The Role And Origin Of Women In Engineering

The role and origin of women in Engineering

A problem in which engineering and technology careers are involved is the "little participation of the female gender in these areas", and this because of several agents that favor this environment.

An important factor which is the precursor of the problem is the macho thinking in which these engineering and technology races were developed, which today are known as men’s careers, which has generated “exclusion and discrimination against women in this ambit".

Historically, there has been a belief that humanity has specific roles in which men and women perform in specific tasks as stated by “culture has its origin in human nature and its forms are restricted by both biology and by law natural, those that find a sense for human praxis and are channeled by culture ”, this means that basically humans are conditioned to fulfill the roles that are imposed by their biology,“ Charles Darwin, postulates at the origin of the origin of the man and sexual selection: “Man distinguishes himself from women in height, body strength, villus, etc., And also in intelligence … " .

Over the years, these thoughts were implementing in people as something natural that, as Guerrero tells us “for each society it is perceived according to the cultural patterns that it has built, therefore, it is subject to a deep variability of the behavior, depending on established cultural patterns " . For example, in childhood it is an important moment for children to decide that they want to be adults, usually children are given tools, cars, among others.

While toy kitchens, dolls, beauty set. This conditions boys to decide their hobbies in what they want military ". 

Due to the above events, women were not taken into account in the development of science because they are considered “weak, unintelling and lacking logic” Gustave Lu. This generated that women will not develop in the field of science and technology, so today there is "the absence of female models to follow in the areas of science and engineering". In addition to the “little dissemination of the media on the research and work of women in science, since the media are key to overcoming the male image of science and scientific references."What encourages girls not to be interested in science and technology.

As previously mentioned, machismo in these careers is that it makes it difficult for women to opt for engineering and technology, given that they are not given the same opportunities as men.

As an example, we have the testimony of Bottini and Castro who, as engineering, had several inconveniences for being women and “indicate how the workplace also plays an important role in deciding that studying”, as well as students from UTNBA They say how the treatment of women is in a career where most are men and as "they have had to adapt to certain dynamics and face several prejudices by family and teachers"

The family context is a condition for women in engineering and technologies, since certain families adhere to the known and traditional so there is a "cultural pressure on women to adjust to traditional gender roles" 

Starting from the workplace based on what they say and "in the engineering industry it is difficult for women. Which affects them not only in an economic sense, but practical, since they are not sufficiently recognized and are scarcely valued in the meritocratic system ”. It also informs us what Nubia Villacís, former president of the National Electoral Council said: “They never ask if he is capable, they assume that they can occupy any position of maximum representation. Instead, to (designate a) a woman thinks about it a thousand times ". This is due to the prejudices and difficulties that work life with personal life and to a greater extent if you are a family, and this is because there is the idea of ​​"deciding if you are a mother or professional but not both" but for the Side of men, “nothing prevents their male companions from following the rhythm imposed by the Academy to ascend, to the most relevant positions."

It is clearly demonstrated how there is so much inequality in the work environment, so women are afraid to enter technical careers and opt for careers that have greater benefits for them and also have much more flexible schedules that do not make them choose between the family and work.

Everything raised above is the main reasons why there is such a low percentage of women in engineering and technologies and we can observe it in the figures of different universities, where we evidence that this problem not only occurs in Ecuador but also throughout the world:

“According to (García, 2002, p. 92) In Mexico the percentage of women who applied to engineering and exact science races is 23%, which is the lowest percentage of the table presented. Another clear example is in universities in Spain "in the engineering and architecture branch the percentage of women is 26.4%". MECD.Gob.is, (2016), as cited in (Flores, 2015, p. 5), it is known that in “the United States, there is 20%; China concentrates 35%, while in Ecuador they reach 10%"of women in these branch demonstrating that" globally, there are 30%" 

Conclusions

Despite the low percentages shown, it is known that these were previously much lower, this proves as many women have ventured into these races, dodging all the obstacles that they had to cross as the machismo present in their career, discrimination In their work area, pressure in the family environment for the career they chose, stereotypes imposed by society that women cannot or should not perform positions and professions that are clearly “men” among many others. Today they are professionals who demonstrate their potential in engineering and technology, although it is a long way to travel, it is expected that thanks to the measures and programs that are being implemented around the world as REMCI (the Ecuadorian Network of Scientific Women) which which They have “as an initial goal to increase the number of Ecuadorian women with active careers and at management levels in the areas of science, technology and innovation; with the mission of contributing to the equitable participation of women in these areas and to the recognition of the contributions made by Ecuadorian scientists to society ”thus promoting more girls and adolescents to study engineering and technology careers since as well as well They know these are careers that has a great future and even better if more women with brilliant minds contribute in these scientific advances.

“Human life passes in continuous adaptation to the cultural forms that are transmitted to it, which needed to have been previously created that the construction and creative capacity of the human being is more fundamental than its receiving capacity, and in turn it is the basis for construction of culture.

Which shows that we can build a future where humanity is no longer defined by roles and careers are masculinized or feminized with more and better professionals who make this world a better place.