SOLIDWORKS World 2015 turned out to be a good platform for talking about women in engineering, specifically how we can empower more women to pursue studies and professions in STEM fields. While there is still a large gap between genders in the STEM fields, progress is being made in the industry as a whole, and within the SOLIDWORKS community specifically. Marie Planchard, Director of Education Community at SOLIDWORKS explained: “Engineers solve problems. We need more engineers in this world to solve more problems that are complex with diverse backgrounds and different perspectives. As a mechanical engineer, I know that women have a different perspective than men.”
This desire to see more women in STEM is not exclusive to females– the men are on board too. Monday’s keynote speaker, Bre Pettis, agreed that it is important “to inspire [our daughters] to be the next generation of innovators,” because “we just have way too many dudes in the room.”
The SOLIDWORKS community is also trying to encourage women already in the STEM field to keep pushing forward and create a positive change in their community. Planchard gave the audience an overview of SOLIDWORKS’ ‘Women in Engineering’ program, which recognizes women who have been outstanding in her field or the community. The program chooses a new honoree each month, and has featured students, researchers, product designers and CEOs.
While encouraging those already in the field to stay engaged is extremely important, getting females into the field to begin with is the bigger challenge. As Planchard explains in a Fast Company article, “women decide to become involved in STEM or related fields very early on, at around one year old to 18 months, when we begin playing with toys.”
In an effort to nurture any interest in design at a young age, two Stanford graduate students decided to create a new set of toys for girls called Roominate. Not your average dollhouse, Roominate is a “great way of getting girls to build, but also to play with circuits in a way that really makes sense for them,” said co-founder Bettina Chen. This “construction toy” allows girls to put together the house interior by building their own furniture, floors, balconies and columns. Roominate even allows them to understand basic circuitry and design more complicated pieces such as working fans for their dollhouse.
The Roominate website claims that “in the US, less than 15% of women enter college intending to major in a STEM Field” but we are hope that statistic will change as engineering education and maker labs become more accessible. Programs like FabLab are actively seeking to make a difference in the field by engaging people around the globe in tech and engineering. “FabLabs also support women of all ages – from little girls in Cleveland who design and print their first prototype to teenage girls in Nairobi who design and build robots to women in Pabal India who have been given an opportunity to be leaders in their community…this is a network that we want to be part of” explained Planchard.
As the need for more female involvement and role models in STEM fields becomes pressing, there are more allies showing up to join the cause. With programs developing for all stages of the journey to become an engineer, it seems that a future where there are an equal number of men and women in STEM is not so far off. To watch Marie Planchard’s full presentation on women in STEM at SOLIDWORKS World 2015, including an on-stage interview with Roominate’s Bettina Chen.
For more information on the 2015 conference, check out the daily recaps at the SOLIDWORKS blog.
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