Engineering Doesn’t See Gender, Your Sexism Does
Why not Mechanical or Civil Engineering? Are these branches not for girls?
All women in engineering – may they be a student or in the workforce – have heard these phrases;
“Mechanical engineering is not for girls.”
“You’re better off doing something with computers.”
“Physics is not a subject where girls excel, why don’t you try chemistry.”
“Girls just naturally like chemistry more.”
They are casually thrown about without realising the effect they have on young girls.
We notice this in the famous YouTube series Kota Factory – a story set in a coaching institute hub, with students preparing for their engineering entrance exams. The protagonist rants about how chemistry is a subject with unnecessary rules and too many exceptions. He further goes on about how even the colours in chemical reactions are not straightforward, ‘apple green’ and ‘hot pink’ rather than green or pink. He says, “Isliye chemistry sirf aur sirf ladkiyo ki achhi hoti hai” [which translates to “It is because of this that only girls do well in chemistry”] perpetuating the stereotype that girls like colourful things and thus, must like chemistry.
This doesn’t make sense, does it? Out of all the girls studying engineering that I’ve interacted with, next to none have an innate liking for the subject[chemistry]. Makes one wonder, which of these age-old STEM stereotypes are genuinely relevant in today’s world?
The question is, why do girls prefer software-related subjects rather than core subjects such as mechanical or civil engineering?
It is a belief that the physical work accompanying these core engineering branches is too much for girls to handle.
Rubina Mahtab, a current System Tech Engineer says,
“For me, it has been almost 7 years in mechanical engineering, where I have seen a fair share of the so-called “gender inequality”. For those of you wondering what it was like, well, there is none. Except for guys having a ‘marginal’ advantage in muscle power, it’s ultimately the brain that counts.”
I remember when it was my time to decide the subject I would pursue during my graduation. Relatives or other older people would ask me what will I be doing after 12th, and when I told them that my calling is engineering, the follow-up question, “What branch?”. The sigh of relief after I told them that it would be computer science annoyed me. The question would pop up in my head, what if I wanted to do something else, would that be too unseemly for them?
I have completed my first year of engineering now. Even though it went by online, I have made connections and talked to many girls from different branches. The experience has more or less been the same with everyone. When first talking about engineering, the girls were pushed towards subjects like IT or Computer Science. Different approaches are applied to discourage girls from taking the more ‘physical’ subjects. A few of them being that there is higher pay for someone doing chemical engineering or that computer engineering is easier and thus, less mentally draining. One more simple truth is that such a limited number of girls take up these branches that they have very few role models to look up to.
It is a common misconception that the mechanical/civil branches have that you would have to be onsite for the work to be done and girls would have trouble with that.
Preethikha, B.E. Civil Engineering (Class of 2017) says,
“People forget that civil engineering is not limited to only field engineering, in fact, it’s one of the broadest fields of engineering. Girls can opt for office jobs like analysis, designing, tendering, managing projects and many other office jobs.”
One other common dilemma faced by girls is the gender gap. While other engineering branches don’t have it much better, it’s astronomical in these two branches. Girls shy back when they hear that there will be classes with the strength of 80 students with a handful of girls. What we don’t understand is that students of all genders are in the same boat when the academic year starts. Everyone is in a new environment and as scared as the person sitting to their right or left. Once you reach out to people around you, you’d find that they are as desperate as you to make friends.
Companies all over the globe are trying to reduce the gender gap and thus diversity hires make for a lot of job openings for girls. While progress is evident in computer-related fields because of the women-specific programs by tech giants like Google and Microsoft, it is much more of a challenge in these core engineering fields. They are subjects that presumably have more muscle work, which is true to an extent but not enough to make a difference.
Girls shouldn’t limit themselves in these societal boxes and follow the social norms if they have a different calling. I’ve had one too many of my female friends be persuaded into doing Computer Engineering because everyone said they should. It is disheartening. The goal should be gender diversity and some semblance of gender equality in the long run. We should aim to achieve this by spreading awareness that it does not matter what everyone says is the right subject for your gender. It should be you who realises your potential and follow the path that you think is right.
At last, I’d like to say that mechanical engineering is for girls, and civil engineering is for girls, and so is every other engineering branch.
