When you think of technology and engineering, what’s the first person that comes to mind? For me, it’s always some man(probably Elon Musk or Bill Gates). Shockingly, the male sex is considerably more likely to venture into the technology field than the female sex. Deep-rooted gender stereotypes, disadvantaged opportunity, and representation are the source of this. According to a study, .005% of kids drew a woman when asked to draw a scientist. In reality, 43% of US scientists under the age of 75 are women. The misrepresentation is apparent. But because of the molded gender roles women had to take in the 1900s, this figure comes with little surprise.
However, Georgia Tech has been fighting these standards by building a reputation for launching many women’s careers in technology. Georgia Tech boasts the title of No. 1 for Women in Engineering. But just like many other colleges, Georgia Tech started with only men and had to build a reputation for women to trust their now incredible system.
The makeup of students in the 1940s was all men. It wasn’t until 1952 that the Boards of Regents voted to admit women full time. By 1970, women made up a whopping 1.6% of Georgia Tech’s spring graduates. For 70 years, men were the only ones allowed so it only makes sense that women’s integration into Tech would take time, but to me, the main question was how their integration came across.
Mislead Hesitations
Looking across many sources concerning the recruitment of women to Georgia Tech, I found this survey displaying the hesitations of women for joining. The biggest concern for freshman women was getting financial aid. Another interesting point was that a significantly higher percentage of women did not choose a major field(undecided). This is likely because the negative stigma towards women in technology was still very prevalent and it was safer to go undecided or consider a different area altogether. The ability to explore areas of technology was also less opportunistic for women, so by the time they attended college, it was more likely to not have chosen a major field yet. It also seemed like women felt less prepared for the work they would be doing at Tech. Because of this feeling, numerous women were intimidated into not joining college.
Based on the data found here, it’s interesting how their performance did not reflect their hesitations for the future. In fact, they were having a better time with their work than men. This just goes to show that women had a societal learned mindset that they had inferior qualifications compared to men. This was quickly disproven with just a few examples. Women were, and still are, told that they are not as talented as men and they need to work harder, but this is completely false. The downplay of a women’s skill only led to more hesitations.
Implementations
Women were still doing something unusual and many backed out just to avoid the stares. There needed to be some kind of implementation for women to be better facilitated for their decision to join the sphere of technology.
This was one of the proposed implementations for lessening the stress for women to join GT in the 1970s. The Decision Support Feedback Hypothesis was an approach I expected because, to me, one of the biggest stalls with women becoming integrated into technology as a whole was that they are fighting boundaries and standards by doing technology. For women to feel more accepted and involved, they would need more support via aid groups or women societies which is why The Positive Feedback Hypothesis was also proposed. Women faculty being a mode of trust and safety is important because it creates comfort and stability for easy integration. Part of giving support for their decision also includes giving financial aid. Creating organizations for women that would also give this aid would encourage more applications.
These approaches are what lead to numerous organizations being created for the retention and recruitment of women to Tech. In 1994, the Women in Engineering (WIE) program was found and in 1998 the Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology (WST) was formed.
Both of these focused heavily on the retention of women of female students to the technology fields. The Women in Engineering dedicated to this by fostering an environment that encourages curiosity, creativity, and intellectual and personal growth^. The programs have historically been driven by the belief that female students’ success will naturally improve with an improved climate which builds upon the positive feedback hypothesis. WST builds upon the idea of developing a faculty of women by creating partnerships with female research leaders. By facilitating connections for women, they can feel more in place and involved. They can also find like-minded individuals.
WIE still awards numerous scholarships for outstanding women building upon the foundation created in the past. Today, there is a banquet for all of the women to be recognized in front of a big stage. Awarding financial aid is a great way to encourage women to enter and stay at their school. Georgia Tech properly places importance on it.
Girlbosses
One of the biggest progressions towards integration was adding more female faculty to make women feel more secure. Eventually, there was going to be women that would start taking big strides and becoming leaders and role models for these incoming women. One such woman is Dr. Jane Ammons.
Dr. Ammons was named chair of the Stewart School of Industrial Engineering in 2011, becoming the first female chair of a College of Engineering school. Her areas of expertise include supply chain engineering with a special interest in developing closed loop, environmentally sustainable systems. Dr. Ammons has published numerous scholarly articles and book chapters, and she and her students have won several research awards.^ She has received eight teaching/faculty awards at the school and university levels. Her activity can be dated to 1987 when she started to serve as an advisor for the Tau Beta Pi student chapter. She has since been engaged in movements for developing Georgia Tech women, students, and faculty. As a true girlboss, she served as the NSF ADVANCE Professor of Engineering from 2002-2006 to advance the career success of women engineering faculty. Dr. Ammons can hundred percent be considered a role model to other women hope to achieve in the technology sphere. Her accolades and successes are a true boast for Georgia Tech.
