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DRIFTWOOD Volume: 58 Issue: 9
The community newspaper of the University of New Orleans
driftwood.uno.edu
October 29, 2014
No Woman’s Land
Kristi Martin/Driftwood photo illustration
Engineering is slowly becoming a more female friendly major at the University of New Orleans. About 20 percent of engineering majors are women.
Female engineering students work against STEM stereotypes ANNA GOWIN
Driftwood Staff Parisa Ghandehari’s mother always hoped she would take to a more feminine career than engineering. The University of New Orleans engineering management graduate student has not only had to earn the support of her family, but also her fellow students, professors and potential employers in a very male-dominated industry. “Sometimes it’s hard, being in the environment, difficult when some men don’t accept you as a real engineer,” Ghandehari said, adding she at times throughout her undergrad career thought her mother might be right. Ghandehari is one of about 1,000 students enrolled in the College of Engineering – and one of 150 that are women. But it’s not because they can’t do the math. Kris De Welde, professor of sociology at Florida Gulf Coast University, said despite a “cultural recognition” that more women
it’s important to “pay should be accepted attention to the climate into STEM (Science, and environment girls Technology, EngineerEngineering Enrollment find themselves in when ing, and Mathematics) they get to college…if careers, girls’ interests Males to Females we don’t address it at the lower significantly in Freshmen: 223 M; 32 F undergraduate level, we high school and beSophomores: 125 M; 28 F still run the risk of losing yond. Juniors: 139 M; 21 F Seniors: 250 M; 46 F Ghandehari not only women,” Post-Baccaulaureate: 72 M; wants to be successThis is something 19 F ful among her male Ghandehari sees as parGraduate: 165 M; 34 F counterparts, but also ticularly important when encourages women to she interacts with female pursue engineering as a career and mentors students in the Engineering Department. her fellow female students. “Sometimes guys give them a hard time, “I really enjoy being an engineer, and I want and I always encourage them, and tell them to girls to know that being an engineer doesn’t look at all these women who have done this present any conflict with being a woman,” already,” she said. she said. “In fact, it goes in line with it.” Cynthia Nolan, a freshman in the Naval ArKelly Mack, vice president of undergrad- chitecture and Marine Engineering (NAME) uate STEM education at the Association of program, embraces being the minority in her American Colleges and Universities, said chosen field.
By the Numbers
“When you tell them, ‘Oh, I’m an engineering major too.’ a lot of boys are startled,” she said. “But sometimes they’re so excited to see a girl in their class full of men.” While male students may react a certain way to seeing female students in their engineering classes, male professors and administrators act differently to place focus on female student retention. Nolan said during orientation, the head of the NAME program talked to her personally about how important it was that she be happy in the department and hopefully stay there. “It makes other girls, students in the department, see their future here,” Ghandehari said. “They see that this is not a road that hasn’t been used before. Other women have done this and gone places and they can do the same.”
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