I wish to share some of my reflections on our profession and discuss how we can improve the climate and culture for the women who choose this non-traditional occupation. To understand this issue adequately, it is useful to discuss the barriers that often prevent many young women from considering a career in engineering, present arguments on why Canada needs more women in this field and provide an overview of the situation in the workplace and within the technical and professional societies for women choosing this field.
The early years: Although the enrolment of women has increased steadily in Canadian engineering undergraduate programs in the past ten years, at a rate of 1 percent per year, equal representation at this rate would take another 34 years. The most important barrier, in my view, is gender-role stereotyping. I have seen birth announcements in newspapers where loving parents proudly announce the arrival of a new little secretary, or a little Blue Jay recruit. During the school years, career planning still concentrates largely on the boys. In the teenage years, young women's physical appearance is often emphasized more than a good education by television and the teen culture. Contributing partly to this systemic discrimination is the serious erosion of self-esteem occurring at puberty for many girls who were very confident until age 10 or 11 (Greenberg Lake, 1990). One of the causes is the presence of a subtle message that "brains and femininity are incompatible". This message comes from competitive boys, parents, other girls, and may even come from educators. Other factors that steer away many young women who could be potential engineers is the image that all engineers build bridges and roads, or the misconception that they repair cars, or even drive trains.
A solution is to sensitize adults on the importance of encouraging girls and boys alike to keep their options open and to study all the mathematics and science courses they can while in high school, learn to appreciate the arts, languages, cultures, and to develop desirable employability skills such as: a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, communication and interpersonal skills, and an entrepreneurial spirit. More importantly, we must present aspects of engineering work that appeal to young women, such as conveying the fact that engineers work with people, solve problems, and design the world we live and work in. These images would go far in eradicating the stereotypes about the profession. An example of this type of presentation was developed at the University of New Brunswick in the form of a video (Frize et al., 1992). The same message was also carried out to schools by role model presentations in elementary, junior and senior high schools in New Brunswick. This approach has succeeded in increasing the enrolment of women in the Engineering Faculty at UNB by 65 percent between 1989 and 1992, resulting in a current average enrolment of 20 percent. The number of men also increased by 16 percent during the same period.
Why more women in engineering? Is there such a thing as a feminine perspective? This debate is still raging, with women and men on both sides. However, as I probe this question, feminist researchers have convinced me that "science can be improved by the recognition that cultural context does influence one's perspectives" (Barinaga quoting Fausto-Sterling, 1993). Barinaga (1993) also quotes Keller: "My aim is to restore to science the best that science is capable of. That doesn't mean through women, it means to create a context in which everyone can make use of the full range of human potential. Coates (1990) reports that women have strengths in the characterisation and conceptualisation of problems, men at solving them. Both ends of the problem-solving activity would thus be enhanced by using people's innate strengths and their best abilities. Women's affinity to a participatory and consultative style of working is very much in tune with today's management philosophy that supports the empowerment of employees as far more effective than their control and domination. Many women excel in verbal and interpersonal skills. These qualities, combined with a solid technical education, become a real asset, especially for smaller firms whose engineers must interact with suppliers, clients, regulating agencies and even for large firms where some of their work is sub-contracted to other firms.
The engineering workplace Women will make up twenty percent of new graduates in engineering within the next year or two. What are the workplaces and engineering associations doing to integrate them fully into the profession? Although there is some progress, there is still much to be done. Some employers still fail to see the benefit of hiring women. A recent survey of engineering graduates from 1989 to 1992 (Frize, 1993) shows that the majority of women graduates (87 percent) were hired by government, crown corporations or by companies with an employment equity policy. As for employers not hiring women, are they worried that the women will have babies and leave, or follow their husbands somewhere else soon after being hired? Why are they not worried about long-term health problems that can plague their current employees at the other end of the employment age spectrum, which could create similar or longer absences from work? Perhaps too many managers still project their own traditional lifestyle experience and beliefs onto their workplace environment and fail to understand the changes occurring today in gender roles, such as the increased participation of men in the care of their children and in sharing household duties with their working partners. Companies that fail to recognise the need for flexible policies that allow young parents to balance family and career, will eventually loose their best men and women who will seek firms that are more progressive and forward-looking. The false assumptions about gender-roles will disappear as companies hire capable women who, through commitment and experience, will eventually succeed in dispelling the damaging views. When men demand flexibility and understanding, as they take their fair share of parenting responsibilities, the process of change will be accelerated.
