Laura McLay's women in engineering luncheon presentation at CASE 2013 (IEEE conference on automation science & engineering)

1. FIVE
OBSERVATIONS
ABOUT
WOMEN
IN
ENGINEERING
9TH
INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE
ON
AUTOMATION
SCIENCE
AND
ENGINEERING
LAURA
MCLAY,
PHD
Associate
Professor
Industrial
&
Systems
Engineering
University
of
Wisconsin-­‐Madison
lmclay@wisc.edu
@lauramclay
on
twitter
http://punkrockOR.wordpress.com

2. INFORMS
Forum
for
Women
in
Operations
Research
and
the
Management
Sciences
(WORMS)
• https://www.informs.org/Community/WORMS
• @INFORMS_WORMS
on
twitter
• Women
in
INFORMS
are
not
automatically
members
• Please
invite
your
women
students
and
colleagues
to
join
• Luncheon
and
cluster
of
talks
at
the
INFORMS
Annual
Meeting
in
Minneapolis,
October
6-­‐9,
2013.
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
2

3. OBSERVATION
1:
WOMEN
ARE
GETTING
ENGINEERING
DEGREES
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
3

4. Women:
proportion
of
all
engineering
bachelor’s
degrees
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
4
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
45.0
Women
as
a
percentage
of
all
bachelor's
recipients
Math/CS
Engineering

5. Women:
proportion
of
all
engineering
MS
degrees
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
5
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
Women
as
a
proportion
of
all
bachelor's
recipients
Math/CS
Engineering

6. Women:
proportion
of
all
engineering
PhD
degrees
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
6
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
Women
as
a
percentage
of
all
PhD
recipients
Math/CS
Engineering

7. OBSERVATION
2:
WOMEN
PHDS
ARE
MORE
LIKELY
TO
GO
INTO
ACADEMIA
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
7

8. Where
new
PhDs
are
employed
according
to
gender
across
all
fields
(2010)
*
among
those
who
have
jobs
when
they
graduate
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
8
Engineering
Physical
Sciences
(including
math/CS)
Type
of
Job
Men
Women
Men
Women
Academe
19.6%
23.2%
34.1%
44.1%
Government
12.9%
12.0%
9.4%
10.6%
Industry
62.1%
58.2%
51.1%
37.4%
Not
for
Profit
3.1%
3.7%
2.8%
2.5%
Other
2.4%
2.4%
2.5%
5.4%
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/sed/data_table.cfm

9. OBSERVATION
3:
WOMEN
DROP
OUT
OF
ENGINEERING
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
9

10. Women
in
the
workforce
As
a
percentage
of
all
employees
in
certain
sectors
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
10
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1983
1988
1993
1998
2003
2008
Percentage
of
women
in
the
workforce
Mathematical
or
computer
scientist
Engineer
10.6%
in
2009

11. A
majority
male
environment
leads
women
to
leave
engineering
• “Women
actually
don’t
leave
jobs
in
science
at
an
above
average
rate.
The
difference…comes
from
the
engineering
sector.”
• NSF
data
from
more
than
200,000
people
1993
–
2003
• Hunt,
J.
(2010).
Why
do
women
leave
science
and
engineering?
(No.
w15853).
National
Bureau
of
Economic
Research.
http://punkrockor.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/five-­‐articles-­‐about-­‐women-­‐and-­‐engineering/
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
11

12. Another
study
implicated
the
majority
male
environment
in
engineering
• Women
surveyed
who
left
engineering
cited
working
conditions
and
issues
such
as
a
lack
of
career
advancement,
low
salary,
condescending/patronizing
tones
• Many
women
did
not
enter
engineering
after
graduation
due
to
a
poor
perception
of
the
culture
of
the
field
• http://studyofwork.com/
by
UW-­‐Milwaukee
http://punkrockor.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/five-­‐articles-­‐about-­‐women-­‐and-­‐engineering/
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
12

13. OBSERVATION
4:
BUT
WOMEN
HAVE
A
WONDERFUL
HISTORY
IN
ENGINEERING
&
COMPUTING
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
13

14. The
first
supercomputer
was
powered
by
women
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
14
The
original
programmers
of
ENIAC
computer
were
women.
When
the
U.S.
Army
introduced
the
ENIAC
to
the
public,
it
introduced
the
male
inventors,
but
it
never
introduced
the
female
programmers.
The
women
have
been
inducted
into
the
Women
in
Technology
International
Hall
of
Fame.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/12_things_you_didn
%E2%80%99t_know_about_eniac
http://punkrockor.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/the-­‐first-­‐
supercomputer-­‐was-­‐powered-­‐by-­‐women/

15. Retro
computing
pictures
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
15
Colossus
1944
IBM
NORC
1954
http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/12/11/
retro-­‐delight-­‐gallery-­‐of-­‐early-­‐
computers-­‐1940s-­‐1960s/
Honeywell
200,
1963

16. Bell
Labs
in
the
late
1960s
Courtesy
of
Larry
Luckham’s
delightful
website:
http://www.luckham.org/LHL.Bell%20Labs%20Days.html
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
16

17. Cosmopolitan
magazine
• 1967
feature
story
on
women
computer
programmers
• Programming
is
just
like
“planning
a
dinner”
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
17
http://blog.fogcreek.com/girls-­‐go-­‐geek-­‐again/

18. And
more
recently…
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
18

19. OBSERVATION
5:
WOMEN
NEED
ADVOCATES,
NOT
JUST
MENTORS
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
19

20. Women
engineers
need
advocates:
How
to
increase
the
visibility
of
women
researchers
• Have
at
least
one
female
plenary
speaker
if
you
are
organizing
a
conference.
• Nominate
females
for
professional
recognitions
–
from
students
to
senior
colleagues.
• Invite
female
researchers
to
speak
at
your
campuses.
• Publicize
the
successes
of
the
accomplishments
of
females
in
newsletters,
media,
press
releases,
etc.
• Nominate
females
for
professional
society
offices.
• Appoint
females
to
journal
editorial
boards.
• And,
when
someone
achieves,
send
a
congratulatory
note
(a
great
idea
for
both
male
and
female
colleagues)
http://annanagurney.blogspot.com/2013/05/be-­‐advocate-­‐for-­‐female-­‐researchers.html
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
20

21. Thank
you!
My
contact
information:
• lmclay@wisc.edu
• @lauramclay
on
twitter
• Today’s
slides
are
posted
on
my
blog:
http://punkrockOR.wordpress.com
Laura
McLay,
CASE
Conference
2013
21
Three
future
women
in
engineering?