Tech field seeks more women
When Lynn Peterson was in high school, the physics instructor didnÂ’t let her take his class. HeÂ’d never taught girls, and wasnÂ’t about to start, and when Peterson enrolled as a math major at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, she knew physics was the first class sheÂ’d need to take. She took it, worked hard in the class, and won the physics prize of the year.
Today, Peterson holds several advanced degrees, including a doctorate from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in medical computer science. SheÂ’s senior associate dean of engineering for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington, which she joined in 1982, and among the students sheÂ’s taught are young women who are like herself, eager to go into engineering and technical fields.
ThereÂ’s no doubt that there are more women seeking degrees in math, physics, computer science, engineering, biochemistry and other tech-centric fields. What is uncertain is how many more women there are. There have been increases in womenÂ’s enrollment rates, but in some fields itÂ’s still not at levels comparable to men, and itÂ’s not at levels some may expect after several decades of encouraging women into the sciences.
“I think there was always more encouragement than discouragement,” Peterson said of her schooling, despite that one teacher in high school. Family, friends and professors gave her enough support to follow her passion in school, she said, and coworkers and fellow faculty members also were welcoming when she entered the work world and teaching.
Becky Bittle, an engineering instructor at Texas Christian University, got her undergraduate and masterÂ’s degrees in mechanical engineering before working for General Electric Aircraft Engine Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1983 to 1989. She finished a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Iowa State University in 1994, and is a full-time faculty member now, but said her real-world experiences are invaluable in the classroom.
The percentages of women in electrical and mechanical engineering have held pretty steady nationwide over the past several years, Bittle said, and although all of her students are coming in better prepared for college, she doesnÂ’t see much of a difference between the male and female students. There doesnÂ’t appear to be a difference in the rate at which the students change majors, Bittle and Peterson said, and each university has support and professional organizations on campus to support women. Each school also has outreach programs to snag the attention of potential female university students.
Each university also tries to ensure a female student never feels isolated. Small group work is integral to engineering and technical fields, and women are never isolated in a group of men at the beginning of the academic program. If there is one woman on a team, there is another one with her, Peterson and Bittle said.
Bittle said she did have one incident while at GE in which a man was patronizing, but upper management handled the case. However, sheÂ’s learned while in school and through her career not to take things too personally, she said.
“If you come at it all dramatic, that doesn’t work well. I don’t want to say you have be act like a guy, but you have to be pragmatic and let things roll off your shoulders,” she said. “If you’ve come up through an engineering program, you should have that figured out.”
Both faculty members admit there are women who have different experiences, either in school or in the work world. Sherry Green, president and co-founder of Technology Team, a Fort Worth-based technology relocation and reconfiguration business, got into the tech field later in life. She ran a catering business for 21 years, and she and her husband, Allen Spinner, started the company in 2003 after seeing a need for the specialized service.
Green always was interested in technology, and she taught herself much of what she needed as well as taking various classes, such as those offered by Microsoft for professionals. Technology Team has moved more than $100 million of equipment for Fortune 500 companies and government agencies and is obviously successful, Green said, and yet some clients still balk at her.
“It is amazing how many men think I don’t know what I’m doing,” Green said.
Usually, Green can demonstrate her competence and everything turns out well. However, sometimes a client just shuts down, she said, and she may have to call in Spinner to handle the case. ItÂ’s also not unusual for Green to be the only woman, or one of two or three, in professional meetings or classes, she said, and sheÂ’s heard of similar stories from other women professionals.
Various industries go through cycles of being popular, and enrollment rates at universities often reflect growing or decreasing needs in the work world. The enrollment of women in some areas may wane as the field shrinks, and then grow again. Peterson said when she started teaching in the early ‘80s, her computer programming classes would be nearly equal parts men and women. Then the percentage dropped, she said, and has never recovered.
“We don’t know what happened. We don’t know what turned women off,” she said.
The dot-com decline and the slowing economy have recently played into enrollment rates — for all students, men and women — Peterson said. Both instructors and Green said there are definite advantages to being a women in a field crowded with men: women bring a different viewpoint, are often accomplished, and because they are not the norm, they stand out.
“You might get thought of for various opportunities because your name pops up,” Bittle said, “and because you’re good at it.”
