2nd #Thread of responses from women in aerodynamics to the question, 'what do you currently see as being the major obstacle to women entering your field?'
Responses incl gender career stereotypes from an early age, lack of self-esteem and lack of female role models #WomeninSTEM
Responses incl gender career stereotypes from an early age, lack of self-esteem and lack of female role models #WomeninSTEM
1. "I think that there is not enough awareness of female role-models in my field. There need to be more initiatives that allow young women to connect with female role-models so that they can be inspired and motivated to follow in their footsteps."
2. "Discouragement from teachers in high school to pursue a STEM career and an unwelcoming atmosphere in technical universities."
3. "The biggest challenge to overcome is believing that you can do it. If you have confidence in yourself and determination, you can overcome virtually any obstacle someone else puts in front of you. But if you don’t have faith in yourself, you can be defeated before even trying"
4. "There is still a double standard in many aspects of our jobs that women must overcome, especially once they reach a more senior level. Implicit bias tends to marginalize women, who may have interests in improving teaching or mentoring, in addition to research, at all levels."
5. "I think obstacles to women entering my field begin as early as grade school. Young women need to be told from an early age that they are capable of being good at math, at science, at anything they wish to do. They need to be encouraged and supported early on in these...
6. ...fields If they struggle, help them figure out why and get past it. Do not fall for rote stereotypes. I think that if more young women had this kind of support from an early age and developed confidence in STEM and in themselves throughout grade school, university, and...
7. ...beyond, you would see many more advancing in our field."
8. "Unfortunately society’s gender stereotyping starts very young. We need to reach into the early years of education and make sure that young girls know firstly how exciting a career in engineering can be, and secondly that the field of engineering is critically important to...
9. ...society and improving quality of life."
10. "The lack of awareness of the wide range of career options for females in our field is ‘the’ major obstacle. More initiatives such as this would help in improving the challenge."
11. "Women are under-represented in engineering, especially in academic roles and many women see the profession as male dominated and male driven. I think in such an environment, women can struggle to develop the confidence and access the mentorship that can allow them to...
12. ...thrive. This is especially compounded for BAME women by the fact that ethnic minorities are severely under-represented in academia."
13. "I don’t see that there are any major obstacles nowadays. There are equal opportunities, and the gender gap is improving greatly. However it’s important to make this visible across all levels, an all-male environment can be intimidating to some – and also it really should...
14. ...be a thing of the past."
15. "As a woman, I have to prove I am competent, which means autonomous (not only a man's assistant) whatever my age, especially if your research concerns numerical simulation in mechanical engineering (usually a man's research topic)."
16. "Everyone has their own experience, but it can certainly be off-putting to look at a field and not see yourself well-represented. There is only one way to change that – so I encourage everyone interested in aerospace to invest their energy in it."
17. "Unfortunately, motorsport is still considered as a male prerogative, and women are mostly associated to cars in a way which has nothing to do with engineering."
18. "I still have to tell pupils that mathematics and physics are interesting no matter what the math or physics teacher or their classmates keep telling them. We need to encourage young girls to believe that there is no such thing as “girls” and “boys” jobs."
19. "Discrimination and combining work and family."
20. "The importance given to full time, linear career pathways and therefore the people in them. I have so many other, unique skills I can bring because I have been involved in other environments that are just not valued as highly or seen as benefitting me in role."
21. "I think nothing will stop excellent and determined women, however, there are just as many or more women who aren't sure what they want to do and engineering just isn't a natural choice to try. This stereotype needs to change in order to open more doors for women to try...
22. ...engineering to see if they like it."
23. Things are changing, there are more young women that are interested in engineering. They're aware that they are as capable as their male counterpart and in general, society is changing. We are not at parity, at least not in numbers, but I see how the percentage of female...
24. ...engineering students is increasing and I can see the respect from their male counterparts. Obstacles are still there, because you can still find it in academics that underestimate women achievement. We’re fighting for eliminating these old patterns and we eventually will."
25. "Lack of role models at all career stages - there are a few notable examples at the very top, and lots of examples of undergraduates, but it's hard to plot a path of women at all career stages."
26. "I think the preconception is that in order to be good at engineering you need to know how an engine works or have spent your childhood taking things apart and putting them back together. Being a successful engineer is about having good logic and problem solving skills and...
27. ...working well in a team to find solutions. These skills aren't only shown by those who understand the inner workings of an engine at the age of 16."
28. "I think many women are simply bored by data, and are naturally disinclined to like fields where the gratification of helping people is so far removed from your daily job. I would say to them that even jobs that seem boring still require collaboration and teamwork with...
29. ...other human beings, and offer opportunities of creativity and personal growth by making your workplace a better place because of your presence there. Your differences from your peers are opportunities in disguise to better your company by leveraging your strengths for...
30. ...positive change, even when they may not see it themselves at first."
31. "Unconscious bias. The problem with unconscious bias is that people don’t believe they’re guilty of it, even when they are. I also think that all people are not necessarily good at acknowledging the gravity and impact of a situation if they haven’t personally experienced...
