte and The Chamber of Information and Communication Technologies (CAMTIC), only 27% of the workforce in the STEM fields are women. These numbers are worrying considering that, as a whole, 43,1% of the national workforce are women, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC).
Women are losing opportunities in the workforce, and the engineering field is losing options due to the lack of diversity. As a result, they are losing the possibility of innovation and growth. As Kenneth Gibbs Jr, published in Scientific America, clarifies, women and minorities are no less capable of bringing intellect and innovation to the field. The only reason for their lack of participation is related to society and its norms and structure.
Many factors contributed to the trend of a growing female population in the engineering field. According to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, many schools and universities intentionally encourage young girls and women to join the workforce.
By promoting education related to engineering in schoolgirls, these girls believe their place can be in the field, thus reducing the possibilities of unemployment. In Costa Rica, National Institute for Women (INAMU), the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) and the Ministry for Public Education are working on a series of strategies with the goal of creating a project that will promote the studies and encourage the access to STEM in young girls. CENFOTEC also promotes the inclusion of women in STEM by giving out scholarships.
Personal influence is also significant. Having women that promote the area to young women, they feel accompanied throughout the process and feel that they belong. Women in the field create a network of support that encourages even more women to join, supervisors included. Such is the case of Mismo where one its founders, Forum Desai, always makes sure women have the support they need. From the day they start working at Mismo and all the days forward, women have felt and will always feel supported, equal, and respected thanks to the efforts from Mismo’s founders.
A study by the African Academy of Sciences shows that the top 5 facilitators for women who have excelled in STEM are: the presence of mentors and role models, supervisor support, negotiability of work schedule (for family and work balance), quality of communication, and opportunity for training.
Despite the growing interest and population of women in engineering over the years, there are still challenges that need to be overcome to reach complete gender equality. In Costa Rica, only 35% percent of the women who enter a STEM career graduate, according to the national Education Status Report of 2019. Women are leaving the industry at a higher rate than men are. According to the American Psychological Association, 40% of women who earn an engineering degree go into the field or do not enter at all.
One primary reason women leave is that they want to start a family. Currently, companies dedicated to engineering aren’t very friendly to this situation. Therefore, it is not enough to encourage women to study engineering. We must make sure that their needs are met so that they wish to stay. Companies can meet these needs by creating policy options that financially support women, deliberate efforts to develop a pool of mentors, and encourage them to mentor young girls.
Some examples are policies to ensure gender balance (laws to support the representation policy), the opportunity to support women who come back after maternity to fit back more straightforwardly, and flexibility to help women set up families. Also, develop strategies to create awareness on equity perspectives on STEM professions and provide clear communication for sexual harassment and disciplinary structures to handle such cases.
The first thing that young women must remember when choosing a career in STEM, especially in engineering, is that it is possible to do it. It isn’t a myth that there will be more men than women, but they can be sure that they will be breaking the stereotypes by just showing up. Every woman will have their back while going through the process, and these support networks will only keep on growing.
