I've been avoiding posting in this thread because I didn't want to be the one to revive it after a week of inactivity, but for the sake of offering another female's perspective, here we go.
On the original topic (the panel discussions): I think that the post announcing the panel discussions could have been phrased differently, and I think it was taken the wrong way. I don't think the team/poster intended to insinuate that unintentional bias is something that only males are guilty of, but that is clearly how it was interpreted by several people. Unintentional bias is something that affects all groups, regardless of gender, age, skin color, sexuality, etc, but given that this is specifically an all-girls event, I assume that the main focus of this panel would be unintentional bias as it relates to gender, but it could also touch on other aspects of diversity. I could be wrong. But with that assumption, I think that the post would have been better as:
"Career, Opportunity, Education, and Challenges for Females in STEM"
"Unintentional Bias and Actions and the Impact on Diversity (focused on gender)"
On my experiences in HS/all-girl events: In high school, I had a very good experience on my FRC team. Not a lot of comments, actions, or other discrimination towards me based on my gender, and on the rare occasion that those things happened, the perpetrators were swiftly told in no uncertain terms that their comments were not appropriate. I was never told "you can't be in the shop/you can't be on the driveteam/you can't be on the pit crew/etc because you're a girl". I actually always wanted to be on the driveteam, but I proved very quickly that I was not very qualified in that department by driving our robot into a Christmas tree during practice time. There weren't any all-girls events in Michigan when I was in HS, but if there had been, I'm not sure my team would have attended them just because we probably wouldn't have been able to drum up enough commitment from the girls on our team - we were a small team (~25-35 active), and we'd need commitment from nearly all of the girls, and that would have been difficult for us to get with several of us doing fall sports.
I think that all-girls events are great, for the reasons others have highlighted in this thread - giving girls a chance to build confidence in an environment that turns many away because of both preconceived and perpetuated discrimination.
Here's a related post I made on here during my senior year of high school - funny how these topics repeat themselves.
On being a female engineer in the real world:
I graduated with a degree in Materials Science & Engineering, and now work as a metallurgist in a steel plant. While many other "typically male" fields have made great strides in diversity and inclusivity of women, steel is still very stuck in the past and is still very much a "boys club", which is off-putting and intimidating to a lot of women. It's a dirty, dangerous, rough and tumble environment that takes a lot of strength and dedication to stay in, for all genders.
I love the
graphic that Karthik posted early in this thread, but as there's no breakout specifically for "steelworker", let me provide some insight. My plant, when operating at a good capacity, employs ~300 people. ~50 are salaried (managers, HR/office staff, and engineers), and the remainder are hourly (machine operators, millwrights, electricians, etc - this number can vary from 100-250). We have one female manager (in HR), and another non-manager woman who works in HR. There are no women in our maintenance department (in either salaried or hourly positions). I am the only female engineer in my plant. There are four female hourly workers, as far as I know. We're a very small plant, but it's not much better at larger facilities either, especially when you only look at employees who work "on the floor" (as opposed to solely in offices - accounting, HR, sales, supply chain, etc).
Basically, as a female, I stick out like a sore thumb.
(As an added bonus, I also have a college degree and am the youngest employee in my plant, so I stick out even more.)
And because of all of that, I know I'm treated differently. Some real-life examples from the past few weeks alone:
- Coworkers outright refusing to let me hold open a door for them (chivalry ain't dead, but it sure can be annoying sometimes)
- I was with two male coworkers one day, and we had to carry ~20lbs of samples across the plant. I was the one carrying most of the samples (I volunteered), and we were stopped THREE TIMES in a 1/4 of a mile by people commenting "why are you making the poor girl carry all those samples!?" (actual quote).
- Someone repeatedly handing me papers with my (male) manager's name written on them, knowing FULL WELL that I was the one responsible for handling the information that was on them, not my manager.
- Men apologizing after swearing or making off-color jokes in front of me (It's an industrial workplace. It happens.), or making comments like "I'd say something else, but there's a lady in the room", even though I established on day 1 that I don't mind the language. I know it's habit for many of the men to do it, but it's still a bias and still draws attention to how I'm different than them.
That's the tip of the iceberg, but you get the idea. Some of this is intentional, some is not, some is just habit on my coworkers' parts - many are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, have worked in this industry for 20, 30, 40 years, were raised to be chivalrous and overly respectful of women (compared to today), and/or are not used to women in positions of authority in their workplace. It's a generational thing. It takes time and thick skin to change minds when you're often a one-(wo)man band, and not everyone has patience and thick skin. I imagine these behaviors would be less prevalent if there were more women in my workplace, but this behavior is probably why a lot of women leave this industry. Chicken and egg.
I love my job. I love my coworkers. We joke about the gender disparity a lot. I'm not looking for sympathy or special treatment - I want to be viewed as an equal, not a unicorn. It gets better every day. But I have to actively work to be thought of as just "Kara" instead of "that girl". I hope that someday, this industry will be at the point where women don't have to do this, which IMO is why discussions and education on bias and inclusion are important (in moderation). It's a culture change thing. These discussions are important for
everyone, no matter who you are and what field you're going into. This topic applies just as much to men in early childhood education (the most female-dominated field in the graphic Karthik posted) as it does to women in engineering.
On a different note, I think that someone earlier in this thread asked "why do people keep saying 'females' instead of 'women' or 'girls'?" and didn't get much of a response, so I'll offer one: personally, I don't feel comfortable referring to myself as either a woman or a girl. To me, a woman is still someone much older than me, old enough to be my mom, and a girl is someone still in high school or younger. As a young professional, I don't feel like I fit into either category, so I always refer to myself as just "a female". "Females" and "Males" also unquestionably encompass all ages, which is commonly the intent of using those words in these kinds of discussions.