On Apr 30, 2012, at 10:52 PM, Mary Barnes wrote:
Here is an article that does a far better job of explaining the situation than
I did:
http://www.todaysengineer.org/2011/May/women-in-engineering.asp
The largest reason women leave engineering is due to the work environment and
perceived lack of support from colleagues.
Interesting, but I don't really get some of the distinctions they are making.
Women *are not* leaving engineering to spend time with their families, but they
*are* leaving engineering because of 60-hour weeks and having to work weekends.
I'm also not sure that stereotype is still valid. It's the romantic image of a
technology start-up trying to get a product out before funding runs out, but
most engineers won't work in those. Most will work at established companies or
in corporate IT, and in those places, the 60-hour week is either rare or
non-existent. There may be other things that scare women away from
IT/engineering jobs, but there are plenty of those available that do not
require that type of having no life.
Yoav