Female Engineers Share Experiences In A Male-Dominated Field

Summary

This video captures the experiences of female engineers navigating a male-dominated field, sharing both the challenges they face and the triumphs they achieve. Straya, a senior software engineer, and Brandi Martin, an advanced manufacturing engineer, recount incidents of prejudice and microaggressions. Despite being marginalized, they emphasize the importance of perseverance and finding a support network of women within STEM. Their stories highlight the need for diversity and representation in engineering and serve as encouragement for women to pursue their interests in STEM without doubting their capabilities.

Highlights

• Straya and Brandi share personal experiences of gender bias in engineering. 💬
• Professors and coworkers made belittling comments about their abilities. 😠
• Emphasis on the power of a supportive network among women in STEM. 🔗
• Straya regains confidence in public speaking at BuzzFeed. 🎤
• Brandi's overseas work trip highlights escalating inappropriate behavior. 🚫

Key Takeaways

• Persevere despite challenges and microaggressions in the STEM field. 💪
• Finding a support network among other women in STEM is crucial. 👯‍♀️
• Women bring valuable skills and perspectives to engineering. 🌟
• Diversity is essential for innovation and representation. 🌍
• Own your skills and strengths; they make a difference. 🌈

Overview

In a candid and empowering session, Straya, a senior software engineer, and Brandi Martin, an advanced manufacturing engineer, open up about their journeys in the male-centric world of engineering. From receiving off-handed comments from professors to enduring unprofessional behavior in the workplace, their anecdotes are diverse yet alarmingly similar. These experiences underline the everyday biases and hurdles they face, yet also highlight their resilience and determination to succeed in an industry where women are vastly underrepresented.

Their narratives amplify the importance of having a support system, particularly among other women in STEM. Both Straya and Brandi stress the invaluable role these networks play in providing affirmation and solidarity, helping them navigate through professional microaggressions and retain their confidence. For instance, Straya talks about how regaining her public speaking confidence at BuzzFeed became a turning point for her career. Similarly, Brandi recalls an overseas business experience where the inappropriate jokes escalated, highlighting the persistent culture of misogyny.

Against this backdrop of challenges, both engineers champion the need for more diversity in engineering fields. They call upon aspiring female engineers not to shrink in the face of adversity but to embrace their unique qualities, skills, and perspectives. Their message is clear: women in engineering are not only necessary but vital for fostering innovation and achieving a more inclusive industry. Their rallying cry is for perseverance, courage, and the unwavering pursuit of one's dreams in the world of STEM.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Backgrounds The chapter introduces Straya, a senior software engineer at BuzzFeed, and Brandi Martin, an advanced manufacturing engineer in the automotive field. It touches upon the challenges and stereotypes they face, such as snide remarks from professors questioning their abilities to be critical thinkers or problem solvers. Straya shares her journey, starting from high school where she took an elective course in computer science.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Early Interests and College Experiences The chapter 'Early Interests and College Experiences' recounts the narrator's journey into computer science and engineering. Initially, the narrator's parents suggested taking a computer science course over an art class, which led to a natural affinity and enjoyment of the subject. This interest prompted the narrator to major in computer science in college after taking various related courses. Additionally, the narrator's interest in engineering was influenced by their mother's background in the field, especially her proficiency in math and science, which inspired the narrator's own fascination and drive to excel in these areas.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Challenges in College The speaker reflects on their educational journey, expressing pride in overcoming challenges and a sense of accomplishment. They describe being drawn to math and science, particularly mechanical engineering, which led them to attend Marquette University, far from their home in South Texas.
• 02:00 - 03:30: Workplace Challenges A person shares their experiences of workplace challenges, highlighting instances of subtle discrimination and undermining behavior. They discuss situations where coworkers have doubted their problem-solving abilities based on appearances and have taken over tasks, assuming they are inefficient. Specific incidents include a partner refusing to let them type during a project and being routinely called to solve assembly line issues.
• 03:30 - 05:00: Reflections on Past Experiences The chapter explores the personal experiences of an engineer who faces gender-based assumptions and bias in the workplace. An instance is described where the engineer made a joke about not wearing an 'engineer hat' when questioned about her role, highlighting the subtle discrimination she faced. Her colleague, a man, never faced similar questioning, which caused her frustration and hurt, especially considering her dedication to her career. The narrative reveals the personal impact of such biases on her and her persistence in seeking technical feedback and growth within her professional environment.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Advice and Encouragement The chapter "Advice and Encouragement" deals with the perception of soft skills in the workplace, particularly focusing on the differences in feedback received by employees based on gender. The narrator shares a personal experience where they were advised to keep their desk less cluttered as it affected how they were perceived. They observed that male colleagues with cluttered desks did not receive similar feedback. This led to frustration as they were seeking constructive technical feedback to improve their skills, but instead received comments on their workspace organization. In the engineering industry, the narrator also mentions that they often receive feedback on being too aggressive or direct in their communications, highlighting potential gender biases in professional evaluations.

