Why do women leave engineering? (MIT Article)

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by ArtemusMaximus

I'd like to add something to conversation.
After reading article and the comments it sounds like all the mentioned issues experienced because sole reason that person in question was a female.
While I am not denying that it may be often the case, this is not all-in-all reason.
Often we like to blame our problems on our usual suspects because those are easy targets.
I have experience many of mentioned issues myself and that is just thinking of time when I was a mentor:

• I was ignored
• I was disrespected
• My opinion was disregarded
• I was excluded from important meetings
• and list goes on

I am writing this not to dismiss previous comments and concerns, but bring different angle to this conversation.
I will finish with this: Not everything that goes wrong is simply because you are a girl. Things are not as easy for boys as some comments may imply.

And I think this is highlighted in part of the article I posted:

I saw males disparaging my teammates, and it generally came down to the fact that the girls, brilliant as they were, didn’t assert themselves as competent — yet they always cried sexism

Sexism in engineering certainly does exist, I've seen it. But perhaps more often it's a simple case of an individuals confidence and attitude going into a situation that defines the outcome... and when it comes to engineering, girls do tend to be more reserved and subservient while boys tend to be more outgoing and aggressive. I don't pretend to understand why that is or how we fix it, but it's important for everyone involved to recognize that we can improve if boys make an effort to be more inclusive and girls make an effort to be more assertive. It takes an effort from both sides to make it work, trying to address it from just one side won't solve the problem.