Choices Made by Today's Women in Science and Engineering

What makes a woman enter a male-dominated career? Perhaps a better question is what keeps women from entering lucrative, cutting-edge chemical fields? Although more and more women have been entering professions like chemistry, a significant gender imbalance still persists.

Statistics Canada

reports that Canadian women, despite making up over half of the population, represented only 19.15, 19.03 and 21.48 percent of the workforce in natural and applied science-related fields in 1991, 1996, and 2001, respectively. (1) Similarly disproportionate representation with increasing female participation has been seen across chemical fields.

Professional engineer and University of Guelph professor, Valerie Davidson, MCIC, is one example of a woman entering and succeeding in what has long been a male-dominated field. She is a woman who is both living and supporting change. With early intentions to study medicine, Davidson remembers being encouraged by a university liaison officer to consider chemical engineering because of its potential to be a foundation for so many things. Davidson considers her entry into engineering as somewhat serendipitous. Trained as a chemical engineer, Davidson began her post-secondary education in a program where she remembers being one of two women. While this came with certain advantages, including greater recognition within the university engineering community, things like the limited number of female washrooms emphasized the fact that the presence of women in the field was still relatively new. After participating in some exciting work in research laboratories, she was mentored toward graduate studies. This support, she believes, was instrumental in her decision to complete a Master's of Science in food science at the University of Guelph. She later returned to Guelph as a professor.

After completing her Master's, Davidson took an exciting position as a consulting engineer. She recalls that this was an unusual position for a woman, but she doesn't recall it being a problem. After finding she enjoyed research, Davidson entered a doctoral program in applied chemistry and chemical engineering at the University of Toronto and recognized that a cultural shift had begun. While women were still under-represented, their presence in non-traditional fields had increased. Collaborating with a research group and Agriculture Canada in Ottawa, ON, Davidson obtained her PhD in a short three and a half years and began working in commercial process development. Taking small-scale food production ideas and turning them into feasible large-scale commercial production processes allowed her to get back into the analytical laboratory. She was able to focus on applied problem solving, which, to Davidson, is the best part of being an engineer.

Davidson realized her love of teaching and made the move to academia. She has established a strong interdisciplinary research program in food engineering with an emphasis on the applications of fuzzy mathematics and statistical methods to process control and decision-support systems, especially in relation to food safety. Beyond the traditional teaching and research roles of an academic, she has become a champion of women in science and engineering, encouraging change by supporting women throughout their career path.

Recipient of the prestigious Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for Ontario supported by Hewlett Packard, Davidson runs a program with the aim of increasing the participation of women in science and engineering and providing role models for women considering careers in these fields. Outreach activities, such as Go Eng Girl, encourage girls in elementary and high school to keep studying math and science, and to recognize and explore the array of study and career opportunities open to them.

Other NSERC Chair activities focus on career transitions and support, including upcoming mentoring and skill development activities. The importance of more than just technical competencies is often overlooked by new graduates, employees and in educational programs. Employers repeatedly point to flexibility, leadership, conflict management, communications, creativity, and visioning as value skills that employees lack. (3) Davidson recommends looking for experiences to broaden these complementary competencies.

Despite our busy schedules, Davidson suggests that there are little things that everyone can do to help address the gender imbalance in many science and engineering fields. Role models are of fundamental importance, yet, much of what we know about careers comes from television. Conveying to others what you do and thereby expanding girls' understanding of their options is an important step. NSERC Chair outreach work has revealed the general public's limited understanding of what engineers do. Expressing an honest but positive impression of your work, even in a casual conversation, can also make a difference. While academic positions come with certain stresses, it is important to share the benefits, including the freedom and the opportunity to travel and work with great students and colleagues on important and cutting-edge subjects.

Davidson's role as the chair of the upcoming 12th Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades, and Technology (CCWESTT) Conference is another avenue to counteract the gender imbalance in many science and engineering fields. The conference will be held at the University of Guelph May 29 to 31, 2008. The event will celebrate women's contributions and build on successful initiatives to advance women in science, engineering, trades, and technology (SETT). Conference participants will examine the intersecting areas of education, the workplace, and career/life balance. There will be opportunities to communicate the latest research and best practices to enhance diversity in SETT, participate in professional and career development, network, and engage in strategic planning of future initiatives.

Davidson also works with women in university careers, working on issues of institutional support. While many policy changes have taken place in the past 20 years, the trickle down has not been equally felt. She notes, for example, that while adequate maternity leaves may seem "old hat" in many places, in some disciplines, they are a relatively new issue and continue to be a struggle for new parents. The "tenure versus children" challenge is still ongoing for many current and aspiring academics. Issues like these emphasize the importance of continued efforts towards change.

From Davidson's perspective, "everybody probably has different points when they start to recognize the gender imbalance ... [and] start to question it because it's either clearly causing them a roadblock or they're reluctant to consider a certain path because, again, they will be isolated." Perhaps through the continued efforts of Davidson and other advocates for change, these experiences will not be repeated by the daughters of future generations.

Learn more about Davidson's activities at www.soe.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/cwse. For additional information on the CCWESTT Conference, visit www.CCWESTT2008.ca.

 

References

1. Statistics Canada. Catalogue No. 97F0012XCB2001022.

2. Statistics Canada. Catalogue No. 97F0012XCB2001022.

3. Frederick Evers, James Rush, and Iris Berdrow, The Bases of Competencies: Skills for Lifelong Learning and Employability (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998).

Jennifer Fender completed her MA in political science and international development at the University of Guelph and is now working as a project manager for Women in Science and Engineering.

Percentage of Women in
  Chemical Professions (2)    1991      1996     2001

Chemical engineers           12.01     13.99    17.62

Chemists                     28.51     33.36    38.62

Applied chemical technologists
  and technicians            38.58     38.05    44.03