Why did you decide to go into engineering? Charlotte: I was very interested in math and physics before applying to college so engineering was a natural choice. My family was also always very supportive and encouraging of my interests from a young age.
Taraneh: Math and science have always been a passion of mine, like they would be any true engineer. The theories we learned in physics and math classes always fascinated me. I always wondered why and how scientists came up with those relations and equations. Once I learned the applications of these thousands of equations, it was so mind opening, I decided to do engineering.
Why have so few woman taken up engineering as a career? Charlotte: I think there is still a fair amount of bias towards women in science at every stage of the game from elementary school, to college, to the workplace. Though as a society, I think we have progressed and I think most men who traditionally occupy those environments are genuinely open to having more women, it’ s not for everyone and I know a lot of women who’ ve decided to take up other careers because they got tired of dealing with the hostility or just the imbalance. I feel supported right now at P2S but I’ ve also been in plenty of environments where I didn’ t so I see it both ways.
Taraneh: Unfortunately, engineering is still viewed as a masculine major. It’ s a loop that we are stuck in, a catch-22. The less visibility women have in engineering, the easier it is to depict it as field which men dominate almost completely. If engineering continues to be thought as a manly field, women will continue to be implicitly discouraged from pursuing it, just as was with the other STEM fields. It’ s a barrier we have to work to break.
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