A Woman's Domain and Range

During my years at Columbia, Sunita Williams has space-walked, Meg Whitman has served as the chief executive officer of eBay Inc., and Francoise Barré-Sinoussi has won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The fact that women have made such great achievements in science-and- technology-related fields can deceive one into thinking that the gender disparity in these fields is diminishing. Yet, while more women are going into engineering, they still make up only 11% of engineering professionals nationally. The gap between males and females is lower on college campuses where women make up 19.4% of engineering undergraduates nationally. At Columbia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, males still heavily outnumber the females. So why is the proportion of female engineers still so low?

As a student of physics in high school, I cherished stories of how an apple falling off a tree drew Sir Isaac Newton to study the concept of gravity and how Albert Einstein, despite faring poorly in school, ended up formulating the theory of relativity. Stories about the success of male scientists are abundant, inspiring young men to pursue the same profession by providing personal role models. Stories of women’s achievements in science are not nearly as pervasive in society, making it difficult for young girls to draw inspiration from role models in science with whom they could easily relate. The stories that do exist are often infused with professional exploitation—Rosalind Franklin, whose research Watson and Crick used to conclude that the structure of DNA is a double-helix, was not given any credit for her work during her lifetime. Such stories perpetuate the belief that women cannot receive recognition in science despite natural talent and hard work. This unfortunately discourages subsequent generations from pursuing the study of science.

At Columbia, the gender gap in the SEAS faculty also makes it tougher for female students to find mentors who can encourage them through personal examples of having successfully overcome challenges. However, notably successful faculty members can inspire students through their excellence and leadership in traditionally male-dominated professions. Professor Gertrude Neumark, one such faculty member, is the first female to hold a named chair in SEAS and is at the forefront of research on wide band-gap semiconductor doping.

The biggest impediment to diverse groups succeeding in engineering is the prevalence of rigid stereotypes for the skills certain “groups” of people have. Women are traditionally seen as having artistic, social, communicative, and organizational strengths but not engineering-related skills of logical analysis and problem solving. Even at the college level, leaders like former Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers believe that innate differences between men and women can account for the gender gap in the scientific field. In other words, women simply do not have the requisite skills needed to equal the achievements of men in engineering. Some people even take this stereotype so far as to declare that the engineering fields with more women are “softer” disciplines. When asked about the perception of her major, Society of Women Engineers (SWE) president Lauren Fong stated, “Environmental engineering see[s] more women than men, at least at Columbia, and in some ways ... the predominance of women causes some to devalue the work in these equally important areas of engineering.”

At the high school level, such stereotypes can prevent girls from pursuing math and science altogether. Mean Girls illustrates, in a dramatic manner, the extent to which students go to simply fit in socially at school. Cady Heron, the protagonist of the movie, is willing to give up her talent and interest in math in order to be considered popular. Social labels, such as “geeks” and “nerds,” dissuade all groups, especially women­—who are branded particularly negatively by such labels­—from pursuing engineering in college.

Clubs at Columbia are constantly trying to encourage women interested in math and science to pursue their dreams. SWE brings female professionals in science to campus to demonstrate that women can and do succeed in the field. The club also has a big sib/little sib program to provide mentorship to first-years and sophomores as well as to create a social and professional network of engineers. Another student club, Women’s History Month, celebrates women’s contributions in engineering as well as in other firlds. Such a celebration aims to inspire students through raising awareness of the personal stories of successful female pioneers.

Columbia University is actively recruiting more diverse faculty to provide the mentorship and support that underrepresented students need. Since many women are dissuaded from purusing careers in science in the restrictive environment of high school, providing more options to students on campus could enable them to pursue the field in college. Given that the University forces students to choose between engineering and liberal arts when applying to Columbia, students enrolled in the College should be allowed to double major, or at the very least, minor in a SEAS engineering program. The University should also consider making it easier for students to transfer between schools once accepted. This would enable those who discover an interest in math and science later on to pursue such subjects.

At the end of the day, we should follow Marie Curie’s advice: “We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”

The author is a senior in the School of Engineering and Applied Science majoring in materials engineering. She is the former Society of Women Engineers president.