More girls should post EE video

[M4trix]

I learned a long time ago that talking about engineering was about the most efficient method there is of repelling women.

+1 

Rules when dating a woman:

1. Do not ask or guess her age.
2. Do not ask her how much she weighs.
3. Do not talk about engineering.

 

[NiHaoMike]

Women who are truly passionate about engineering do seem to enjoy talking about it. Of course, now the problem is trying to figure out if a date is genuinely interested or merely in it for the money...

[Simon]

I call it 'systems engineering' as not to ruffle any feathers because it sometimes takes an awful lot of time to find all that shit. And its often heavily cost optimized.

Even if you put together a computer its a engineered solution since you looked at all the specs, made sure everything was compatible, ran a test procedure.. I guess now everything works better together but its still fairly skilled labor.

Yes but you would not claim to be doing electronics. Arduino stuff made purely from off the shelf stuff is not electronics, I'd go with system building but not electronics.

[Jon.C]

Natashka PLUS

[Simon]

There's a long way to go from an Arduino hookup to a commercial product.

I agree. But I bet there are lots of commercial products out there that use an ATmega 328 or similar chip that were prototyped using an Arduino and using some of the freely available code.

And I contemplated that early on. It's not the Arduino that is the problem, it is the ignorance of the surrounding electronics required and how to interface the µC to the real world and how to process the results to make them meaningful like putting hysteresis in thermostat software so that your relay does not become a suicidal buzzer.

[Simon]

Margi Clarke lived in the terraced house in the street next to me.. lol. My GF at the time worked in the Tech Park supervising girls soldering all day long. I couldn't get a job soldering because I was a man - the dude told me to join the RAF instead. I am not kidding.

It used to be pretty common in the UK to find 100% of the people soldering production stuff were women, but anyone working on prototypes was male.

many unskilled electrical assembly jobs are done by women as they apparently make nicer work of it. In the PCB assembly factories I have visited the split was about 50/50. The harness making department was 100%. To be honest I think it is also historic as women have always been paid less and so long as it did not require technical initiative they where the worker of choice. It still goes on to a degree.

On the other hand the good harness making company is all men and they turn out the most beautifully flexible harnesses no matter what is asked of them but they are 2.5-3x the price of anyone else.

[Simon]

I learned a long time ago that talking about engineering was about the most efficient method there is of repelling women. Everyone talks about the male chauvinist attitude but what about the female anti-nerd attitude that has been so prominent throughout my life?

 
Yes spot on, being an engineering nerd is bad enough with men around!

[Simon]

Natashka PLUS

She seems more comfortable with the gear she is working on but it's hard to judge not understanding the language.

[EEVblog]

Women who are truly passionate about engineering do seem to enjoy talking about it. Of course, now the problem is trying to figure out if a date is genuinely interested or merely in it for the money...

I'd estimate that 95%+ of engineers I've worked with over the decades (and the same ratio for fellow EE students) don't really have a genuine interest in it outside of the the job.
So the same percentage on the already small percentage of women in engineering means you can almost round down the zero.

[langwadt]

Natashka PLUS

She seems more comfortable with the gear she is working on but it's hard to judge not understanding the language.

quite the mix of subjects on that channel, from electronics to car repair.  Strangely interesting trying to guess what's going on when you don't understand a word of Russian

[james_s]

Women who are truly passionate about engineering do seem to enjoy talking about it. Of course, now the problem is trying to figure out if a date is genuinely interested or merely in it for the money...

I'd estimate that 95%+ of engineers I've worked with over the decades (and the same ratio for fellow EE students) don't really have a genuine interest in it outside of the the job.
So the same percentage on the already small percentage of women in engineering means you can almost round down the zero.

I think the only female in that category that I have actually met throughout my entire life was Jeri Ellison, and that's only if you consider chatting for a few minutes in her booth at the maker faire about 10 years ago counts as "met." It's sure not guys preventing women from being into engineering, I've yet to meet a guy who has any desire to keep them out.

[NiHaoMike]

I think the only female in that category that I have actually met throughout my entire life was Jeri Ellison, and that's only if you consider chatting for a few minutes in her booth at the maker faire about 10 years ago counts as "met." It's sure not guys preventing women from being into engineering, I've yet to meet a guy who has any desire to keep them out.

I know some girls who are quite passionate about engineering, mostly from college. We certainly need more of them and that's arguably where female TV show hosts are of value - make it "cool" for girls to do engineering for fun and a lot more girls will want to do that.

Now I wonder how to get more girls accepting of DIY engineering, even if they aren't interested in doing it themselves.

[juan_ee]

Don't forget Limor "Ladyada" Fried 

https://www.adafruit.com/about

[Simon]

I know some girls who are quite passionate about engineering, mostly from college. We certainly need more of them and that's arguably where female TV show hosts are of value - make it "cool" for girls to do engineering for fun and a lot more girls will want to do that.

