Muller, who works with an all-female staff of 10, feels that women tend to go into professions where they can see immediate gratification, such as medicine. She said that girls should be made aware from grade school on up that engineering also helps the world in many ways. MentorNet currently has 70 participating universities and the program involves 2,000 pairs of women each year. Muller hopes that it will help increase the number of women engineers throughout the industry. But women are often nominated for certain tasks because of gender bias, she said.
Engineers work in teams, and women face a disadvantage here right from the college level.
When an employer sees John Doe's and Jane Doe's resume that are at the same level, there will be an automatic assumption that the man will be more competent than the woman. To gain credibility, the woman will have to show substantial experience. But it is a vicious cycle - she will not get the experience if she does not get that first job. Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.