Female Engineers Share Experiences In A Male-Dominated Field Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 whenever I would attend classes my professors would make snide remarks oh we think it's cute that you're here oh it's you know wonderful that someone that looks like you thinks you can you know be a critical thinker or problem solver hi I'm straya I am a senior software engineer at BuzzFeed hi my name is Brandi Martin and I am an advanced manufacturing engineer for an automotive manufacturing company I actually started learning computer science when I was in high school I had an elective open and
• 00:30 - 01:00 my parents suggested I take a computer science course instead of an art class it kind of just clicked and I realized that it was something that I really liked doing and it came naturally to me in college I just decided to take it as my major after taking a bunch of classes and realizing that it seemed like a field that I wanted to get into him so I actually got really interested in engineering because my mom had channel engineering was was actually very inclined she was very good at math and science I was always very fascinated by math and science because it was the one thing that challenged me to work a
• 01:00 - 01:30 little harder and once I got it it just was a sense of accomplishment that nothing else really did my love for math and science and the application of the whole world around us really got me intrigued especially in mechanical engineering to which I end up going to Marquette University a thousand miles away from home down in South Texas even in college I was one of maybe five women in computer science in classes of like two hundred I was only one of two Hispanic female engineers whenever I would attend classes my professors would make snide remarks oh we think it's cute
• 01:30 - 02:00 that you're here oh it's you know wonderful that someone that looks like you thinks you can you know be a critical thinker or a problem solver and it's just kind of something I've gotten used to someone who I one time worked with he wouldn't let me type like he was my partner on this project and he just kept pulling the laptop away and just doing all the work and he's like oh you're too slow and that happened a few times with different people as a tooling engineer I would get called to the assembly line any time they had an issue putting something together didn't fit right I'd go down to the line as a K you know I heard there was an issue to which
• 02:00 - 02:30 the response I received was well we actually called an engineer so I ended up having to play it off a little with a joke and say you know oh well sorry didn't wear minjin ear hat today but I promise I'm a girl my fellow co-worker would go and say Oh I'm your engineer they would never get questioned I was very hurt because it's something I'd worked for really hard Here I am to help and serve and the whole reason I became an engineer was to help solve problems and yet these people questioned my ability in order to do so when I was at my first job I asked for some technical feedback one time I had a manager who gave me a bunch of really
• 02:30 - 03:00 soft skills things like maybe you should clean your desk or keep your desk less cluttered like people perceive you negatively because of that a lot of people who worked there whose desks were also cluttered a lot of them were male I don't think that they've ever they ever got that kind of feedback I came out of that meeting very upset I was just like I want some technical feedback I want someone to like help me improve and all I'm getting is you should clear your desk in the engineering industry a lot of times I'll get feedback that I'm too aggressive that my emails are too direct
• 03:00 - 03:30 that you know if I get upset or tell someone I'm disappointed in them it automatically goes into well why are you being emotional or don't get upset when in reality it's I have a high expectation and this is what I'm asking to be met I had just given a talk and I was at an after party and a colleague approached me and told me that I didn't do well on my talk he had been like oh that was that was pretty bad I was taken aback and it was weird tiles had gotten a lot of feedback that the talk was was really great it just seemed like he was
• 03:30 - 04:00 trying to neg me or trying to talk down to me it was inappropriate he made me feel weird about giving another talk like only recently like once I came to BuzzFeed did I kind of like gain back that confidence that like I'm good at speaking like I can I can do this it's just weird because I thought one experience still sticks with me and like makes me feel less confident sometimes so on a trip for an international business issue that we had going on and we flew to France to support a customer as we even just got on the plane at the airport you know my
• 04:00 - 04:30 fellow co-workers thought it would funny to start saying oh we're so glad we have Brienne here to be able to make our sandwiches and take care of us they're trying to push some buttons up until the point where it got a little hostile to where they would say Oh carrying my bag or oh I need you to do this or hey would you mind wiping my face for me then it went a step further where we're actually with our French co-workers some of the mechanics asked to go you know get cigarettes or whatever in the nearby town so I offered to drive them it took a little longer than expected and on our way back I started getting text messages that we're saying like Oh brands taking too long she must
• 04:30 - 05:00 have been being tossed around something's that's so personal to me is I haven't actually experienced sexual abuse so making a joke about me being taken advantage of especially around my French co-workers was something really upsetting it took an escalation right it didn't just happen out of nowhere it started with these simple jokes and then became something that was absolutely atrocious one piece of advice that I have is find the other women who are in the stem field I think having some type of support system it's kind of nice for even those microaggressions that happen where you see someone to like double
• 05:00 - 05:30 check like did I just hear this right or am I overreacting in this way having that kind of sounding board is really important so my advice if you're interested in stem or engineering don't be scared anything worthwhile is gonna be worth a fight don't doubt your own self your own skillset your ability you can learn any and all skills so bring your own self to the table whatever personality strengths you have it makes a huge difference and we need you here in industry [Music]
• 05:30 - 06:00 [Music]