Other barriers consist in discrimination in the promotion of women, the protective and paternalistic attitudes of some colleagues and/or supervisors. Positions with travel, around-the-clock schedules, work on the floor in manufacturing or other plants are not offered as frequently to women as to men. Yet this type of experience often leads to promotions. Women are often shunted to staff positions instead of line jobs or are asked to do public relations activities that may distract them from developing their technical abilities, while men read their journals and develop themselves. The perception that promoting women is "risky"; the exclusion of women from informal socialisation, such as beer after work on Friday evenings or golf on Saturday morning; such activities are not necessarily comfortable for women, so there is a certain amount of self-exclusion there; but if these activities became 'lunch on Wednesdays' or other choices which are more woman-friendly, then more women would gladly participate; the inappropriate or sexist behaviour by male colleagues, sexual or personal harassment, all contribute to the development of stress and can cause women to feel isolated, disillusioned or morally tired. Managers and employers should realise that a fair and equitable work environment is conducive to good employee performance and therefore to a more successful enterprise.
The first step in finding solutions is to recognise the special problems faced by women engineers, then develop effective programs to address them. The development of policies guiding the hiring, promotion and behaviour of employees is an important step. But no policy can be effective unless it is explained clearly to all staff and enforced. Creating a committee that identifies issues affecting minority groups within the organisation can provide many long-term solutions. When issues arouse anxiety or anger in a group, such feelings can be diffused and eliminated by an open and frank dialogue between the diverse groups and with management.
Realistic hiring objectives should be set, based on the availability of women in the pool of graduates. Objective hiring criteria must be established, jobs posted, women pro-actively sought. Training programs are needed to sensitise people involved in the employee selection process in recognising appropriate questions and illegal ones and how to treat everyone with equity and respect. One way to test the appropriateness of interview questions is to ask ourselves whether we would ask a man the same question. If the answer is no, it should not be asked. Organisations should provide a mentorship program and opportunities for women to meet, to network. Identifying women with management potential and creating a "fast-track" will enable the organisation to accelerate the progress and show a serious commitment to redressing past inequities. This process will also provide women role models who could act as mentors for younger women and provide some integration of feminine values into the corporate culture. The benefits of hiring women will only occur if women are not emulations of the men, if they feel that feminine values and attributes are valued. Some women may go out of their way not to be seen to be "helping women". Vice-versa, some young women do not want help from other women. If a positive change is to occur, the commitment of the women promoted is essential and young women must be enlightened about the damaging process caused by denial. Many of these workplace issues and their solutions are discussed in greater detail in the report of the Canadian Committee on Women in Engineering: "More Than Just Numbers" (CCWE, 1992). Each organisation will have to set its goals, based on where it currently sits on the scale of progress, and draw-up an achievable plan to reach the ultimate goal: a place where work is challenging and comfortable for all the employees. It is difficult to compare organisations between each other. The very best approach is to compare one with itself over a number of years. Quoting Culotta (1993), the age of the industry is a key factor that will determine the rate of change possible: "Many anecdotes suggest that older industries are more likely to have an entrenched old-boy network that may not be receptive to female outsiders. Conversely, in some new sectors (biotech, for example) the old-boy network was built only over the past decade- and women helped build it".
