Breaking Stereotypes: Women in Engineering

Popular names like Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Sabeer Bhatia, etc. will certainly inspire you to enter the world of engineering and technology. They may rightly so, as, they continue to make us proud by achieving enormous amount of respect and recognition in their area of expertise by leading the biggest technological giants around the world.

However, are you aware that there are many female engineers and technologists who stand in good stead worldwide? Yes, women in engineering fields are vastly applauded as well. The times are gone when the women were just confined to specific courses such as home science, interior design, teaching etc, given the conventional mindset which prevailed in the society for many years.

With the emerging trends and increasing awareness, engineering has gained momentum as a career prospect among women in India. Many of them pursued engineering at undergraduate level in a particular field of interest and combined it with management expertise to have a holistic profile to shape their career.

Popular Examples:

1. Kirthiga Reddy is the Director of Sales at Facebook India. She holds M.S. in Computer Engineering.

2. Kumud Srinivasan is the President at Intel India & Vice-President at Technology and Manufacturing Group, Bangalore. She got her Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Master’s Degree in Information and Library Studies. In addition, she has completed Doctoral Coursework in Information Science.

3. Meenakshi Chatterjee is a Senior Hardware Engineer at Twitter and is helping run Twitter's huge data center, and keeping the fail whale away. She holds B.E (Hons.) Electrical and Electronics Engineering and M.Sc. (Hons.) Physics apart from M.S in Electrical Engineering.

4. Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-American astronaut with a B.E in Aeronautical Engineering, Double M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, and a PhD in Aerospace Engineering.

5. Vanitha Narayanan, who is from a technical and management mixed educational background, is leading IBM India Private Limited, and is also the Regional General Manager for India/ South Asia (ISA).

Going by the statistics , it is observed that India has a much lower (better) engineering male-to-female ratio, that is, 1.96 as compared with 4.61 in the U.S. India does much better than the West in this dimension of gender equity despite being ranked 19th in gender equity among the G20 countries. (Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation Report)

In order to maintain the same stature, it is wise to continue to create a comfortable atmosphere for them to venture into engineering and other technical fields that are presumably meant for ‘men’. It is important for the industry, the educators and the government to continue to ensure that women make a significant contribution to engineering's future.

It must also be noted that industries require engineers who not only possess proficiency in technical skills, but, also good communication skills to work effectively in a team and to be able to handle projects more efficiently. And as per the common belief, women are naturally well versed with language and communication skills. Also, considered to be more empathetic of the two genders, women can be well-suited for a team-centric profile.

The Barrier / Limitation:

It begins with a lack of mentors to inspire the next cohort of young women to enter the profession. Usually, it is the stereotypes, the gender bias, and the stringent environment of some of the science and engineering departments in colleges and universities that continue to block women’s participation and progress in certain technical fields. The limitations for women in this field are lack of encouragement at the academic level or the stereotypical ideologies at the employment level. Such a mindset could lead to marginalized and bias behavior during hiring.

The ideal approach could be to grapple individuals to create an environment where everyone can explore and participate in the opportunities provided by engineering, science and technology to improve our world in a sustainable manner.