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“You literally can’t win.”
Sometimes, that’s how computer science junior Nicole Giusti feels as a woman in the College of Engineering, where men make up more than 80 percent of the population.
She recounted a story of a female friend who got a reputable internship. Some of her male peers, though, said she only got it because she was a woman.
“But it’s really funny, because if you don’t get internships, it’s because well, duh, you’re a girl and you’re dumb,” Giusti said. “But if you do get internships, it’s because of affirmative action.”
Giusti — who interned at Northrop-Grumman this past summer — has learned to adjust to the engineering culture in her two years at Cal Poly. It isn’t all bad, she says, but it still presents challenges.
“That’s one of the most discouraging parts, being told you’re not actually talented and don’t deserve the things you have,” she said.
By the numbers
In Fall 2013, Cal Poly’s undergraduate enrollment was 54.8 percent male and 45.2 percent female, according to the Cal Poly Fact Book. Of those women enrolled, approximately 12 percent were in the College of Engineering.
That quarter, women made up 19.3 percent of the College of Engineering undergraduate enrollment.
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In Fall 2013, women made up 24 percent of the incoming freshman class for the College of Engineering, including architectural engineering and bioresource and agriculture engineering. However, the proportion varies severely between different engineering majors. Biomedical engineering, for example, had 49 percent women, while the lowest was manufacturing engineering at 6 percent (though there were only 17 students in the major, according to College of Engineering statistics).
Finding community
Giusti didn’t notice the low percentage of women in her major — at first. She’s aware of it now, but she doesn’t feel isolated since she joined Women Involved in Software and Hardware (WISH) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).
“Even though there is that giant gap, because I have a way to connect with the other girls in the major, it’s not that tough,” she said. “I think it is absolutely crucial.”
She was placed in a mentorship program through WISH, which encouraged her to stay in her major. Hearing that other girls had gone through the same challenges and doubts about their respective fields of study made her more confident that she had made the right choice.
The programs and professors in the computer science department are also very helpful, she said.
“I don’t think I would have made it that far if I didn’t have such a supportive computer science department,” she said.
Materials engineering junior Alina Lusebrink was glad to be in a small, close-knit department which helped her get to know her peers. She found a group that accepts and treats her equally, which is something everyone has to deal with, she said.
“It doesn’t really matter what gender you identify with at all,” she said. “For me, it’s all about what your interests are and how you’re able to interact with other people.”
What’s the problem?
People have resigned themselves to the idea of engineering being dominated by males as just being the way it is, said Dianne DeTurris, an aerospace engineering professor who was the first woman hired in the department.
But studies have shown a more diverse team will create a better product, DeTurris said. Diversity brings a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and input, all of which lead to better results than homogeneity.
The field of engineering is aware of the problem now, she said, but it isn’t sure how to fix it.
DeTurris compared the issue to a pipeline filled with holes: The people in the field are like water running through the pipe, and as they move through it, they fall through the holes for various reasons. Engineering is now putting more “water” into the pipe, with the hope that more women will make it through. But they could also stop the holes, she said.
Though the days of explicit discrimination against women in the workplace are gone, society has to deal with implicit bias, called unconscious bias. DeTurris has done extensive research and even given a presentation on the topic.
Because of unconscious bias, people don’t realize it affects their views of others. People naturally group together with commonalities, she said, which can make outsiders feel excluded.
When a woman becomes a boss, for example, DeTurris said people might make judgments about her as a result of unconscious bias, even if they don’t realize it’s happening. To avoid this, she said they should think critically about why they don’t like the woman and try to identify their possible biases.
DeTurris has experienced that in her own life. Throughout her academic career and her time at Cal Poly, she felt more supported when she tried to fit in. Once she began challenging the culture of engineering, she felt more alone. That sentiment is echoed in various studies, she said, showing that tenured professors feel less supported, likely because they are more willing to express their opinions.
Female engineering graduates get hired quickly because of the desire for diverse teams, she said, but that benefit runs out. Soon, they hit the “glass ceiling,” she said, and they don’t advance as quickly as their male counterparts.
Growing pains
When Giusti started at Cal Poly, she felt intimidated because she had only recently begun programming. Others in her major seemed more confident, which made her feel like they knew more than her.
“It’s kind of intimidating sometimes, because you feel like they know what they’re talking about so much more than you do,” she said. “But you have to realize, they’re just being confident. I know as much as them, I’m just not as confident.”
Lusebrink had a similar adjustment. She had to learn to believe in her skills. There are times when people don’t listen to her ideas as much and she can tell it’s because she’s a woman, she said.
She holds hope, though, that she’s being treated differently for another reason.
Lusebrink holds that her challenges aren’t so different from those of any other student in her major.
“There are times where it’s more stressful and more difficult,” she said. “But that’s okay, because I love what I do, and I love learning, and I’ll get through it.”
For Giusti and Lusebrink, success in engineering came down to having confidence in their knowledge and finding the right group of people.
The solution
But the question remains: How can the genders be equalized in engineering? There has to be more education about the issues, DeTurris said.
The issue, she said, is most people aren’t aware that unconscious bias is a factor. There can’t be a solution if people don’t see the problem — and that’s where education comes in.
By fostering dialogue, holding retreats, initiating small discussion groups and requiring education about unconscious bias, Cal Poly could make an effort to fix the issue, she said.
According to some studies, colleges can make small changes that translate into retaining women in engineering fields. One change is to incorporate more female faculty. Women represent just 30 percent of Cal Poly’s professors, which can be discouraging to students, DeTurris said.
SWE also makes an effort to change students’ subconscious thoughts about engineering, said Jessie Klemme, former SWE president and environmental engineering graduate. Though she didn’t see the gender gap in her own major, she could see it in others.
In addition to helping its members, SWE reaches out to elementary, middle and high schools to show students — especially girls — that engineering is fun. Girls typically need encouragement to be engineers, she said, and SWE tries to show them they don’t have to be great at math and science. They just have to be willing to work hard.
SWE is trying to add more “water” to the pipeline, so to say, but stopping the holes will take effort from colleges nationwide and the field of engineering as a whole.