Increasing diversity in engineering

My argument for why diversity is a meaningful and important goal for engineering as a whole to achieve comes from two perspectives. The first frame asserts that everyone who wants to be an engineer should have the chance to become one. The second frame states that engineers will become better at creative problem solving when we welcome and support diverse teams.

The first frame comes from my belief that people should have personal freedom in their career choice. Given that many people around the world share this belief, I think that it follows that we cannot deny a young person the chance to be an engineer simply based on how they identify or the behaviors they embody. The actionable part of this first perspective is that engineers can engage young people from all background so that they know what engineering is and how they can pursue it as a career. I go into more detail about this in the Education and engagement with the community section.

The second framing for the argument for greater diversity in engineering is based on scientific findings about how typical human brains work. A well supported theory of the mind asserts that humans process the enormous amount of information we receive every second by predicting what will happen and correcting if we are wrong. That is how we can finish each others’______. The predictions we make are formed from years of experience, including traumatic events. Getting bit by a dog as a child might result in them growing up to fear dogs, perhaps because they believe all dogs will bite them. There is a wonderful podcast called The Ezra Klein Show by Vox that has an episode describing predictive brain theory (go to 11:50, if you don’t want to wait).

The point of this idea is that how we make decisions about problem solving and the creative process, in general, is based on our past experiences. Right now, I see engineering as an abnormally homogeneous field. Because so many engineers come from similar backgrounds, they will have similar experiences and will problem solve in a similar manner. In engineering, we need creative problem solving, so homogeneous thinking is holding our field back.

I can think of two solutions to this problem. The first is we give current engineers different experiences. This includes study abroad opportunities and international conferences. Another solution is to expand the diversity of our engineering teams. When we invite people from greatly different backgrounds, we automatically benefit from the fact that the team will have a broader sense of the world.

Through my service, I want to help expand the diversity of engineering. I have focused, so far, on two areas in particular. The first area is welcoming and encouraging members of the LGBTQ+ community into engineering. Right now, there are very few engineers who identify as LGBTQ+. Civil and mechanical engineering, in particular, lag behind in the number of LGBTQ+ individuals involved in their respective fields [1]. In my involvement in the oSTEM organization by attending annual conferences, I have learned so much about the experiences of other LGBTQ+ engineers. I know how difficult it is for gay men to be taken seriously in engineering, and I hope that I can serve as a role model for a competent, queer engineer.

Tied to the problem of under-representation of LGBTQ+ people in engineering is the under-representation of women in engineering. Yoder and Mattheis have shown that there is a correlation between the number of women in faculty positions in a department and the number of students who feel safe in coming out of the closet [2]. That is, as more women enter engineering, queer people feel like they can express their authentic selves more freely. Along with inviting and supporting LGBTQ+ students in engineering, I think it is just as important to invite and support women in high-level engineering positions. To this end, I have worked with the group Women in Science and Engineering by running a workshop for middle school girls interested in science and engineering careers. I was able to show these students what civil engineering is and helped them to design bridges using drinking straws and tape.      

I hope that as my engineering career progresses, I can find even more ways to engage underrepresented groups and help make engineering more diverse.

References

[1] Cech, E. A., and Waidzunas, T. J. (2011). Navigating the heteronormativity of engineering: the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students. Engineering Studies, 3(1), 1–24.

[2] Yoder, J. B., and Mattheis, A. (2016). Queer in STEM: Workplace Experiences Reported in a National Survey of LGBTQA Individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers. Journal of Homosexuality, 63(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2015.1078632