32. ...it for themselves. I think the major obstacle stems from both of these things; what I see often is a semi-hostile climate in which people are unwilling or unable to see or acknowledge the issues facing women, which leads to a workplace of which women do not want to be...
33. ...a part, which leads to fewer women, and hence, more people perpetuating that hostile work environment."
34. "Formula One has traditionally had a very male-dominated, testosterone-driven “petrol head” image. Things are changing, but old pre-conceptions take a while to shift and I think this image puts many women off. We also need to do a better job of publicising the many varied...
35. ...types of engineering fields and technologies we make use of. People still have an image in their head of a race team mechanic in overalls changing a tyre in the pit stop, or someone waving a smoke wand in a wind tunnel (not that there is anything wrong with those!)...
36. ...Actually it is a highly technical industry where we spend time problem-solving in multi-disciplinary teams, inventing things and trying out new technologies. There is something for everyone even just within the areas related to aerodynamics – whether you want to get...
37. ...hands on with a wind tunnel experiment, try out a new aerodynamic sensor at the track, write code to look for patterns in our vast amounts of data, invent new turbulence models for CFD, create the control loop for an actuator on our wind tunnel model, or work on our...
38. ...supercomputer. I often meet girls and women through our STEM involvement who say they had no idea how many engineering and tech career options were available to them in F1."
39. "I think women feel engineering is a man’s world and that there's not a lot of opportunity to make real contributions to benefit society. Women tend to want careers that nurture others or better our world. Engineering has potential to do that more than most realize and it...
40. ..comes by breaking down human limitations. I love the movie “Hidden Figures” and the fact that it highlights women who helped get us to the moon. Many of the challenges those women encountered 50 years ago are no longer around today and we can be grateful for that progress."
41. "I think it has been a self-perpetuating cycle. Outdated gender stereotypes of what men and women are better suited to has meant boys and girls are encouraged/discouraged in different ways. Historically, the discouragement of girls has been direct—they were literally...
42. ...excluded from a university education and many professions like engineering. In modern society, the discouragement doesn’t need to be overly direct to have an influence, and could be as subtle as the number of dolls vs. the number of LEGO sets gifted to a young girl, or...
43. ...a lack of visibility of female role models in engineering. This in turn creates a generation of male-dominated engineering cohorts, with women who remain as minorities. The subtle and overt barriers at every career stage result in very few women reaching senior levels,...
44. ...which further perpetuates the outdated gender stereotypes, and so it keeps going."
45. "I think our culture has a tendency to assign genders to specific careers at a very early age. Engineering is just one example, but there are plenty on both the male and female side. It can be intimidating for people to cross that cultural boundary to pursue a career...
46. ...they’ve grown up viewing as “for men” or “for women”. Often, this gender barrier is subconscious, which makes it particularly challenging to overcome. I think by the time women are selecting career paths, many of them no longer view the field as a realistic option. It’s...
47. ...hard to picture yourself as an engineer if every picture of an engineer you’ve ever seen doesn’t look like you."
48. "I have never felt any obstacle but I am aware of other companies/working groups in which the thought of the woman being at home taking care of the house and children and with little career aspirations is still present. In addition, the number of women that decide to study...
49. ...engineering is less and less every year. I am not sure why they are not interested in this field…maybe lack of information? For this I think that any initiative, such as this one, promoting engineering among women is a great help."
50. "This isn’t necessarily female specific, but I do feel like this is a problem that women face more frequently than men. Academia is an old-fashioned construct that was designed around a single person (generally male) being the family bread-winner: this is just not the case...
51. ...any more. Early career academics are expected to move multiple times (at minimum, three moves: often a move for their Phd, first postdoc, and then first lectureship) – and these moves are often across the country or even the world. Couple this with the timeline and...
52. ...financial support structure associated with these moves (last minute and non-existent), and families are forced to make difficult decisions in terms of taking on debt, moving from stable communities and their partner changing jobs. More often than not women are the ones...
53. ...who elect to sacrifice to enable the academic lifestyle of their partner. I think the academic system needs an overhaul in terms of expectations and job security: in our increasingly interconnected world, long-distance moves are not as necessary as they once might have...
54. ...been. Increased flexibility in working location, hours, and expectations are crucial to retain women in science. Additionally, the way we evaluate success in academia is based on a model of a full-time (often over-time) academic – the number of successful grants,...
55. ...publications, and achievements directly correlate with perceived “success.” Anyone who takes a year off to prioritize family is immediately behind in the numbers game."
56. "The major obstacle that I see is perseverance and attitude. As a woman entering my field, you have to be mentally equipped to deal with annoyances of the gender gap. I often find myself working through those without even realizing it until after the fact when given time...
57. ..to reflect (especially when answering questions like this). You can't let all of the little things get to you. You have to choose your battles. You have to be unafraid of being judged for being ‘too’ vocal with your opinions. You have to be honest with yourself and others..
58. ...about your expectations and capabilities. You have to be assertive. Men and women present varying qualities that complement each other. I'm an advocate for cultural changes to balance those qualities better but I also embrace it as a benefit of diversity in the workplace."
