Happy Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History Month from Science Grrl! But for this post, you can call me Engineering Grrl, even though the only thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever engineered is how to make all the pieces of an IKEA furniture piece fit where they need to fit. <\/p>\n
Why am I Engineering Grrl this month? Because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m participating in the fifth annual Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering<\/a>! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a live webcast and teleconference that ran continuously from noon on Wednesday, March 11 through Noon Thursday, March 12, 2009. <\/p>\n Archives<\/a> from the 2008 Marathon feature presentations originating from points worldwide, with North America leading off, followed by South America, China, India, South Africa, and Europe. Topics included tips on heightening awareness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics issues among pre-college, college, and young career women, and examining issues such as retaining women in college engineering programs and the workplace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The schedule<\/a> demonstrates how engineering for and about women can be discussed around the world in 24 hours. Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that just blow your mind? I was excited about what would be discussed from the perspective of Africa. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known plenty of women engineering students who hoped to take their engineering skills to Africa to work toward alleviating suffering from drought by crafting new irrigation systems or bioengineering drought-proof seeds. <\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found that many women engineering students think this way\u00e2\u20ac\u201c They wonder how they can help the world with their engineering skills. Yes, they \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ooh and ah\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at rockets but most of the women I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve met who study engineering are thinking with both their brains and hearts. Of course, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just women: Engineers without Borders<\/a>, which involves both male and female engineers, is one of the fastest growing student groups on college campuses. National Engineers Week Foundation makes a point to have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humanitarian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d group listing<\/a>. <\/p>\n When people ask me how I try to convince girls to take an interest in engineering, I reply that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. I ask them what their interests already are and then point out the science, technology, engineering and math could encompass those interests. Does she want to have her own cosmetic line? Well I point out that she should have a solid chemistry background (you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want her to turn out like Frenchie from Grease<\/em>!) and perhaps even a bioengineering background to help smooth out wrinkles, keep mascara from running and make bronzers natural, but also glittery. <\/p>\n There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much in this world that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been handled by an engineer. We just need to see it and help our girls see it too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Happy Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History Month from Science Grrl! But for this post, you can call me Engineering Grrl, even though the only thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever engineered is how to make all the pieces of an IKEA furniture piece fit where they need to fit. Why am I Engineering Grrl this month? Because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m participating in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21113],"tags":[21395,665],"class_list":["post-1548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-grrl","tag-girls","tag-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}