Women & Engineering – Brand new solutions

“That’s not the right thing for girls. You don’t need to do something that difficult! And you’ll certainly get dirty, too!” When the talk is about engineering, society still has a number of prejudices and unchallenged clichés. Girls who decide to pursue studies in a technical field often still have to justify their choice.

It almost seems as if society does not think women are capable of, or even deserving of, entering this industry of the future which offers great job, career, and salary prospects. Yet at UASs a completely different wind blows: More than 20% of the graduates today of technical courses of study at a UAS are female. These women are no longer afraid of entering traditional male domains. They have made their way into the field of engineering. In the past years, certain technical study programmes have emerged as ones of particular interest for women: Among them are the life science technologies, the field of renewable energy sources, or even also engineering combined with business, such as business informatics or industrial engineering.

Apply and use
What do women find exciting about engineering? Not primarily how it works, rather, above all, how it can be used, for example, in the field of medicine, in which many technical innovations have made their contributions to helping patients recover or to drastically improving their quality of life. Consequently, medical and pharmaceutical biotechnology have materialised as attractive courses of study for female students. In the field of energy, for example, new approaches lead to less environmentally-harmful energy production. Particularly in this area experts will have their hands full in the coming years. The damaged nuclear power plant in Japan, for example, caused a scare for people all over the world. There are other areas, however, that women have only started to become interested in: electronics, industrial electronics, or embedded systems. The reasons for this are complex – young women often believe they know too little and that they have little chance in succeeding in a technical course of studies without having earned a school-leaving certificate from a higher technical educational institute. Yet this is the exception. Technical courses or study are generally open to applicants with a school-leaving certificate from a secondary academic school. Traditional role patterns which keep women away from the chances and possibilities available in technical professions need to be ignored.

“1000 Euros Instead of Roses”
This limiting attitude should be changed permanently, not least through campaigns such as “1000 Euros Instead of Roses”. This is the name of an initiative by Universities of Applied Sciences and the professional association of the electric and electronic industry (FEEI), which annually recognises the five best female students in technical courses of study at participating UASs. The winners should serve as role models for younger girls in showing them that they, too, can be successful in a technical course of study. “We want to give women the confidence and take away their fears concerning engineering”, says FEII CEO, Lothar Roithner. Female engineers are much sought-after employees: Women bring with them a different perspective, and, together with their male colleagues, provide a more complete approach to solving problems. Women often know the problems present in everyday life, look more closely, and, in so doing, find new solutions.

Re-thinking
More women with confidence also mean an environment that can develop in which the societal position of women will change – and technical courses of study become a matter of course. The government is trying to pave the way for this through its interdepartmental “fFORTE”, which stands for “Frauen in Forschung und Technologie” (“Women in Research and Technology”). One of the approaches is the mentoring programme, which should encourage women to enter male domains. The project “FIT – Frauen in die Technik” (“Women Entering the Field of Engineering”) gives female pupils an understanding of the topic – in a comprehensive and practically-oriented way.