59. "I do not see any obstacle for women for the entrance to my field. Even, I think that it is easier for a woman to be in a high quality engineering environment."
60. "A big challenge I see is getting young women in high school motivated to pursue a career in aerospace engineering. The percentage of women entering college in this field is still quite low. STEM outreach is good; however, I think high school teachers, guidance counsellors...
61. ...and parents are in best position to motivate young women toward the opportunities. We should spend our time educating them. Or, if all else fails, another good movie couldn’t hurt."
62. "There are still a lot of men which think that women can't be equally good as them. But if these men have the possibility to work with women they almost always change their minds. Women are often shy and don't show that they are way better than their male competitor...
63. ...it is not in “their nature” to be extraverts. We have to change that to overcome the disadvantages and use our nature given advantages (logical thinking, see the big picture etc.)"
64. "I feel that right from childhood, women should not be subject to stereotypes of maths and science being “hard” or not meant for them. In the same way, we should not stereotype some careers, like engineering to be hard and demanding for women. They are equally hard and...
65. ...demanding for men if we keep equal expectations from both gender at work and at home. If the house and family responsibilities are shared equally by both men and women, then I believe that we will see a shift in the society where the families will be able to find a...
66. ...better balance to support themselves and their careers. Another obstacle to women entering aerospace engineering is having fewer women role models to look up to. By changing the way we encourage women to pursue these fields, we can grow a base of role models as well."
67. "I think a lot of young people don't know what engineering is (I certainly didn't before I got to college), and the things that they do know may not sound particularly relevant to a lot of young women. When I was first looking into it, I got the sense that you should...
68. ...an engineer if you liked math or liked building things. I did like math, but I was one of two girls in my AP Calculus class. Most of my female friends fell prey to believing they were "bad at math" in middle school; a fate I only escaped because my mother pushed me to...
69. ...continue in honors math through middle school until I got better at it and started enjoying it in high school. For many girls, they don't feel good at or particularly in love with math by the end of high school, and they haven't had "building stuff" as an interest from...
70. ...young age. But, as an engineer in aeronautics, I can tell you that I'm not an engineer because I love math or love building things, though both of those things are true to some extent now. What I really love is problem solving, being creative, getting to visualize and...
71. ...physically understand highly complex physical systems, and making a difference in the world. Those are the reasons I'm an engineer. I think that trying to advertise what engineers do in ways that can appeal to many different interests is really important in getting...
72. ...young women involved. Early coursework and internships can also be shaped to highlight problem solving and impact as well as math and building to appeal to more people."
73. "It's the simple preference for experience that admissions counselors, professors, and employers are attached too. A lack of initial experience and no history of building things in your garage does not prohibit a person from being capable of developing into a great...
74. ...engineer or aerodynamicist. These people may even be better students, researchers, and employees in the long run than someone who has these experiences. However, there is a preference for engineers and scientists to have hobbies that women are frequently discouraged or...
75. ...simply not encouraged to be involved with. I also think that when women see these sorts of skills as requirements on job postings and assume that because they don't have all of the skills, they will not be good enough candidates."
76. "The expectations we have of ourselves – it can trip us on the path of true success, which is doing what you really like in your field along with those parts you don’t like so much, thinking that you have to achieve something by a certain age or in a certain amount of time...
77. ...or when comparing yourself with your peers. Of course, society itself is not exactly helping matters. We still see pink rows of Barbies and blue rows of robots and Lego. There are people that still stress that a woman’s lot is to make kids. And, of course, what I have...
78. ...already mentioned, that if you do go into a ‘men field’ you have to be better than men in that field to show your worth. In aerodynamics particularly, I think the problem is that it is seen a bit of a closed field, where only men go, especially those that are interested...
79. ...in simulation or heavy math. I think those girls that have an interest in games and simulations or maths and physics should be told about this path as well. When I talk to some of my female students, I see fear and self-doubt about using the computer proficiently, and...
80. ...usually it stems from being poorly taught during college or not being shown what else you can do with a computer other than social media. Not all girls are like that, of course. I have some great examples in my class this year. I think that encouragement should start at...
81. ...family level and grow from there, in order for women to feel comfortable with engineering fields. Another problem that I have seen is that aerodynamics has been constructed as this ‘dry’ mathematical field in which if you don’t know high level maths (at very high levels...
82. ...of understanding) you have no place in it. Sometimes it feels that some researchers take pleasure in discussing the most obscure mathematical methods applied to the most minutia problem in fluid dynamics just to show their level of knowledge, and sadly I have observed...
83. ...that with men mostly. Also, I have had questions or insinuations that if I don’t know a particular way of solving problems in aerodynamics or have hands on experience in aerospace (meaning working – use and maintenance – on experimental installation) I am not an...
84. ...engineer or enough of an engineer. But it might have been just me."
85. "The major obstacle appears to be a combination of things: insecurity, timidity, and a lack of self-esteem. These lead to things like “imposter syndrome”, where you don’t believe that you have earned what you have achieved and rationalize against yourself to avoid conflict."