Lastly, a look at employee performance assessment is most revealing. In a large U.S. study of scientists and engineers in high tech companies (DiTomaso and Farris, 1992), Caucasian men were rated by their managers as average on the attributes of 'innovativeness', 'usefulness', 'promotability', and a little lower on 'cooperativeness'. Managers rated women lower on all these attributes except for 'cooperativeness'. When the employees did their self-assessment, Caucasian men rated themselves slightly higher than their manager's rating, but women rated themselves lower than the rating they had received from their manager, for all attributes except 'cooperativeness'. A possible interpretation of the manager's rating may be that Caucasian male engineers and scientists may understand the culture better and interpret the feedback more accurately, since they come from a similar group as the managers. For women, the question of self-esteem arises and the uneven understanding of feedback may be a problem.
In the same study, women rated their managers lower than the men did on getting people to work together, letting people know where they stand, being sensitive to differences among people, and minimising hassles with support staff. The managers were rated better on communicating goals clearly, defining the problem, getting resources and motivating commitment. These results clearly show that managers must make an effort to improve the assessment process and develop reasonable and measurable criteria for all their employees. They must focus more attention on the type of feedback they provide, communicate the rules of the game clearly and test if these are understood by each employee. They must especially work harder on understanding the difference of approach and of points of view that women and minorities can bring to the organization and learn to value this diversity, as it will enrich the outcomes. Managers must not under-estimate the performance of a group of individuals who are different from themselves. They must also provide opportunities for a network to develop and coach new staff. If they build teams with a diverse background and perspectives, the output may be improved and enriched. Another strategy is to give visible assignments to people who need to build their self-confidence and credibility within the organisation.
Technical Societies and Associations: How can their progress be measured? Monitoring the proportion of women on the executive committees, of awards and recognitions given to men and women, and the number of women invited as keynote speaker, panelist on specialty topics and plenary session speakers tells much about the culture. When the proportion of women in each of these activities surpasses their actual proportion in the Society or Association, then progress will be visible and real. For over twenty years, I have personally observed many male accolades, and I suppose that this is natural in a predominantly male culture, except that it hint's again of an 'old boy's club'. Deserving women can be found if one looks for them and recognising their achievements and their expertise will make them feel an integral part of the profession, a partner in designing tomorrow's world.
In conclusion, differences seem to have to do more with culture than with competence or contribution. Identifying avenues to bridge gaps will enhance success. Showing a better understanding and esteem for the differences that persist and elucidate the sources of misunderstandings or of misperceptions regarding the contribution and work dynamic of the various groups will make them feel more included, part of the group. In the long-term, the organisation's performance will reflect its attitude toward its human resources and each organisation should develop goals and criteria by which they can assess progress. The importance of this process is bound to increase as we approach the next century.
The engineering profession is becoming friendlier for women. The extent of progress depends very much on particular organisations; some have done little, others have regressed during the recession. However, a good number of universities and firms are in the process of creating a better climate, fair policies. A national conference in 1995 will examine the extent to which the CCWE report has been implemented across the nation. Much can happen between now and then. It is for us to write history on a clean slate and each of us can make a difference.
REFERENCES:
Barinaga M. (1993) "Is There a 'Female Style' in Science?". Science, vol.260, April: 384-393.
CCWE (1992) "More Than Just Numbers". Report of the Canadian Committee on Women in Engineering. Copies can be obtained from M. Frize, UNB, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3.
Coates J.F. (1990) "Engineering in the Year 2000". Mechanical Engineering, October: 77-80.
Culotta E. (1993) "Women Struggle to Crack the Code of Corporate Culture". Science, vol.260, April: 398-404.
DiTomaso, N. and Farris, G.F. (1992) "Diversity in the High-Tech Workplace". IEEE Spectrum, June: 21-32.
Frize M., McGinn-Giberson, J., Shelton, C. (1992) "Engineering: Design Tomorrow's World". Video (VHS), 21 min.46 sec., Northern Telecom/NSERC Women in Engineering Chair, UNB, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3.
Frize M. (1993) "Remarks on What is Happening to UNB's Engineering Graduates?" APENB Bulletin, June: 9-10.
Greenberg-Lake, The Analysis Group Inc. (1990) "Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America". American Association of University Women, Sept./Nov.