The article clearly states that women leave for the two reasons you
mentioned, which are certainly the exact same things males deal with, but
you missed a few others that the article notes, specifically and directly
quoted below:
"...lack of real or perceived opportunities for advancement, and uncivil
work environments where women were treated in condescending or patronizing
manners. Only 25 percent of the women who left engineering did so for
family reasons."
Mary
On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 1:51 AM, Yoav Nir <ynir(_at_)checkpoint(_dot_)com> wrote:
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