Women in electronics - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: trollphilosophy
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 11:24:18 am
content: How many women are electronics engineers in your country compared to men ? Why the difference ?

author: george.b
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 11:46:01 am
content: "Trollphilosophy"Hmm.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 11:48:00 am
content: Perhaps you could give us your thoughts so that we can work out if you're a legitimate poster or not? I have my doubts.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 12:06:19 pm
content: From:https://www.oecd.org/gender/data/why-dont-more-girls-choose-stem-careers.htm

author: Karel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 12:06:51 pm
content: Ok then, I'll bite.During whole my career, I only met two women engineers on the workfloor.They didn't last long. Both changed jobs after a year or so because they discovered that, in the end,they didn't like electronics very much or they weren't interested in it.And no, it was not because we men behaved like monkies.We have many women on the workfloor, but no female engineers.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 12:41:12 pm
content: Quote from: Ian.M on December 25, 2020, 12:06:19 pmThe more the merrier.Thx for the info, topic can be (should be)closed.

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 12:58:44 pm
content: I've always had the greatest respect for talented women in multiple fields. There is NO reason that they can not be,and very often 'are' some of the top in the fields of medicine/genetics/astronomy/general science etc etc.The same should apply in regards to elect/electronic fields, but there is still a lot of a 'Mans-World' attitude here.It doesn't really relate, but years ago, I would make a phone call to some 'Tech' company, and even explain in asimplistic explanation as to what I needed, or wanted to find out, to a girl/woman. She would say... "That's OK,I can help you with that!". So I would go through some tech spiel (Elect/Electronic), and 99% of the time therewas a pause, before saying... "Oh... I'll put you through to someone who can help you!".I wish it wasn't that way!!

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 01:20:29 pm
content: Quote from: Ian.M on December 25, 2020, 12:06:19 pmI wonder if we could use principles of PID control to servo the average 'strength' of the genders to be equal across all fields by adjusting hours of instruction in various subjects in lower schools. Sounds like a plan, any Control Theory aficionados willing to take a shot at Nobel Peace Prize 2030?

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 01:36:33 pm
content: Quote from: trollphilosophy on December 25, 2020, 11:24:18 amFact n fact only, men have penises and women have vaginas ... there you go, start from here.

author: DTJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 01:57:14 pm
content: Quote from: BravoV on December 25, 2020, 01:36:33 pmNot any more. Our local mayor copped a huge public backlash for saying exactly that. Squeaky wheels popped up from all sorts of places to join in the outrage.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8909603/Perth-Mayor-Basil-Zempilas-undergo-transgender-awareness-training-controversial-comments.htmlhttps://www.outinperth.com/lord-mayor-basil-zempilas-if-you-have-a-penis-youre-a-man/

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 02:38:34 pm
content: I suspect a lot of girls think "tech stuff is for guys", although that's changing now that there are so many prominent women in tech out there. (A few examples: April Wilkerson, Jennelle Eliana, Naomi Wu, Simone Giertz)

author: trollphilosophy
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 05:26:38 pm
content: Quote from: NiHaoMike on December 25, 2020, 02:38:34 pmYes. It's probably deprecated mentality about men and women jobs.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 05:45:50 pm
content: Quote from: Ian.M on December 25, 2020, 12:06:19 pmThe number of STEM graduates may have little to do with the number of people actually working in STEM jobs. With the huge numbers of people now getting degrees in western countries, only a modest percentage are getting jobs in the fields they studied. Also, many only work in the field they studied for a short period before moving on. The number of women studying for electronics degrees in most western countries isn't very high, but its a lot higher than the number you see working in fresh graduate electronics jobs. The number of women you see working in fresh graduate jobs is much higher than the number you see working as experienced engineers. You can go through a very large pile of CVs for a job requiring 10 years experience before you find the first woman candidate. You may find the complete opposite in some areas of life sciences.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 08:19:58 pm
content: Well, I can't say anything about US-born engineers. I work with a EE professor from a nearby (state) university. He has mostly foreign-born engineers, and about half of them are women. Some of them are VERY good. They work on IC design (the prof's specialty) and we get the benefit of having some chips designed for us. He has rather few US-born students, and they have been 100% male. Those guys were REALLY top-notch, though.Jon

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 08:29:41 pm
content: Quote from: trollphilosophy on December 25, 2020, 11:24:18 amGet a wife or girlfriend and you will find out why pretty fast.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 10:16:38 pm
content: Quote from: NiHaoMike on December 25, 2020, 02:38:34 pmMost of the "prominent" ones are actually not that great... they are just prominent.The truly competent ones you don't hear about, because they blend in with the men. We are in the minority, but I am fine with that.China is conspicuously missing from the charts above.

