Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day: Not Just Another Holiday

by Megan Tackney, Program Associate, 
National Women's Law Center

I opened my email this morning to find a well-timed announcement that today is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. It could not have come sooner. Even as I was walking to work this morning, I was still enraged about a conversation I had the day before about women working in engineering. As a “joke,” a male friend had recently posted a gchat away message describing an offensive statement against women hung in his office’s break room. His company? A well known engineering firm. Upon seeing his message, I entered into a heated debate about how the message was far from funny and could constitute unlawful sexual harassment.

The sign was eventually taken down, and I am unaware of whether any reprimand was given. Looking for some comfort, I described the story to my boyfriend, also an engineer. He agreed wholeheartedly that the action was unacceptable and would never occur in his office. However, when I asked how many women worked in his firm, he said two. They are the administrative assistants.

When we discuss helping women enter non-traditional fields like engineering, we must also discuss the challenges women face every step of the way. They face barriers in school that prevent enrollment and completion of training for these fields. And many women face gender discrimination and harassment in the workplace just like I described in the story above.

More women need to enter fields like engineering because it is a growing and profitable industry. By working in engineering, women have the opportunity to bring home higher wages and better support their families. By pulling from a larger pool of candidates in the science and engineering fields, we can better ensure that we have the best men and women working in the industry.

So today, I would like to re-introduce girls to engineering, and say welcome, as always, your possibilities for success are endless.