THE REAL BENEFIT OF INTRODUCING GIRLS TO ENGINEERING, PROFESSIONALS SAY, IS TO ENGINEERING ITSELF

Teresa Helmlinger, the 68th president of the National Society of Professional Engineers, remembers well her early days as an industrial engineer.

"I was a distinct minority," says Helmlinger. "I can still see the look on some men's faces when I claimed to be an engineer. I'd go to construction sites and have to walk a mile to find the women’s bathroom, which they called the 'kitty litter.' "

But, as Helmlinger and other leaders in engineering will tell you, there has been a sea change in attitudes toward women in the profession, thanks in large measure to increased access and an ever-expanding network of support, encouragement and mentoring.

For Helmlinger, an accomplished, 50-year-old engineer, however, there's still much work to be done, so now she's focused on the future: "My goal is that I leave a legacy so the next person doesn't have to go through what I went through."

For her and thousands of other women engineers -- with a good deal of support from their male counterparts -- establishing that legacy means an all-out mentoring effort on Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, a centerpiece of National Engineers Week's annual outreach to encourage underrepresented groups to consider a career in engineering.

Now in its fourth year, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day 2004 -- Thursday, February 26 -- will feature more than 125 organizations mobilizing 11,000 women engineers to actively reach out to an estimated one million girls that day and throughout the year. The program, often dubbed "Girl Day" in engineering circles, is led by 2004 National Engineers Week co-chair, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE/IEEE-USA), with major sponsors Agilent Technologies, Inc., and the Elizabeth and Stephen Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.

In order to get as many people as possible to participate, Girl Day organizers have posted information, along with resources for volunteers, at the National Engineers Week web site at www.eweek.org. At the site, organizations and engineers can list their activities on the 2004 Pledge Roster, which will help make educational and career opportunities and mentoring programs available for girls and prospective women engineers nationwide.

"The heart and soul of Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day are the young women we inspire," says Joey Duvall, an electrical engineer at Lockheed Martin, IEEE member, and chair of this year's campaign. "I've had a great deal of support from key role models throughout my journey. I never doubted I could become an engineer, and that's the message I hope to give to my younger, future colleagues."

Duvall and others involved in the program stress that Girl Day is much more than an attempt to diversify the profession, which is about 90 percent male. Instead, it's considered a critical linchpin in a nationwide effort to broaden and increase the ranks of engineers in America. Nor is it simply a need to fill numbers. The very essence of engineering, they say, is at stake.

"What do engineers do, really?" asks Sherra Kerns, slated to become president of the 12,000-member American Society for Engineering Education in June 2004. "We design. Design is a fundamental, a creative endeavor. Engineering is creation and implementation. If you have the best social mix and the most perspectives, then more likely you'll have the best design.”

Speaking to what she considers the core of engineering, Kerns, who also serves as vice president for Innovation & Research at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass., says, "There’s more to it than a single solution."

In a similar message, Sherry Woods, director of special projects at the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and president of WEPAN, Women in Engineering Programs & Advocates Network, agrees. "If it's coming from one perspective, it’s limiting," says Woods. "We're committed to ensuring that every girl has an opportunity to pursue whatever career path she wants with no blatant or covert barriers. We don't need those barriers."

Carol Muller, president of MentorNet, points out, "If you have differences of experiences, products are designed better." Muller's nationwide mentoring program headquartered at San Jose State University matches professional women and men engineers with engineering students, mostly women, via email. MentorNet has successfully paired more than 20,000 students and professionals since it began in 1997.

"Women are half the population, half the talent. They should be half the results," she says. "You want more women in engineering and as much talent as possible for the very best designs.”

For Nancy Berg, executive director and general manager of the 40,000-member Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), diversifying engineering not only brings better design, but is essential to the future of America. "We need to look at all our communities," she says. "If we don't strengthen our competitive talent, our leadership in engineering is going to go to other countries."

That means exposing more people early on to the opportunities of engineering. "We seek gender parity to engage as many young people as possible until we have enough brains to make this country successful. Some 500 SME chapters are involved in mentoring programs and summer camps," she says. "We have student chapters, we go to shopping malls. We go where kids go."

And like many of her colleagues, Berg insists it's everyone's responsibility to pitch in as mentors. "We have more role models than we realize," she says.

# # #

Editors and Reporters Please Note: In Brief:

• The fourth annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is Thursday, February 26, 2004. More than 125 organizations will mobilize 11,000 women engineers -- along with strong support from their male colleagues -- to reach an estimated one million girls that day and throughout the year with direct, hands-on mentoring activities. "Girl Day," as it's known by most engineers, is the centerpiece of National Engineers Week's annual outreach to encourage underrepresented groups to consider a career in engineering. The campaign is led by 2004 National Engineers Week co-chair, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE/IEEE-USA), with major sponsors Agilent Technologies, Inc., and the Elizabeth and Stephen Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. More information, resources for volunteers, and a roster of Girl Day activities nationwide, are available at www.eweek.org.
• Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day was founded in 2001 by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), IBM, the Society of Women Engineers, WEPAN, and MentorNet. National Engineers Week, founded in 1951 by NSPE, is dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of technology and the engineering profession and is celebrated by thousands of engineers, engineering students, teachers and leaders in government and business. Co-chairs for 2004 are The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE / IEEE-USA) and the Fluor Corporation.

Editors & Reporters Please Note: At-A-Glance U.S. Engineering Statistics

• Women are 46 percent of the U.S. workforce, and 48.6 percent of the total college-degreed workforce, but are only 24.7 percent of the Science and Engineering workforce.
• Fewer than one in ten engineers -- 9.48 percent -- are women. That’s up slightly from 1993 when it was 7.85 percent.
• Of the 25-30 percent of entering U.S. college students who intend to major in science and engineering fields, fewer than half complete a degree in those fields within five years.

  Source: National Science Foundation