The emphasis on social fitness causes youth to be overly conscious of gender roles and images. From birth and early childhood, the difference between boys and girls is highly emphasized. They are labeled differently, starting with the colors of blue and pink. Toys are made to teach girls how to create hairdos, paint fingernails, etc. In addition, engineering is still trying to catch up in terms of gaining recognition as being socially successful.
Engineering does have some tough competition going against it.
Fields such as medicine, business and law have long gained societal acceptance and have been given the socially successful status. We face the challenge in promoting engineering careers because the competition with medical, business and law careers is indeed stiff. We should note that, in many other countries, youth become socially successful through their excellent academic work in school. The only way we can have fair competition between technical fields and medicine, law and business is if our entire society begins to value and respect engineering as a career choice. In most Asian countries, even before children know exactly what engineers do, they declare engineering a career choice.