Women in Engineering with people from many different countries, and I’ve had discussions with them about it, and they say that in their country, when someone is struggling with math, it is never, “Oh, you’re not good at it.” It’s, “Try again.” “In our middle and high school educational system, I’ve seen and heard this same type of story way too often where assumptions are made that maybe you’re not good at this. I think if we could change that type of attitude, it would be a world of a difference. At Akron they have a crash course in software where they do SolidWorks, Matlab, and AutoCad in one semester. You see it then. There are obviously students who have strength in 3D modeling but are not so good at coding. And then you have the students who are great at coding, but their strength isn’t 3D modeling. We need all types of engineers, and I don’t know why we’re so focused on turning out only one type of engineer.” Dealing with people Throughout Pierson’s co-ops she has learned that if someone is not interested in working with you and talks down to you, it’s not you, it’s them. She has learned the value of not taking things personally. “A lot of the time, it is someone else’s issue. Find the people that genuinely want to work with you, and really do want to make sure that you understand before you get too far down the pipeline of wrong thinking. “If the world of engineering is going to make room for women, I think there needs to be a change in the attitude of men. I really don’t think this is solely a woman issue. I think there needs to be a better job done in terms of education for men that there is room for women in this world. Everything that’s been done so far is great, but I think we need to do a better job in terms of getting men on board with it.
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“Many of my fellow male students in grad school think that women are less capable, that they receive more opportunity advantages than the guys do. And they hold a lot of animosity towards that, when it’s not true. When a woman gets a scholarship, job interviews and so on, they think the women received them just because she was the diversity pick. Not because she earned it. “I think this viewpoint is in a lot of the world of engineering where woman have to prove themselves before being respected in any position. But when a man comes in and takes that same position, it’s assumed that they’ve already 100% earned it. You see this in school and in industry.” Pierson sites an example of a young woman director at Goodyear. “I’m friends with a lot of men there, and they feel free to debate these issues with me. One time there was plenty of commentary about this female director being promoted at a young age, even though there was a man in the same position two years younger than her. The conversation was, “Oh, what did she do to get there so fast? But they don’t question the younger man and how come he advanced so fast. When a woman moves ahead, it’s “diversity pick.” That’s the first thing that always comes out of their mouth.” As young as Pierson is, she’s not alone among women grad students noticing such attitudes. Which goes to show that engineering is not just about math, science, numbers and problem solving. It’s also about people, a subject that should be covered more in today’s engineering classes.
November 2018 www.designworldonline.com
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11/20/18 2:30 PM