Feminisms in Engineering Education: Transformative Possibliites

Reading Response #3

I really enjoyed reading this piece, and I feel Riley and authors had many well developed points that I feel are crucial to being a socially conscious and careful engineer.

The discussion of the idea that "the problem of women's underrepresentation in engineering indicates deeper more fundamental problems about the nature of the profession and engineering education" (p. 3) poses a really great perspective that has not been brought up yet: the fact that it is deeper underlying issues within the profession and education that causes underrepresentation, instead of the issue itself being women are simply "not interested" in the subject which over simplifies the issue. Riley goes on to say that when the underrepresentation of women is defined narrowly as a problem in itself, equally narrow solutions, ones that don't adequately address the issue, are created (p.3) and argues that we must take a deeper look at the structure of the profession instead of asking repetitive questions such as "where are the women?" and "why so few?" (p. 3).

Another aspect that intrigued me was the discussion of intersectionality and how it is important to address these issues within the engineering profession and education rather than simply looking at race and gender individually (p. 4). Although I agree with the authors because only identifying and analyzing one form of oppression when trying to solve an issue is counterproductive and often times perpetuates these forms of oppression onto one another, I feel it would be very difficult to address the idea of multiple forms of oppression and intersectionality within the engineering workplace and it may backfire. This is because the idea and concept of intersectionality is one that we all deal with, but it is not something that is easily defined, identifiable and understood to the point where it could be adequately addressed in a setting where this is not a focus. This idea of intersectionality is extremely complex not only because it confronts different forms of oppression (gender, class, race, sexuality, etc.) but because it confronts hierarchies that exist within individual companies, the profession itself, and education and may conflict with the values that those companies have. Because of these issues, it may be hard for a company who has many clients and deadlines to effectively address deeply rooted factors causing inequalities, unless, like the authors say, implemented within education, but carefully and with just as much emphasis as engineering curriculum.

Finally, the issues of the definitions of progress for different communities was addressed as well. The author's gave the example that most of the work the work women do is simply ignored, for example, low-tech but high-impact solutions (such as inexpensive water filtration systems for 3rd world countries) are dismissed and not considered acceptable engineering (p. 7). The authors go on to explain that educators focus on high-tech engineering in "first-world" rather than focusing on solving problems experienced by women and people in poverty (p. 7). This puts into perspective the reappearing questions of "What is good engineering?" and "What is progress?" Offering the idea that progress may mean different things for different communities, and the same is with the idea of good engineering.

To start, the authors offer that thought must come from "the lives of marginalized peoples to create and reflect knowledge that is authentic in the context of these peoples... communities themselves serve as agents of knowledge and an ethic of care requires understanding of a communities' norms about what counts as evidence, which can only be provided by a community itself" (p..8). The authors pose a very crucial standard for socially conscious engineering, that only the community knows what they need and how it should be provided, therefore, extensive efforts should be made to outreach and connect with the community in which engineers will work in to effectively accommodate those communities and ensure the most needed and effective solutions.

I feel this is an important piece to read for all engineers in order to begin to be socially aware of how their work affects the broader public, but as well for ethnic studies scholars to begin to bridge the disconnect of social science and the sciences and engineering.