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Women Engineers Not In Professional Societies

October 27, 1997

In the Company of Men

Women are increasingly pursuing engineering as a career, but their low participation in the Engineers Society highlights the obstacles they face.

Cesca Antonelli

And you always thought the Duquesne Club was the last bastion of traditional male power and affluence.

Little did you know: The Duke may have nothing on the Engineers Society.

According to a survey of its membership, less than 1 percent of the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania's members are under 30. About a third are over 60.And 97 percent are male.

For a city that prides itself on the strength of its engineering community, this raises some questions.

David Teorsky, the society's general manager, said the survey results don't mean Pittsburgh engineers are predominantly older men -- just that the society's 991 members are.

"Our statistics cannot be representative of the profession," he said. "We're demographically challenged -- this is what the engineering community looked like 25 years ago."

But while many women contacted for this article agreed that the society's numbers are not reflective of the number of women engineers, they cited a number of factors influencing the statistic, including a lack of women in leadership roles within the engineering community.

Local educators and professionals agree on one thing: There are women engineers in Pittsburgh.

"For five years, we've had 25 percent women in the freshman class, and we've graduated 17 or 18 percent women," said Larry Shuman, an associate dean the engineering school at the University of Pittsburgh. "We're still not where we'd like to be, but to say only 3 percent of engineers in Western Pennsylvania are women. ... It's higher, but I don't know how much higher."

Ruthann Omer, a Pitt engineering school graduate and president of The Gateway Engineers, Green Tree, put the percentage of women engineers in Pittsburgh at between 10 and 15 percent.

So why aren't these younger, female, engineering school graduates joining the society when they get jobs?

There are a number of answers, depending on whom you ask.

Money and Status

Educators cited money as a potential obstacle to starting engineers, something that can account for the society's age gap as well as its gender gap.

Dues at the ESWP tops $200 per year, compared to about $75 annually for the Society of Women Engineers and $180 for the Society of Professional Engineers -- a membership which also provides rights to use the ESWP's facilities Downtown.

And money can be an important factor, especially for women starting in the field.

When Susana Florian, now the only female vice president at Coraopolis-based Michael Baker Corp., came to Pittsburgh 23 years ago, she couldn't get a job as an a civil engineer -- instead, she was hired as a technician.

"Within six months, I got the appropriate title. I was extraordinarily lucky," she said. "I was an oddity."

Ms. Florian later came to Baker, where she now heads Mellon Stuart Construction International Inc., the subsidiary responsible for building and construction.

About 20 percent of Baker's 341 local engineers are women, but none of its board members are, and the only other female executive, in the human resources department, isn't an engineer.

At least in terms of its leadership, Baker is typical. The exception looks to be Gateway, a private consulting firm headed by Ms. Omer that specializes in hydraulics, sanitary sewers and planning and surveying. Five of Gateway's 16 engineering and computer-assisted design positions are filled by women.

Although Ms. Omer said women have become more accepted in the Pittsburgh engineering community, others are quick to add that it can be harder for them to get ahead.

"I think (the break-in period) can be harder and longer for women, depending on your personality," said Helen Patricia, a product manager at Latrobe toolmaker Kennametal Inc. and a chemical engineering graduate of CMU.

"I'm a little more reserved and quiet. ... Women, on average, tend not to be as aggressive as men, so lot of other men maybe move forward at a faster pace."

Reaching Out to Youth

All three women agree the only way to get more women to become engineers is to reach them while they're young, talking to children about what engineers do and even giving presentations in elementary schools.

They said it's important to reach out before the age (in junior high) that researchers say girls start becoming self-conscious about their abilities in math and science.

Ms. Patricia suggested that male engineers with daughters should ask female colleagues to talk with them. She said women welcome opportunities to become role models, but don't always know how to reach out to girls.

Mentoring Issues

Role models are important later in life too, which also makes the ESWP a tough sell to women.

And after a woman takes an engineering job, the women engineers interviewed agreed, it's important for her to be able to talk to other women engineers in leadership roles.

This may account for why some join the Society of Women Engineers, rather than the ESWP. Members said SWE more directly addressed questions women had about surviving in the profession and raising a family.

"There were no female role models for me, so it's extremely important for me to provide something like that for upcoming women," Ms. Florian said. "I know enough women to know they don't want special treatment; they only want the same opportunities."

Cultivating the Young

The engineering field also suffers from one of Pittsburgh's perennial problems.

A number of universities provide engineering programs in the region, including the prestigious engineering school at Carnegie Mellon University. The area shouldn't be wanting in the fresh blood department.

But while enrollment in the engineering schools has grown, the number of those students who want to remain in the area hasn't.

Jessica Reath, a senior at Pitt, grew up in Parkesburg in Chester County before coming to study civil engineering. She's a member of the school's SWE chapter. But she refuses to stay here after graduation in April.

"I don't want to stay here," she said. "I'm looking at grad schools. I don't know why I don't (like it). I never really liked it here. I never felt like this was the place for me."

A number of students -- both men and women -- echoed that sentiment, though some added they'd go wherever they got a job.

"I've lived here all my life. Eventually, I'll get out, but I'd never turn down a great offer," said Robyn Senior, a Pitt senior in civil and environmental engineering who belongs to the campus Society of Women Engineers chapter.

Other Factors

According to Alice Smith, an associate professor of industrial engineering at Pitt, many women engineers leave the profession to raise their families. 

"The profession is not amenable to family life," she said. "Many women leave to become math teachers."

Ms. Smith feels women will never choose engineering in equal numbers with men for those reasons, but says that's OK as long as children of both genders know they can make a living as engineers and still pursue other interests. "A problem is too many students major in things they like and then can't get jobs. You can be an engineer and like art," Ms. Smith said.

That's one thing students and other women learn from the Society of Women Engineers, she said. Another asset SWE provides is role models on family issues. Factors like these are less likely to be found in a society whose members are mainly male, according to Ms. Smith, an SWE member who isn't involved in the ESWP.

Even in traditionally male disciplines, such as mechanical and electrical engineering, about 5 percent of graduates today are women. Women can find more role models in societies within their discipline than inside the ESWP. Though Ms. Florian and Ms. Patricia are both involved in ESWP, many women moving up the corporate ladders aren't joining. Additional marketing may not be able to touch that group.

"The (ESWP) draws some long-term members, but there's the question of getting new members in," Kennametal's Ms. Patricia said. "They don't know what to do really about it, but they're trying new things."

© 1997, Pittsburgh Business Times

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