More women seek engineering careers

They still make up the minority in their field, but the number of female engineers is growing.

Data from the Society of Women Engineers indicates an increase in the number of female engineers, with 10.6 percent in 1999 compared to 5.8 percent in 1983.

The 2000 U.S. Census showed 9.5 percent of civil engineers, 7.1 percent of mechanical engineers, 10.1 percent of electrical engineers, 11.5 percent of aerospace engineers, 16.3 percent of chemical engineers and 16.8 percent of industrial engineers are women.

Bruce Callen, chair of Drury University's physics department, expects the number of female engineers to continue to increase.

"One of the things that's happening is a field that's been traditionally viewed as a province of men, like in a lot of places, there's a growing realization that women are just as capable of succeeding there as men are," Callen said. "My anticipation would be that the trend is going to continue, much like medicine is right now. You'll find nearly equal representation between men and women not too long from now."

City Utilities Senior Engineer Amy Ruggeri is concerned with the "brain drain" she says the United States is experiencing.

"We don't turn out nearly as many technical scientists and engineers as they do in other countries," Ruggeri said. "We're going to have to encourage more women into science and engineering if we're going to keep up and maintain our technological edge."

For Ruggeri and Jennifer Marino, a senior environmental engineer who has worked at City Utilities for 10 years, the path to a career in engineering began when they enjoyed math and science more than other subjects in school. Both credit the problem-solving aspects of the job with keeping their interest in the field.

"I just love it because it's something new all the time. For all engineers, no matter what discipline they're in, it's all about solving problems and it's fun," Ruggeri said. "It's fun to say, How are we going to fix this? How are we going to build this?' It's always something interesting and exciting."

As an environmental engineer, Marino takes pride in helping to protect the environment. "I think that's the neat thing about engineering in general. Most of it is focused on doing something to improve some aspect of life in some small way through technology."

Both anticipate seeing the number of women in engineering continue to increase.

"Kids are exposed to different kinds of technology much earlier," Marino said. "I think that would only help give girls a little push in that direction."

Education

Opportunities for training in engineering are available in the Ozarks, yet the student population continues to be mostly male.

Southwest Missouri State University's departments of mathematics and physics share the responsibilities of advising students in the school's pre-engineering program. Students complete foundations courses at SMSU, then transfer to the University of Missouri-Rolla or University of Missouri-Columbia for specialized courses.

Female students make up about 10 percent of the pre-engineering program at SMS. Shyang Huang, head of the department of physics, said one reason fewer women enroll may be stereotyping.

"Many female students in middle school or high school somehow (receive the) notion that math is difficult, which is really not the case," Huang said.

"If any person, male or female, can see that math is not difficult, if they are willing to overcome the barrier, then it is not (difficult)."

Yungchen Cheng, head of the department of mathematics at SMSU, said female students aren't traditionally encouraged to get into engineering.

"Ability-wise, I don't think (gender is) an issue. The issue is more like how they are perceived, their career goals, and somehow a misperception that girls don't get involved in this," Cheng said.

Many of the top mathematics students at SMSU are female, Cheng said. "They should be encouraged because they can be as good, if not better, than boys."

Marino agrees. "It wasn't this way for me, but as you're going through school for some reason, and I don't know if it's the teachers or the girls in general girls tend to shy away from (math and science)."

Paula Brookshire, project manager at Scott Consulting Engineers PC, noticed more female engineering students than males changing majors or dropping out of school when she was an engineering student at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

"I think that women are intimidated by it more than anything," she said. "It's not that they can't do it. You're already feeling a little intimidated because there are fewer females, and so if you're not catching it right away it probably makes you even more intimidated, a little more scared to continue to pursue it."

Drury University's "3-2" engineering program allows students to complete all of Drury's graduation requirements before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis or the University of Missouri-Columbia for two years of concentrated engineering work. Graduates earn both a bachelor's degree from Drury and a bachelor of science in engineering from the school they transfer to.

Callen, director of the 3-2 engineering program, said about a dozen people have been through the program since it began in 1985 and between one-third and one-half have been women.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

With so few women in the industry, are they treated with the same respect as men in the same positions?

"I've always worked with really good people so it hasn't been real different," said Marino.

Ruggeri, past president of both the Ozark Chapter of the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers and the Mid-Missouri Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, works in the natural gas and water department at CU doing long-range planning. She has never found herself in a situation she would consider to be discriminatory due to her gender.

"As a matter of fact, I think being female worked in my favor during the years when I inspected on construction sites. Con- tractors aren't as quick to yell at a woman as they are a man," she said with a laugh.

For many, the job itself is more important than the gender of the person in the job.

Becky Baltz, a 19-year veteran of the Missouri Department of Transportation, is assistant direct engineer for district 8, covering 12 counties and the Springfield area. It hasn't been a challenge for Baltz to be taken seriously in a male-dominated vocation.

"I feel like (male engineers) are more open in the ideas and more interested in the content of the conversation or the project," Baltz said. "I feel like they're focused on the work and that's how it should be."

Walter Warren, an engineer with Warren & Goodin, said women engineers may have been perceived differently 20 years ago, but that isn't the case today. "The women engineers I have had dealings with, if they know what they're doing that's good enough for me."