Let’s all agree to identify and remove obstacles
Over the past few months, I have written about employment in the structural engineering profession. The first article in the February 2023 issue dealt with the apparent shortage of structural engineers, including an analysis of the potential causes. I concluded that engineers are just as responsible for the situation as anyone or anything else. The second article in the July issue dealt with leadership and mentorship. Again, I stated that we can be our worst enemies but that there is an opportunity for improvement.
I was motivated to continue thinking on this theme when I saw an announcement on LinkedIn celebrating June 23 as International Women in Engineering Day. Since STRUCTURE is a monthly magazine with a long lead time in article preparation, that day has passed, but let’s celebrate again anyway. Who doesn’t enjoy tipping back a flute or two of champagne with co-workers?
When I started my career in structural engineering, there were far fewer women in the profession than now. We have come a long way, but I don’t know if this change has been unique to structural engineering. I don’t have any statistics to back me up, but I suspect that there were far fewer women in traditionally male-dominated professional careers 50 years ago. The societal changes in the late 1960s and 1970s were responsible for pushing forward and expanding higher educational opportunities. It has taken several decades for the changes to occur and for us to really “see” the impact. Some fields have seen such significant moves toward equality, and young adults, in particular, may be unaware this has not always been the situation. Perhaps the more male-dominated fields of STEM and construction are taking longer since there was and is more that needed to change.
If you want a real shock to your system, read a copy of a magazine from the 1920s. I recently purchased a copy of The Atlantic magazine from October 1929, published just before the Great Depression started. Every advertisement was targeted at men. Every description used male pronouns exclusively. It was as if “she” and “her” hadn’t been invented yet. Despite my love of fine champagne, I am looking forward to the day when celebrating women in engineering at the office happy hour doesn’t seem to be necessary any longer, non-binary pronouns are used interchangeably without notice, and we have declared victory and moved on to the next worthy and pressing cause.
As I mentioned in the July 2023 article, several surveys by the SE3 Committees of NCSEA and the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC) generated data from working professional engineers on career satisfaction, career development, pay and benefits, work-life balance, etc. Amongst the many findings, I want to focus now on the following:
55% of all respondents (65% of women) had considered leaving the profession.
On a 10-point scale, the top three reasons for considering a career change were:
7.6/10 — To achieve less stress.
7.5/10 — Achieve a better work/life balance.
7.1/10 — More meaningful/interesting work opportunities.
What continues to nag at me, since victory hasn’t been achieved yet, is that the data suggests that women seem to be less satisfied with the engineering profession than men and are, therefore, more prone to leave engineering than their male counterparts, particularly in mid-career. Honestly, I am not bothered by anyone who changes their mind about their career path and decides to do something else. You only live once, and with a college degree (or two) under one’s belt, other career possibilities might be more enjoyable. If I wasn’t somewhat risk-averse and didn’t have a California-sized home mortgage, I might have decided to try being a historian or a geologist exploring the Utah backcountry. To me, the underlying theme in this data is that, for many, structural engineering is or is becoming something to be endured and not a profession to be enjoyed.
I have previously noted that a significant factor in career satisfaction comes from being involved with people you like and working in an environment that gets as far away from drudgery as possible. Designing the same thing, day in and day out, or working on the same type of project over and over would be hard for me to enjoy, just as would working under management that creates barriers to advancement and personal achievement or displays signs of favoritism or bias.
Another important source of career satisfaction and advancement for many people (which leads to promotions, better pay, more challenging roles, etc.) is engagement in business marketing activities, professional activities (like NCSEA committees), and volunteerism outside of the day-to-day in-house activities of the engineering office. These can be important and rewarding aspects of any career that create variety and keep things fresh.
However, these career-advancing activities, whether they present themselves in the normal course of the office, or are pursued outside the office, require support for the individual, both at work and home. This need for support is universal, but I sense that the availability of support may need to be even higher for women than men and that the lack of sufficient support may be partly the reason that so many people, particularly women engineers, have considered leaving the profession.
At the office, this means the demands on the individual may need to be lightened or re-arranged from time to time to allow time for other activities since one would assume that successful managers and companies want successful employees. When I went to business school, my manager, Loring Wyllie at Degenkolb Engineers, always made sure I was back in San Francisco for class starting at 6 pm, no matter what. Many of my classmates were not so fortunate. While true professionals must be willing to expend some of their own time in these pursuits, the employer shouldn’t make it more complicated than it needs to be or make the employee feel like they aren’t doing their fair share. Female and male employees should have an equal opportunity for extracurricular activities too. A manager that assumes that the woman is likely already overburdened or unavailable is playing to the past stereotype.
In a two-working adult household, this means one person sometimes makes an extra effort to help the other so that careers aren’t negatively impacted. Just as we have welcomed women in the engineering office as the norm, we need to ensure it is being recognized as normal from a home perspective too. Having a two-working adult household can be demanding at times. Still, I would advocate for as much shared responsibility as possible to support women if we, as a profession, are to achieve equality. Let’s put the 1950s and the role models of the past behind us. The woman that isn’t available for work travel, declines a promotion, or can’t attend the evening marketing or business function or the overnight business trip because her greater family demands is not being supported as she should be. Speaking as a dad, sharing the duty of cooking, cleaning, and getting the kids off to school or summer camp isn’t that hard, and if it is, try harder.
The goal should be equality of opportunity and letting the chips fall where they may. I am solidly against barriers erected, intentionally or not, that hinder anyone’s life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, to quote Thomas Jefferson. There are many examples of extremely successful women in engineering, but we need more. I am not an “it takes a village” kind of person in that I believe that people can generally succeed on their own if they are committed to a goal and put in the effort. But everyone also needs to reconsider their own actions and take opportunities to chip away at or better yet remove barriers to make life better for others.■