I believe there are some very interesting topics to be discussed relating women to the workforce in the field of technology. I have worked at Duke Energy for a total of one year through the CO-OP program at Belews Creek Steam station. This is a 2200 mW coal fired power plant located just outside of Greensboro. On the total engineering and technical team at the power plant, there was a total of one engineer who was female. The power plant employed a total of 26 engineers. The leadership team including the engineering managers, production manager, plant manager, and operations manager were also all male. In the working class including mechanics, electricians, operators, and lab technicians, there was a total of one female employed. However in the administrative department, there all the employees were female. That being said out of about 250 people, there was a total of 5 women at the power plant; three of which being administrative secretaries to the leadership team. This must be difficult for both females who are seeking a job at this location and the people who are already employed. During my time at the power plant, worked with many engineers on different projects. The engineer that I found to be most knowledgeable and show exceptional project management skills was in fact the female engineer.
Relating this back to the readings, this shows that even though it is the 21st century, we still have significant improvements we need to make to bridge this gap. Although I never discussed how it felt like to be led by men and work only with men, I could sometimes sense that she could be let down and get frustrated working in this kind of environment.
Duke is however working to improve the situation. On March 17th, they are launching an event called "Girl Power" to target high school teenagers to make them aware of the jobs at Duke Energy.More infirmation is available at
http://www.duke-energy.com/visitor-centers/ee-community-events-calendar.asp
I also feel that Duke Energy should increase scholarships for women in the engineering studies. I feel as though this would help to bridge the gap and get women more influenced in learning about the field of technology and pursue a career at Duke.
Duke is however working to improve the situation. On March 17th, they are launching an event called "Girl Power" to target high school teenagers to make them aware of the jobs at Duke Energy.More infirmation is available at
http://www.duke-energy.com/visitor-centers/ee-community-events-calendar.asp
I also feel that Duke Energy should increase scholarships for women in the engineering studies. I feel as though this would help to bridge the gap and get women more influenced in learning about the field of technology and pursue a career at Duke.
I find it interesting to note that 3 of the 5 women working for Duke Energy perform administrative tasks. I feel like there is this constant struggle to determine whether these women chose these careers themselves or society chose it for them. Do you think these women truly wanted to be secretaries or just did not visualize being a female engineer as an option? I feel as though this is not an issue of women being restricted throughout society, it is an issue of the highly gendered workplace. Gender norms create certain careers to be innately male and other careers to be innately female (generally care taking roles). As long as these gender norms in the workplace persist we will see very few female engineers and male nurses.
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