I am a feminist, and I want you to be a feminist too.
Twenty two years ago fourteen women were shot dead in the pursuit of knowledge.
It was not an isolated incident. It was extreme, to be sure, but it was the edge of a societal curve that is itself imbalanced.
As a member of one of the many professions that is heavily male-dominated, I often ask myself, and others, “Why are there so few women in engineering?”
I am given a great many answers, most, if not all of which, are cop outs. Women are not engineers because they are discouraged from being engineers.
In my schooling and in my profession I have seen women consistently devalued. I have had to force male colleagues to stop watching pornography in public labs. I have had to yell at TA’s for making comments about their female students. I have had to explain to men twice my age that I am disappointed and ashamed that they believe that a female astronaut is less qualified than a male astronaut.
I don’t want to have to do this, but I will, just as consistently.
The problem isn’t just the actions of a few, it is systemic; it is an ideology of society. I want it to change, and I want your help. I want you to believe that women are equal with men, that is the foundation of feminism.
I also want you to go one step further. It isn’t a lot to ask, but I promise you it will work; I want you to act. I want you to actively tell people when what they say or do is wrong, and I want you to do it privately and publicly.
The next time you go to tell your niece, your cousin, your daughter, that she’s pretty, I want you to tell her that she’s smart. I want you to promise her that she can be anything she wants to be, and I want you to hold yourself to that promise.
I want you to remember fourteen women who were killed simply because they were women who wanted to know more.
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Hi Arun,
I found your opinion very interesting and am wondering if you would like to be involved in a feminist of the week interview for an Australian magazine? If yes, please send me an email at: barlow-jess@hotmail.com.
Cheers,
Jessica
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Check out this link. It’s not to comment on the authors point, but rather an explanation to some of the disparities in wages seen between sexes that has been raised in this column. I do not know how valid the analysis is, but I thought it was an interesting perspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwogDPh-Sow
Woman generally succeed more than their male counterparts while in University. They have higher grades and usually take on more extracurricular activities and volunteer work than males. This is why they currently make up 60-80% of medical school classes in most Med schools across the country. Woman may not be dominating Engineering, but they are taking over most other professional schools.
If by feminist, you mean that you believe men and woman should be treated equally, I am one too. I think diversity in any workforce stimulates progress, I just think this article could have just as easily been written about males being discouraged to pursue professional educations in today’s society.
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Now before we hear anymore whining from angry white males too cowardly to sign their own names on a comment page, here are some stats from that notorious feminist consortium: the Conference Board of Canada.
In a 2009 study on the gender wage gap in Canada concluded that:
–>Women with a registered apprenticeship or trades certificate earned only 65 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.
–>Young women with no high school diploma earned 67 cents for every dollar earned by young men with the same level of education.
–> Women with a bachelor’s degree earned 89 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.
–>Women aged 25 to 29 holding a graduate or professional diploma and working on a full-time, full-year basis earned 96 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts in 2005.
They continued: “For the most highly educated Canadian women, gender differences in earnings within identical occupations are generally very small among new entrants to the labour force. Young women holding a bachelor’s degree and employed in art, culture, recreation, and sport occupations earned the same as their male counterparts in 2005. Young women employed in social sciences, education, government services, and religion occupations earned 99 cents for every dollar earned by men.
Two exceptions are management occupations and sales and service occupations, where Canadian women consistently earn far less than their male counterparts. Young women employed in management occupations earned 86 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts in 2005. In sales and service occupations, the gap was even larger, at 72 cents for every dollar. Canadian women continue to be overrepresented in low-paying occupations in Canada.”
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/Details/society/gender-income-gap.aspx
Kate
Re; “No one is claiming that MUN is specifically discouraging woman from becoming engineers, I’m sure they’re doing quite the opposite”.
Well, the author does say, quote, “Women are not engineers because they are discouraged from being engineers”. Ok, not MUN specifically, but the author is clearly saying that SOMEONE is discouraging women from becoming engineers. That is the point I disagree with.