author: bob91343
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 10:27:37 pm
content: I have wondered the same thing. It seems that there is some genetic difference that causes women to lack interest in electronics. Of course electronics is a very big field but even so women engineers are seldom in evidence.I don't think it's cultural, that men find ways to keep women out. I think more that women don't want in.Look at music. While there are many woman musicians playing every instrument, there is definitely skew. Way out of proportion more women are singers rather than instrumentalists. Very few play the typical male instruments like saxophone and trumpet and, somewhat, double bass and trombone. They more often play violin or flute or harp or piano. I don't know why this is, but it seems to be so.Engineering is complex and even teaching it is complex. I never met a female engineering teacher. I met one female engineer who said that engineering was the last frontier for women in industry.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 10:38:42 pm
content: Quote from: Ian.M on December 25, 2020, 12:06:19 pmR2= 0.28 is pretty low. Doesn't make sense to actually draw that line.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 10:55:29 pm
content: Quote from: bob91343 on December 25, 2020, 10:27:37 pmI find a significant (not huge, but significant) number of women show real interest in electronics as a subject to study, but most rapidly lose interest in it when they need to spend day after day at a bench or desk, head down, working through piles of fine details. They quickly want to move on. Systems design is an area where you do find more women sticking around in significant numbers. This also involves lots of head down work on the fine minutiae of the system models, so its not obvious why this maintains the interest of more women.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 11:18:32 pm
content: Jeri Ellsworth. (They even use to be an active member here on this forum).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeri_EllsworthAmazing, genuine interest in Electronics, even including vintage stuff!Hence, series like these:Amazing Live Volcano video they made, well worth watching, if you haven't seen it yet:

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2020, 11:43:16 pm
content: Quote from: amyk on December 25, 2020, 10:16:38 pmMore like content about engineering in detail is just not that popular among the general public. Guys making that sort of content face the exact same problem.Of which, some notable examples (in the maker community) of women in engineering who have way above average skills are Fran Blanche, Jeri Ellsworth, Kitty Yeung, Micah Elizabeth Scott, Quinn Dunki, Sarah Petkus, and Xyla Foxlin. None of them are popular compared to the more "mainstream" women in engineering I listed earlier, blame (most of) the general public not being smart enough or interested enough to go that far into the technical topics.Quote from: bob91343 on December 25, 2020, 10:27:37 pmProbably has something to do with how the female voice is "more pleasant".

author: mc172
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2020, 12:34:25 am
content: Jog on with this women in engineering bollocks. Most of the time it's just a ploy to get desperate men aroused and therefore spend money by showing some mundane bullshit whilst wearing next to nothing like that Naomi whatever she's called.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2020, 01:52:12 am
content: Quote from: bob91343 on December 25, 2020, 10:27:37 pmIt might be that women don't like the life of a touring band. Some of the most famous pop recordings from the 1950s until today have female session musicians playing things like bass and saxophone on them, but unless they do something more prominent, like producing teaching materials, you seldom hear their names.Try looking at rock bands in Japan today. A lot are half female or all female, and many avoid the trap of feeling the need to look tough and masculine to be accepted playing hard rock. That might suggest that culture is a big factor.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2020, 02:00:41 am
content: Quote from: amyk on December 25, 2020, 10:16:38 pmGoing deep doesn't pay. If you look at some prominent channels on YouTube, like EEVBlog and The Signal Path, they have a mix of lightweight and heavyweight videos. Some really quite heavy in the case of The Signal Path. They all note a direct relationship between the depth of their videos and the income they generate. Going deep doesn't pay. Of course many presenters aren't really capable of going deep, but keeping the videos accessible tells you nothing about the presenter's capabilities.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2020, 02:05:43 am
content: Quote from: mc172 on December 26, 2020, 12:34:25 amHardly "most of the time". The only other women in the maker community (that I'm aware of) who "show off" their appearance to an "excessive" degree are Sarah Petkus and Xyla Foxlin, and neither do it anywhere as often as Naomi Wu does. All the rest are pretty modest.Keep in mind the prominent mainstream makers do something very important to the maker community - "pull in" new members. For example, I don't think the Ender 3 would be anywhere as popular as it is now if it weren't for Naomi working in marketing for Creality. Now she's testing and developing a printer optimized for automated production of items with minimal manual intervention - she has some real engineering skills once you get past the "stripper" appearance.

author: intabits
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 26, 2020, 04:15:59 am
content: I used to wonder why women weren't interested in electronics. No great strength is required, and you don't get your hands dirty. You can comfortably do it indoors, which I assumed they would prefer. Unlike say, motor mechanics, yet there are probably a greater proportion of women doing that.As psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson points out, the most apparent intellectual difference between men and women is that men tend to like working with things, and women prefer to work with people.He also points out that where there is the greatest sociological freedom for the genders to pursue whatever field of endeavour they wish, without any social stigmas, the divergence of choice mentioned above is counter-intuitively even greater. He says this is most true in the Scandinavian countries. The charts in this thread seem to bear that out.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 26, 2020, 08:18:53 am
content: Locked.