Just wondering Spaghetti, have you seen a lot of issues with women in engineering where you are? I am in one of the more male dominated engineering fields (civil), and I haven't seen much in the way of gender discrimination.
I'm not spaghetti but I think this can really depend on the field and location. I had a 4 month placement while in university in the late 90's that was quite shocking. Not necessarily discrimination but more extremely inappropriate and violating pretty much any corporate sexual harassment policy. None of it was physically offensive or personally threatening but definitely cases that you hear about in sexual harassment workshops and think "who the heck would do something that ridiculous?". Luckily it was only 4 months and I knew it wasn't indicative of the whole profession.
Other than that I can't say that I've really encountered anything discriminatory. I've worked with some people that weren't exactly textbook behaviour models but they all seemed to be equal opportunity jerks so I didn't take it personally
If certain folks - in this case females - don't want to go into certain STEM fields, don't force them to do so. We don't need every career choice to have employees who exactly reflect the percentages of gender, race, age, etc. that are in our society. If it turns out that way, great, but that shouldn't be the goal. Introducing students to all of the career possibilities, and then having them choose a path to a career which they like should be the goal.
I mostly agree (I'm especially for introducing and promoting a wider range of careers to both boys and girls) but then I also look at studies like this -
"Women are always less likely to choose a STEM program, regardless of mathematical ability. Among those who went to university, 23% women in the three highest categories of PISA scores (out of six) chose a STEM program, compared with 39% of men in the three lowest categories of PISA scores."
It makes me think about WHY they might be "choosing" other fields. If it is truly because they are not interested and that is based on a somewhat educated view of what it actually is then I'm fine. If it is because they feel like they aren't "smart enough" then I think they need to take their queue from the 39% of men referenced in the quote and just go for it.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-006-x/2013001/article/11874-eng.htm
