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Letter: Russ College working on empowering woman engineers

I wanted to thank Megan Gutknecht for her piece posted Sunday night, in which she shares her experience as a woman engineering student. I’m a transportation engineer who worked as a civil engineer in industry for 15 years, has chaired the Department of Civil Engineering at Ohio University for three years and recently accepted the position of Associate Dean for Academics in the Russ College with the goal of applying my background and passion more broadly.

The Russ College acknowledges that women are underrepresented in academia and in the engineering workforce – and we’ve been working to change that. Throughout the past decade, K-12 outreach initiatives have received significant funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Engineering and the engineering industry. However, due to the educational cycle, metrics related to the increase in female enrollment in college engineering programs may not be realized until K-12 students have fully matriculated into college. According to the American Society of Engineering Education, female undergraduate enrollment has been relatively flat since 2006, but recently has been rising slightly. Russ College undergraduate female enrollment has doubled in about that time, from 8.5 percent in 2003 to 16.19 percent today. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re improving, and we’ll keep working at it.

Once students do matriculate into a college engineering program, we in academia must have zero tolerances for gender and cultural biases at the administration, faculty and student levels. We need to cultivate a sense of belonging by creating a supporting environment for all students. We also need to stress the social impact of engineering on local, national and global concerns. The Russ College embraces these measures and will continue to strive to fulfil them. For example, we hired a director of multicultural experiences, Jody Markley, to mentor and coach underrepresented students, including women. Russ College student organizations like the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) hold activities to support and encourage women, such as their annual spring STEM mentor event that connects women alumni with current students. We encourage all of our students to go beyond the classroom, get involved, and share their needs so we can develop services and opportunities to meet those needs.

Mentors are an important part of student support, but a National Science Foundation study, “Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering,” by Fouad and Singh, shows a trend for women to depart from engineering, both during college and as professionals. Unfortunately, the engineering profession is losing women to managerial and executive positions – in engineering or other fields such as education, health care and consulting. This means fewer mentors. As expected, we’re still struggling with organizational climate, organizational barriers and environmental barriers; but I can attest from experience that the engineering profession is working diligently on these issues. There is one positive: the trend indicates the strength of an engineering degree, which provides students with organizational, logical and analytical skills; ethical and professional values; knowledge of societal and contemporary issues; and effective communication skills.

While there are still tribulations within the engineering profession for women, it is a rewarding career. An engineering degree can take you anywhere; medicine, teaching, business, to the North Pole or to the moon. We in the Russ College are here for our women students, to help them through the academic process and beyond. If any of students have concerns, my door is open, and I would love to chat. 

Dr. Deborah S. McAvoy is the Associate Dean for Academics and the Chair for the Civil Engineering Department in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology at Ohio University. If you have question, direct them to her email at mcavoy@ohio.edu.

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