Women featured in D.O. article respond to writing on representation in STEM

Dear Editor,

We are the three women featured in the recent article “Outnumbered.” After reading the published story, we found it important to make a few additional comments that were not reflected in the story about female representation in engineering at Syracuse University.

As women in engineering, we are not taking back or hiding our stories, experiences or feelings that we, and so many other women, have undergone. However, we feel the need to clarify that although there is still inequality in our field, we are trailblazers and feel empowered by being women in STEM. We have a community that supports one another, organizations such as Society of Women Engineers and Women of Color in Science and Technology that work hard at integrating women within STEM, and professors, both male and female, who are thoughtful, inspiring and supportive.

Female representation in engineering and technology as a whole has improved drastically in the past few decades, let alone the increase we’ve seen in the past four years. We are moving toward a world where equal representation can be a reality. For example, Michelle Blum, the program director for the Mechanical Engineering program, and College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean Teresa Dahlberg exemplify what it means to be a strong female leader in both engineering and academia.

We also want to address that we do not agree with our story being tied directly to the #MeToo movement. As much as equality in STEM is incredibly important and traces of societal sexism lingers in engineering, this story is not addressing a #MeToo movement situation. So we feel like it minimizes the experiences of sexual assault survivors.

We also want to recognize that although gender inequality is a prevalent issue in STEM, there is still bias of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability within STEM fields, and that acknowledging these identities and intersectionality within these identities is incredibly important to achieving equality within the profession.

The three of us are proud to be women in STEM and have very high aspirations for our futures. We are empowered by being engineers, to have the ability to make a direct impact in the way this world develops. We are here to encourage the future generation of women interested in science and technology to keep tinkering, keep dreaming and to keep pushing forward.

Sincerely,

Bridget, Ivy and Kayla