And yes, I’ve written those very words before and you will undoubtedly read them again. In fact… I’m having t-shirts printed as we speak. It’s truly mind-blowing that if you just pause, and look around at any moment during your day, you will see or be using something thought up by an engineer. So yes, everyone at Spanish Professionals is a HUGE engineer groupie. But I digress… The reason I’m coming back to one of my favorite tangents of: “the world was shaped by engineers“, is because in the last few weeks we have received an increasing number of job applications from female engineers. Like a lot more! Women who just graduated and are looking for that engineering job that will kick start their career. Which is exciting, right?
But here’s the thing: engineering is still a male dominated profession despite the fact that women have made huge contributions to the field of engineering.
Many studies, have offered theories and evidence as to why that is. So here’s my two cents: most engineers and teachers propagate a singular story of what it is to be an engineer. And that is: engineers solve problems with math and science. That is true…but only partially, and it also sounds, kinda boring. And almost nobody (dare I say nobody?) dreamed of being boring when they grew up. I wanted to be Wonder Woman, not Aquaman’s second cousin once removed with bifocals and a questionable hobby of collecting wine corks.
So when you hear the boring story about what engineers do, it can be hard to relate to it. Most of us didn’t grow up thinking: I want to live boringly ever after. Where’s the adventure? Where’s the fun? We grew up wanting to be creative and collaborative. You may be quite skilled in math and science, and you may enjoy solving problems, but you still want to be Wonder Woman! Do you see where I’m going with this?
What do you think would happen if girls were told, from a young age, that to create a better world you should become an engineer? And then we started pointing out everything designed by an engineer. Yes, I know…. it would go on forever. Because engineers design absolutely everything that is (wo)man made. And that makes being an engineer the coolest job on the planet.