February 24th is national Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day! It’s an entire day dedicated to inspiring young women to pursue a future in engineering. The number of girls entering engineering fields has increased over the years, but in 2019, only 15 percent of those working in engineering occupations were women! So, to celebrate this holiday, here are some ideas to get girls interested in a future in engineering.
1. Teach them about famous female engineers
- An important part of inspiring any young person is giving them a role model to look up to. To get young girls interested in engineering, it’s important to show them the amazing women who were pioneers in their field. Here are some great examples to get them started:
- Edith Clarke – The first woman to ever receive a degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She went on to become an inventor while working at General Electric, and she invented the Clarke Calculator. She also became the first female Professor of Electrical Engineering in the United States.
- Hedy Lamarr – An Austrian-American film actress whose appearance inspired the design of Disney’s Snow White. Despite her fame,Lamarr disliked the celebrity lifestyle and had dreams of becoming an inventor. During WWII, she helped to develop a form of transmission known as “signal hopping.” Her invention would act as an important precursor to Bluetooth and WiFi technologies.
- Stephanie Kwolek – In 1965, while working for the DuPont company, Stephanie Kwolek discovered Kevlar, one of the strongest synthetic fibers. It’s the material that most bulletproof vests are made out of!
- Hertha Ayrton – In WWI, when the German army began using poison gasses on the battlefield, Hertha Ayrton developed a fan that created a vortex and would push poison gasses out of the trenches. Her invention saved countless lives on the battlefield.
2. Help them to explore different engineering careers
Oftentimes, young people don’t know all the possible careers they can pursue in engineering, and they miss out on jobs that would interest them. Here are a few careers that may inspire young women to learn more about engineering.
- Driving NASA’s rovers – Working for NASA is about more than just being an astronaut. NASA’s engineers are able to do so many amazing things from Earth, too! Imagine being able to operate a rover on Mars, taking photographs of the planet’s surface and collecting rock samples!
- Architectural Engineering – For young girls who want to utilize their creativity while pursuing a career in engineering, architectural engineering may be the job for them! Being able to design a building and understand how all the pieces fit together is an advanced skill that could make for an interesting and fun career path.
- Sports Engineering – Athletics are a huge part of childrens’ lives. Not only do many girls look up to sports stars and Olympians as role models, many also have dreams of becoming athletes themselves. But athletics and engineering are not completely separate from one another. Sports engineers can do anything from designing better sports equipment to improving athletic performance, all with their knowledge of math and science.
Girls and women are the future of STEM and engineering, and by introducing a girl to engineering, you may be setting them on a path to becoming a role model who will inspire others just like them. So make the most out of this year’s National Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, and help a girl realize her dream!
Sources:
Statistic about number of women in Engineering:
Edith Clarke information:
https://edisontechcenter.org/Clarke.html
Hedy Lamarr information:
Stephanie Kwolek information:
https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/stephanie-l-kwolek
Hertha Ayrton information:
https://massivesci.com/articles/hertha-ayrton-mathematics-bodichon-electric-arc/
Written by: Matthew Jenkins
Date: 02/19/2022
