Candid Observations of an 8 yr Old

I have had a vested issue in gender parity and equality issues throughout my career.  As a girl, I was in the minority from the time I entered kindergarten at my tiny schools in rural Nebraska.  For some reason, much to our neighboring farmer’s delight, there were a disproportionate number of boys vs girls around my age.  My 1st through 8th grade class had 2 girls (including me) and 4 boys.  And so it continued even as the class size grew to a whopping 34 my senior year in high school.  

My Chemical Engineering class at the University of Nebraska didn’t seem out of the ordinary to me with a low % of females. Throughout my entire career I have had all male bosses and mostly male co-workers.  Now please don’t get me wrong, I have had truly remarkable managers, mentors, co-workers and true friends along the way.  Just not very many of them are women.  Most engineers can tell this same story. 

This brings me to today.  I’m currently actively looking for a new career opportunity and my boys know it.  I was in the car with my 8 year old son, and he sincerely asked me how my “work calls” went.  How sweet!  So I started telling him in what I thought were 8 year old terms.  He interrupted me and stated, “So, they are all about cars mom?”.  I said yes, they are because that’s what most companies do in Detroit.  He replied “ plus that’s what you know mom.  You’re great at that!”.  *Proud mom moment*

I continued telling him about a few more conversations and then it was silent.  After a beat he asked “Mom, did you talk to any girls?”.  Well, it was my turn to pause!  I said “You know what Blake, I didn’t.  Not to interview for a job at least.  I did talk to one very nice lady about some working groups that you can join with people who like the same things that I do though.”  Wow, was I surprised by his question!  I had not even thought about the fact that everyone I had talked to was a man.  I am so conditioned to this environment that I didn’t even include that in my observations!  

So you may be thinking, that’s a cute story but what is the point?  My point is that in order for something to CHANGE, we must first ACKNOWLEDGE it.  I’ve always been about trying to reach out and mentor other female engineers.  But to really change the situation and try to create a culture of true diversity we must acknowledge that we are nowhere near that mindset on a day to day basis in many fields including engineering.  We are now in a time of change, a time of disruption, and time for introspective thinking and learning and growing.  My challenge to you is to challenge yourself.  Ask yourself what you have just accepted, yet are unhappy with or find unfair.  Challenge yourself on what you can do better to be inclusive to others.  Challenge yourself to change.  And always listen to your kids, they are pretty darn smart!

Here are some organizations I discovered in the past few weeks. Check them out and connect!

CADIA

Inforum