Your points are all very valid; gender roles are indeed very real as you say, no doubt about it. I also agree with you when you say there is a lingering sexist norm. Of course there is. I just think that the author has completely misunderstood the concept of equality, and what the driving forces are behind women (or men) going into, or not into, certain professions.
Check out this very relevant article/debate: http://www.economist.com/debate/debates/overview/219
clearly, everyone is missing the big picture! engineering was just used as an example, since its what she knows! yes it is true that women are not overtly discouraged from entering these fields, but the still existing gender roles make it very hard for women to enter them. the gender roles and the people who subscribe to them are who are discouraging.
its the fact that women who do enter stereotypical male dominated careers get excluded, and vice verse! its the still existent gender stereotypes that are present in the majority of people that cause these gender segregation to happen.
not one gender is to blame for it! both are really! but the point is, if people in general keep thinking this way nothing is going to change.
just think critically is all that’s being asked!
I think the above commentators have missed the point. If the large majority of men don’t ‘want to be nurses’ and the large majority of women ‘don’t want to be engineers’ then it’s quite obviously a societal trend – not just individual choice. As far as we’ve come, gender roles are still real. You cannot deny that.
No one is claiming that MUN is specifically discouraging woman from becoming engineers, I’m sure they’re doing quite the opposite. What’s discouraging women from engineering and other male-dominated careers, and likewise men from female-dominated professions, is a lingering sexist norm that this is for women and that is for men; that women are good at this sort of thing and men are good at this other thing.
The problem is that the roles that women are supposedly better at are often underpaid and underappreciated. Men and women are different of course, but we still have a long way to go before we’re truly equal.
I too buy little of what you say. Women are discouraged from entering engineering? By that logic, I assume you believe that men are discouraged from entering nursing, simply because men are a minority of nurses. You DO think that, right? You’d have to based on your logic.
The fact is not as many women want to do engineering as men. Simple as that. If more women wanted to do engineering, more would enroll and become engineers. There’s nothing stopping them. Many women do become successful engineers: the women that choose to.
Do you think there is some kind of conspiracy going on at MUN where they actively discourage women from entering? Nope. MUN and the government would LOVE for more women to get into engineering; it would look good for equality, the university would have a more diverse set of students and the eventual engineers would be more diverse and creative given that there would be more variance of engineering technique. Everyone would benefit.
What I think the author doesn’t understand is that, while equal, men and women are actually different. Yes, different. Women, generally speaking, sometimes like different things than men. Right now, women just aren’t choosing to enroll in engineering.
Currently there are far more women in university in Canada than men; I think it’s about a 60/40 ratio. Where is your outrage about how men are being discouraged from getting into university? I ask because, as a feminist, I assume you are committed to the idea of gender equality.
As a man who grew up in a house with a female majority, as someone who did two university degrees in disciplines absolutely dominated by women (one of which required me to do women’s studies courses) and as someone who currently works in an office with 70% women, over the years I’ve been able to glean what women think of as gender equality. It’s about choice. Women are exercising their freedom of choice not to go to engineering. Men do the same with nursing. Doesn’t mean that there’s active discouragement or discrimination going on.
Medicine, pharmacy, teaching, nursing, university in general. Women are dominating every other form of higher education. Why should we be so concerned that there is at least still one area in which they don’t?
I don’t buy the majority of what you’re saying. You want to know why there aren’t many woman in Engineering? Because they don’t want to be, plain and simple. You trying to blame men for it is just a cop-out on your part. I went to school to do engineering, and in a class of over 90, there were 3 woman. 2 of which I hung around with a nice bit, and I never once witnessed them being treated any differently because of their gender.
The fact that you rope all men into the same category by saying its “systemic” proves that you have an attitude that is on par with these “men” that you’re complaining about.
This problem that you seem to think exist, doesn’t get solved by your particular attitude or way of thinking, it would only make it worse.