Here We Are
Looking at the progress Tech has made, the improved integration is very apparent. The opportunities for women have significantly increased. Before 1950, women weren’t even allowed to study at Tech, but even after, it took a while before women felt some sort of support for their decision to work within technology. The truth is that women were jumping into new territory with little to no support. For women to feel comfort and confidence, it took implementations by Tech to create a body of women faculty and societies(like WIE) so that women could feel involved. It took incredible women who desired real change to become role models. The result of these efforts was a huge step forward for women’s equality for opportunity and success. However, there are still many steps to take. In 2020, a study by AnitaB.org found that 28.8% of the tech force is women. This number can still be improved significantly. How can we improve that?
The Last 10%
Writing this blog post, I noticed that, as part of the male outgroup, I, and many other men, have not been doing my best to improve this problem in my community. So I want to at least share three things we can do to support women in technology.
- Respect: Women are oftentimes disrespected whether intentional or unintentional. Men should treat them as equals-women students as peers and women employees as co-workers. Also, valuing an idea or opinion as equal and valid. Respect can also mean little things like listening and not overpowering while a woman is speaking because it is likely for men to interrupt.
- Validate: Women going into technology is still not completely normal. Many girls are interested in math and technology when they are young, but steer away from middle school because of the associated stigma. As men, we should be supporting and validating them. For women who are making strides, we should be giving them their props and respect.
- Speak Up: One of the greatest challenges women face after sexism is silence from men who have a good conscience. Noticing the injustice and taking action is our biggest role in making women feel comfortable in the tech sphere.
Sources
“Academic Programs.” Academic Programs | Women’s Resource Center, https://womenscenter.gatech.edu/academic-programs.
“Chapter 3: Science and Engineering Labor Force.” NSF, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2018/nsb20181/report/sections/science-and-engineering-labor-force/global-s-e-labor-force.
“Current Students.” Women in Engineering | Georgia Institute of Technology – Atlanta, GA, https://wie.gatech.edu/current-students.
“Georgia Tech ISYE Georgia Tech ISYE Georgia Tech ISyE.” ISyE, 1 Jan. 1982, https://www.isye.gatech.edu/users/jane-ammons.
“Georgia Tech ISYE Georgia Tech ISYE Georgia Tech ISyE.” ISyE, 21 Jan. 2014, https://www.isye.gatech.edu/news/isye-school-chair-jane-ammons-retire-end-academic-year.
History.library.gatech.edu. https://history.library.gatech.edu/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=48&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2014.003&output=omeka-xml.
Needle, David. “Women in Tech Statistics: The Latest Research and Trends.” WhatIs.com, TechTarget, 2 July 2021, https://whatis.techtarget.com/feature/Women-in-tech-statistics-The-latest-research-and-trends#:~:text=A%202020%20study%20by%20the,technologists%20at%2051%20participating%20companies.
“WIE Banquet and Scholarships.” Women in Engineering | Georgia Institute of Technology – Atlanta, GA, https://wie.gatech.edu/wie-banquet-and-scholarships.
“Women at Tech Timeline.” Georgia Tech College of Engineering, https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2015/02/women-tech-timeline.
“Women in Engineering Recognizes 155 Scholarship Recipients.” Georgia Tech College of Engineering, https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2019/04/women-engineering-recognizes-155-scholarship-recipients.
Hi Pranit!
First of all, great blog post! From the very first line, I was drawn into hearing more about the deep-rooted gender stereotypes in STEM. Questions as attention grabbers can be a hit or a miss, but I think you pulled it off effectively. Your introduction set up the rest of the blog post well.
I thought your thesis and purpose were exceptionally clear in the second paragraph of your blog post. In addition, the first primary source, the GT students studying in the library, was extremely eye catching to me since the layout of the library in that photo has clear parallels to what it looks like today. I think other readers of your blog, the audience to this post, will also notice that aspect of your choice of source right away. It’s possible that your caption or description of this primary source could have outright said or connected that this photo is all men because it is taken before women were allowed at Tech, but that is only a small detail of what I noticed.
Your other primary sources were well chosen. I noticed that the survey you analyzed was a great comprehensive source that summarized the general feelings of women at Tech initially. Going on, your transition to talking about how those feelings began to improve worked since the sources also transitioned to more modern ones. I thought the Girlbosses section was both relevant and funny, but I think your modern primary sources could have included some non-graphics. Since your historical sources were so great, that’s why I noticed that about the modern ones. Overall, I thought the blog post was great with a lot of insightful comments and reflections on the evolution of the environment for women @ Tech.