Now I wonder how to get more girls accepting of DIY engineering, even if they aren't interested in doing it themselves.

Why do we "need" more female engineers? is their a shortage of engineers and all the men have gone to war? If women want to go into engineering these days they will.

[bd139]

I've been sitting here thinking about this and this is already solved.



(nothing but respect for glasslinger btw - some of the finest videos on the internet)

[Miyuki]

I would like to make videos
But I cant, I'm scared to death by filming, talking and people, even phone calls are sometimes too big problem to solve 

So what now ? 

[westfw]

I've yet to meet a guy who has any desire to keep them out.

I've known guys with pinups all over their office walls, or pornographic desktop pictures.(no, not recently.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that both those guys are dead.)That's hardly a welcoming environment.

[apis]

Sex of the person filming obviously shouldn't matter for the content, but I think it could matter the young nerd women out there who might be looking for role models (for lack of a better word). I mean, it helps knowing your not the only xxx-person interested in this or that when you are young, I believe.

The Youtube tech channels by women i have seen do get more weird abusive comments than the average guy. We all now know that some people think they should just "grab 'em by the ****". There certainly are nasty people in the world and they are on the internet as well as everyone knows. Best thing to do is just ignore them and remind yourself they are a minority, don't let them scare you away.

I would like to make videos
But I cant, I'm scared to death by filming, talking and people, even phone calls are sometimes too big problem to solve 

So what now ? 

Yeah, me too. But as someone said, you don't have to show yourself on camera, just film what your working on like e.g. Big Clive, NurdRage (and many others) if that's ok.

Women who are truly passionate about engineering do seem to enjoy talking about it. Of course, now the problem is trying to figure out if a date is genuinely interested or merely in it for the money...

I'd estimate that 95%+ of engineers I've worked with over the decades (and the same ratio for fellow EE students) don't really have a genuine interest in it outside of the the job.
So the same percentage on the already small percentage of women in engineering means you can almost round down the zero.

And probably only 5% of those who are passionate about it can make good videos...

[Simon]

Best thing to do is just ignore them and remind yourself they are a minority, don't let them scare you away.

But are they?

[mtdoc]

I've yet to meet a guy who has any desire to keep them out.

I've known guys with pinups all over their office walls, or pornographic desktop pictures.(no, not recently.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that both those guys are dead.)That's hardly a welcoming environment.

This reminded me of this recent JAMA article that sumarizes findings from a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Report on Sexual Harassment. Specifically the 3rd caragory they describe:

The third category, gender harassment, is perhaps the most troubling. This type of harassment does not need to be either sexually explicit or target individuals; behaviors often are beyond the reach of law and often go unrecognized. Examples include “verbal and nonverbal behaviors that convey hostility, objectification, exclusion, or second-class status about members of one gender.

[Miyuki]

I would like to make videos
But I cant, I'm scared to death by filming, talking and people, even phone calls are sometimes too big problem to solve 

So what now ? 

Yeah, me too. But as someone said, you don't have to show yourself on camera, just film what your working on like e.g. Big Clive, NurdRage (and many others) if that's ok.

BigClive can talk about it I can make silent movie, for me is speaking part problem

[apis]

But are they?

Based on the proportion of comments and personal experience (as well as opinion polls and the like), i think they are. They might be a bigger minority than one would like, but definitely a minority.

BigClive can talk about it I can make silent movie, for me is speaking part problem

I hate being on camera/being recorded as well so I don't have any good advice. I remember Dave got some abusive comments about his voice/accent in the beginning, but somehow he managed to continue and kept making great content anyway. I guess you have to have thick skin.

[NiHaoMike]

Why do we "need" more female engineers? is their a shortage of engineers and all the men have gone to war? If women want to go into engineering these days they will.

Makes it easier for the guys trying to find girls willing to work together on projects.

[schmitt trigger]

I learned a long time ago that talking about engineering was about the most efficient method there is of repelling women. Everyone talks about the male chauvinist attitude but what about the female anti-nerd attitude that has been so prominent throughout my life?

 
Yes spot on, being an engineering nerd is bad enough with men around!

It is not only "engineering" but other nerdy stuff like science or math.
With some exceptions of course. Visiting a Bulgarian factory, I met a young lady, reasonably good looking, which also was quite good at math.
Over lunch, she recommended me to read a book: "Against the Gods, The remarkable history of Risk", which is a mathematical history book. Which I still have.

[cgroen]

Why do we "need" more female engineers? is their a shortage of engineers and all the men have gone to war? If women want to go into engineering these days they will.

Makes it easier for the guys trying to find girls willing to work together on projects.

And thats important because ?
(Maybe easier to just use a dating site ?)
I simply don't understand the focus on this, we are engineers for gods sake, why is gender so important