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| Example of a Woman Engineer. |
A recent study from the Center for the Study of the Workplace about the retention of women engineers suggests that workplace climate is the largest reason for leaving engineering. This endeavor, called Project on Women Engineer's Retention (POWER), surveyed women engineering alumnae from 230 universities across the United States totaling 3,700 women as of January 2011. There was a brief blurb about the study that appeared in my ASCE Smart Brief and another short blurb in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the study.
Interestingly, the engineering majors with the greatest number of people to either never enter the workplace or left more than five years ago are Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering. I was hoping to relate this to the number of women in those majors but there doesn't appear to be any correlation. Another interesting point is that almost half of that group had earned an additional degree, most often a master's of science (MS) or master's of business administration (MBA). Turns out that some (try 70%) of the women who "left" are probably still at an engineering/technical company but in management or executive level positions with a third earning over $100,000.
The key points from this study were (1) that almost half of the women respondents "left because of the working conditions, too much travel, lack of advancement or low salary," (2) one-in-three respondents left because "they did not like the workplace climate, their boss, or the culture," and (3) one-in-four left "to spend time with family. Another key finding was that those who had left still had the same interests, same confidence in their abilities, and expected the same positive outcomes from performing engineering related tasks as those who didn't leave.
Some findings from the study I thought were rather obvious, such as "women engineers who were treated in a condescending, patronizing manner, and were belittled and undermined by their supervisors and co-workers were most likely to want to leave their organization." I think anyone who experiences that would be interested in leaving!
To me, the most surprising finding from the study was that "women who considered leaving their companies were also very likely to consider leaving the field of engineering altogether." The situation they were in was so bad that it warranted leaving the discipline? What? This part leaves me befuddled, but perhaps its because I've never worked in such an environment. I've worked in two different industry jobs, one a consulting company the other a manufacturing company. They were nothing like each other but at both places I was treated with respect, like I was intelligent, and I was given opportunities to interact professionally with high-level managers - mostly presenting my ideas to them. True, my job title has been "intern" for most of the time but I've still gone through the cycle of promotions & performance reviews, and I've never felt like some of the respondents from the study have. Maybe if I had been I would understand why it would cause someone to leave engineering altogether.
I think the longer you work, the more you get a better understanding of other companies out there one could work for. I have a list of a dozen companies that do things similar to what I enjoy that I could work for if my current company doesn't work out. My Plan B has been "if The Company doesn't work out I'll just apply at Company X and Company Y," not "if The Company doesn't work out I'm going to become a crazy cat lady and live under the bridge."
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that women are leaving engineering after working someplace rotten because it's more socially acceptable for them to do so. I think it's safe to say that engineering is still considered a "manly" field despite efforts to reverse that stereotype, and that men who leave the field of engineering because it sucked would be highly ridiculed by their male peers. Women on the other hand, would probably say to their female peers who leave engineering something like "I don't know how you did it for so long!" or "yeesh, that field sounds wretched, good thing you got out of there!"
This is just my uneducated guess, what do you think? Have you ever worked someplace so horrendous that its caused you to consider leaving your field?
The key points from this study were (1) that almost half of the women respondents "left because of the working conditions, too much travel, lack of advancement or low salary," (2) one-in-three respondents left because "they did not like the workplace climate, their boss, or the culture," and (3) one-in-four left "to spend time with family. Another key finding was that those who had left still had the same interests, same confidence in their abilities, and expected the same positive outcomes from performing engineering related tasks as those who didn't leave.
Some findings from the study I thought were rather obvious, such as "women engineers who were treated in a condescending, patronizing manner, and were belittled and undermined by their supervisors and co-workers were most likely to want to leave their organization." I think anyone who experiences that would be interested in leaving!
To me, the most surprising finding from the study was that "women who considered leaving their companies were also very likely to consider leaving the field of engineering altogether." The situation they were in was so bad that it warranted leaving the discipline? What? This part leaves me befuddled, but perhaps its because I've never worked in such an environment. I've worked in two different industry jobs, one a consulting company the other a manufacturing company. They were nothing like each other but at both places I was treated with respect, like I was intelligent, and I was given opportunities to interact professionally with high-level managers - mostly presenting my ideas to them. True, my job title has been "intern" for most of the time but I've still gone through the cycle of promotions & performance reviews, and I've never felt like some of the respondents from the study have. Maybe if I had been I would understand why it would cause someone to leave engineering altogether.
I think the longer you work, the more you get a better understanding of other companies out there one could work for. I have a list of a dozen companies that do things similar to what I enjoy that I could work for if my current company doesn't work out. My Plan B has been "if The Company doesn't work out I'll just apply at Company X and Company Y," not "if The Company doesn't work out I'm going to become a crazy cat lady and live under the bridge."
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that women are leaving engineering after working someplace rotten because it's more socially acceptable for them to do so. I think it's safe to say that engineering is still considered a "manly" field despite efforts to reverse that stereotype, and that men who leave the field of engineering because it sucked would be highly ridiculed by their male peers. Women on the other hand, would probably say to their female peers who leave engineering something like "I don't know how you did it for so long!" or "yeesh, that field sounds wretched, good thing you got out of there!"
This is just my uneducated guess, what do you think? Have you ever worked someplace so horrendous that its caused you to consider leaving your field?
I wonder why so many women leave the engineering work to go into management. What's your take on that? Just wondering because in software engineering I saw many women moved into management because the leadership thought the male software engineers didn't have the people skills to work in management. Curious if you think you might see something similar in engineering.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had any experience with women leaving to go into management. At the two companies I've worked at none have had women in management positions.
ReplyDeleteAt one company the women were very shy and meek, advancing in their careers slowly.
At the new place I work the women are quite the opposite but the lowest management level here is director and you need to have your doctorate to be considered for the position (were it open).