Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, Feb 19
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day will occur again on February 19. It will be the 8th year for this event that introduces young girls to a career in engineering. I recently received the following email from The Office of Vocational-Technical, Career and Adult Programs (OVTCAP) of the NJ Dept of Ed promoting the focus on girls and engineering. Be sure to visit the links listed at the bottom for activities to share with your daughters and granddaughters!
Women are severely underrepresented in the engineering profession. Research shows that girls and young women lose interest in subjects and the fields of study leading to engineering careers long before they enter college. (Perhaps it is because they haven’t been told they can use them to become successful engineers, same as their male counterparts. Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day may be all they need to find the motivation.)
K-12 girls need to be exposed to positive messages about math and science education and engineering careers. Additionally engineering societies and other organizations need to incorporate their own focus on women engineers with a hope that these various entities can continue to collaborate in the future. (Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day will help to improve girls’ self-concept of their capabilities.)
Currently only 20 percent of engineering undergraduates are women. Only ten percent of the engineering workforce are women. For years, false notions of girls’ innate inability in math, lack of science preparation in high school, and assumptions about the effects of historical and institutional discrimination, have been offered as causes for the startling disproportion. Recent surveys, however, refute most of those theories, including the ones that question girls’ academic readiness to study engineering when they leave high school. Girls and boys take requisite courses at approximately the same rate, with girls’ enrollment often exceeding that of boys. Instead, experts contend that the major culprit is one of perception among girls and the people who influence them, including teachers, parents, peers, and the media. (Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day will help to change that perception.)
In short, girls have to perceive they can be engineers before they can be engineers. According to the National Engineers Week Foundation, nothing conveys that message as effectively as mentors and role models and no program more effectively brings girls and role models together than Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, now in its 8th year.
Agilent Technologies, Inc. and the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation are lead sponsors for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, with additional funding from the Motorola Foundation.
Some suggested reading material for girls are:
Girls Think of Everything:
Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women http://www.amazon.com/Girls-Think-Everything-Ingenious-Inventions/dp/0618195637/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203435718&sr=8-2
Resources for Girls, Teachers, Parents http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/girlsday_resources.shtml
Día para Presentar una Niña a la Ingeniería http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/girlsday_sp.shtml
Brownie try-it experiments for young girls http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/girlsday_tryit_projects.shtml
Three Cheers for Engineers! student pamphlet
http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/3Cheers.pdf
Girl Day Event Archives http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/nationalpledgeroster_archive.shtml
Girls just wanna have fun in engineering:
Techbridge can help you Introduce a Girl to Engineering http://www.eweek.org/../EngineersWeek/IntroduceAGirl.aspx?ContentID=99&Version=2
For volunteer information about Introduce A Girl to Engineering, visit:
Introduce A Girl: Resources for Volunteers http://www.eweek.org/../EngineersWeek/IntroduceAGirl.aspx?ContentID=100&Version=1
*Personal note: In my high school days, I was told I could be a nurse, a teacher, or a secretary…even though my aptitude test showed I had the abilities to be an electrician, carpenter, or other hands-on professional. Opportunities were very limited to young women in my day. I didn’t want to be a nurse, nor a secretary, nor a teacher (LOL). But here I am, 4 certifications and 30 graduate credits later! I am glad my path led me to where I am today, but I wish I had been given the opportunity to explore. I often wonder what profession I would have pursued…
i loved the article
its very inspiring