At every forum, the Committee heard that attracting women to engineering must begin very early and that parents play a crucial role: My mother is a very capable lady who at an early stage showed me that women are able to do what they set their mind to. If we needed a garden table, she would simply make one. And if a receptacle needed to be repaired she would do so. My father quietly encouraged me. I have fond memories of doing everything from chemical experiments to chopping wood together with my father.

“Being a woman engineering student I never felt like I really belonged, no matter how hard I tried.”

If young women in secondary schools are not encouraged to study mathematics and science and do not discover the link with engineering, they are potentially lost to the profession. Some women who eventually became engineers were discouraged from pursuing mathematics and physics. Although I had always chosen academic electives such as sciences and foreign languages, and was one of the top two or three students in my class, my counsellor (a woman) told me that physics was too hard for me and that I should consider taking home economics instead. I ignored her and registered for Physics 12 anyway, where I was one of two girls in a class of eighteen.

On the other hand, others spoke of teachers who were responsible for their choice of engineering: "I did not consider engineering as a career until I was in Grade 12. My high school physics teacher was a marvelous teacher who was himself an engineer. He suggested that I should consider engineering as a career."

In it's recommendations the CCWE encourages educators to provide equal and unbiased career information, especially information about women's increasing participation in engineering, to both young men and women, and to bring women engineers into the classroom as role models. Recommendations regarding science curriculum include embedding applied science topics in the curriculum, making references to the scientific and mathematical achievements of women, and increasing the emphasis on science at the elementary school level. Other recommendations deal with training mathematics and science teachers and providing courses on gender equity in teacher education programs.

At the forums, the CCWE heard of dozens of initiatives now underway by engineering faculties to attract and retain women engineering students. Engineering deans, faculty and students are working hard to create more welcoming environments for women. Even so, some women students still face difficulties. Even the physical environment can say to women students: you don't belong here. At the West coast Forum, a 1991 engineering graduate spoke of her experiences:

I sat in a classroom for three years where the table tops came up to my chest. I often ended up taking notes in a book on my lap. And all the women in my class were smaller than the majority of male students. Learning is not facilitated by equipment that is uncomfortable: lab stools too short, shelves too high, screens at the wrong angles.

Another woman described what it is like to be a minority:
What I found about being a woman engineering student was never feeling like I really belonged; no matter how hard I tried; because the attitudes and actions of the engineering student body (that is the group rather than the individuals) were shaped and dominated by men as they have been since time immemorial.

Still others, like this young woman from British Columbia, had more pleasant memories: The best part about being in engineering was, for me, the sense of camaraderie between classmates. I found that the guys were very supportive of their female peers. And the engineering undergraduate society, despite some of their more notorious events, never made me feel like a second-class citizen. Some of the best friendships I have now were made with the men I went through engineering with.

A 1990 woman graduate from a Maritime university noted changes in the faculty because of the presence of women students:
I had the sense that students as well as professors enjoyed having men and women in the classrooms. It is my understanding that in the past the school newspaper used to publish jokes that were degrading to women. While I was there, these types of articles were not tolerated. So perhaps having women enter the school of engineering has helped tone down the macho crude image it once had.

Because many women are unfamiliar with the tools and equipment their male counterparts grew up handling, women engineering students can have difficulties:
I did reasonably well in academic courses, but initially the labs were very intimidating. I did not feel comfortable around electrical power and wires, oscilloscopes and tools. At first, I was able to avoid the problem as my male lab partners were more than willing to do it for me. However, this lowered my self-confidence and made me apprehensive of my ability to become an engineer.



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