While a typical UCSD student might slip into a lecture without a second thought about the characteristics of his or her classmates, when Thurgood Marshall College sophomore Harn Chiu walks into one of her engineering lectures, she can’t help but notice that “”classes, especially upper-division ones, seem to have a whole lot of guys.””
Chiu is the co-fundraising chair of sorority Phi Sigma Rho, a women’s engineering group that is currently in the process of becoming recognized by the national organization as a chapter. In addition to working toward obtaining this distinction, planning community service events and providing social connections, Phi Sigma Rho makes an effort to address the issue of female underrepresentation within UCSD’s engineering majors.
“”This sorority is determined to bring females into the [engineering] profession,”” Revelle College sophomore and Phi Sigma Rho Co-Social Chair Jessica Tse said in an e-mail. “”We are trying to go to high schools and make presentations to classes about why they should go into the field. Social awareness is key.””
According to UCSD’s Web site on student enrollment, about 22 percent, approximately 840, of the 3,820 students enrolled in the undergraduate engineering program are female. While this percentage is greater than the 17.5 percent national average of women enrolled in U.S. engineering schools, as reported by the American Society for Engineering Education in 2006.
In her article titled “”Dilbert in Stilettos: The Character of Deterrents Facing Women in Engineering,”” which will be published in the forthcoming book “”Gender in Engineering: Problems and Possibilities,”” Erin Cech, a sociology grad student, offers an explanation for this disparity.
“”What causes the most difficulty for women is not the pressure to fit in with the ideal engineer image, but in dealing with the stereotypes that are associated with being an engineer,”” Cech said in an e-mail. “”The highly inaccurate Dilbert-like stereotype of engineers … is that they are anti-social, lack pride in their appearance and spend an inordinate amount of time with their computers. This contrasts sharply with the ‘ideal woman’ images we see in popular media.””
Cech earned bachelor’s degrees in both electrical engineering and sociology, and, as a female undergraduate in an engineering program, she found the expectations of a male-dominated environment to be frustrating. These experiences spurred her interest in the gender and culture issues that arise in the engineering profession.
“”A couple of instances stand out in my mind,”” Cech said. “”I was doing outreach work talking to second-grade students about a NASA Mars mission, and after my presentation, I had a young girl run up to me and say, ‘Girls can be engineers, too?'””
Just as Cech recieved mixed reactions to her interest in engineering, members of Sigma Phi Rho also recognize the way in which others are sometimes surprised at their choice of major.
“”I just find it funny when a guy asks me what major I am and I reply, ‘engineering,’ and they say, ‘You don’t seem like one,'”” Tse said in an e-mail. “”Our sorority is full of fun-loving and social girls who don’t fall into that typical ‘nerd’ norm of engineering. We’re out there to prove to other girls and boys that we can have a life outside of the books.””
While organizations like Sigma Phi Rho and UCSD’s Society of Women Engineers are aiming to increase women’s interest in nontraditional fields such as engineering, Cech’s research is a reminder that socially ingrained gender roles can be hard to eliminate.
“”It will take much more than the elimination of discrimination for women to be equally represented in engineering,”” Cech said. “”Either the cultural expectations of what women are supposed to ‘be’ and ‘do’ needs to change, or the cultural understanding of what it means to be an ‘engineer’ needs to change.””
As an engineering student herself, Chiu also realizes the challenges that these expectations create for women engineers, but she remains optimistic that these roles will eventually change.
“”I think that historically, the stereotypes are so deeply set that despite huge social advances, we just haven’t really reached that equilibrium yet,”” Chiu said in an e-mail. “”It’s probably inevitable … that time will bring us to the point where no one has a second thought about a stay-at-home soccer dad or a mom who builds airplanes.””
