Back in 1970, Peggy Seeger’s rollicking folk song called “Gonna Be An Engineer” described her passion for engineering and frustration at being told “An engineer could never have a baby / Remember, dear, that you're a girl.”
Times have changed for young women and there’s no better evidence of this than DeVry University’s “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day,” held during National Engineers Week. The event is part of the university’s HerWorld conferences, aimed generating excitement among young women for engineering, science, technology and business careers.
“Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” will take place on February 21 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at
For Forough Ghahramani, associate professor of Computer Information Systems at DeVry University’s Fort Washington campus, math, science and engineering were always a passion, and with her father’s encouragement, a career path as well.
“I had majored in mathematics, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I graduated,” said Ghahramani. “As soon as I started taking a computer programming course, I realized I absolutely loved it. It was a practical application of my analytical skills.”
The highlight of “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” activities will be a hands-on robotics workshop during which attendees will build wall-hugging mouse robots. The keynote address will be given by Angela D. Jones,
As for the dilemma of a career vs. family as described in Seeger’s song, Ghahramani’s experience of embarking on her engineering career in the early 1980s was “a different story.” That was due in large part to the huge strides women made in the 70’s and 80’s to reach workplace parity. Today, flexibility and options in careers like information technology, science and engineering are fueled by the need to fill jobs with an educated workforce. According to Department of Labor statistics, career opportunities available in technical positions will grow four times the national job growth rate.
“I have found the positions offering flexibility in where I worked from and when the work got done provided me with significantly greater job satisfaction, stronger commitment to the job, a higher level of engagement with the company, as well as low levels of stress," said Ghahramani.
She believes the need to fill jobs in technical fields such as engineering will play a major role in creating even more flexible work options for women in the future. And while there’s still progress to be made, Ghahramani believes the future is bright for women in technical careers, and that, she says, “is ample reason to get young women thinking about engineering and science as a fulfilling and meaningful career path.”
