Diversity in Engineering: Managing the Workforce of the Future (2002)

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Society of Women Engineers SHELLEY A.M. WOLFF President Society of Women Engineers The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an advocate for diversity. We embrace this commitment in the opening line of our diversity statement, “SWE acknowledges and respects the value of a diverse community.” We firmly be- lieve that every engineering and technology organization has a responsibility to ensure equity for women and minorities at all stages of their careers—from entry level to CEO. One of SWE’s missions is to encourage women to achieve their full potential in their careers, which can be a challenge because they sometimes feel isolated and out of the loop in their companies. Based on talking to our members and my own experience, I recommend three things that you, as corporate leaders, can do to encourage diversity, partic- ipation by women in particular, in your company: (1) support women’s groups, both internal and external to your company; (2) highlight and advertise the achievements of women in your organization; and (3) ensure fairness and equity in promotions at all levels. Let’s take a look at each of these three items. The first item, supporting women’s groups, means providing the means for women to network. A network provides mutual support, as well as a forum for women to exchange information and ideas. Many companies, especially large companies, support formal women’s programs in the company, providing work- shops and speakers. In the Kansas City office of my company, HNTB, we have a much smaller group of women that operates on a much more informal basis. We go out for lunch every couple of months to catch up on what’s happening in our lives and careers and in the company. Both of these models, formal and informal, help women connect and sup- port each other, which is essential to affirming our value to the company. A women’s group is a forum where we can celebrate our successes, large and 56 

SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS 57 small. I also firmly believe that companies should encourage and support in- volvement by women in external minority organizations. These are especially valuable if there is no internal support structure in your company. Too many firms sponsor an employee for only one professional organization, usually a technical society. This policy should be expanded to include a second profes- sional association, such as SWE, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, or the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. SWE members relate many instances of being able to obtain company support to attend their technical association conference, but not the SWE annual conference, which provides technical, management, and leader- ship training opportunities. This attitude must change. Companies must invest in personal development, as well as technical development. The second thing you can do as a corporate leader is to highlight the achieve- ments of women in your organization. My company publishes a wonderful marketing-type magazine for clients and employees and a newspaper-type publi- cation for internal use. When major projects and promotions are reported, pho- tos of those involved are included. As you can imagine, in my 21 years with HNTB it was very discouraging to see photo after photo of white males only. Our director of corporate communication finally recognized this problem and began to seek out women who excelled but had been overlooked: • a woman environmental engineer in our Indianapolis office who is lead- ing a megaproject, a complex, multidisciplinary project with high visibil- ity in the community and more than $5 million in fees • a woman engineer in Louisville who is not only a top-performing project manager, but also a teacher of undergraduate courses at the local university • a woman interior designer who is responsible for our continued success with a major client, not always for large projects, but the relationship of trust she has built with the client ensures continuous work and revenue for her department Women’s achievements are often overlooked simply because their supervisors or line managers do not champion their efforts. The third thing you can do is to ensure fairness and equity in promotions. Women will leave your company (often to start successful businesses of their own), if they do not feel your company’s job assignments and promotions are fair. Too often we see men promoted to positions based on their potential and who is sponsoring them, while women must already be performing at the higher level before they are deemed qualified for the position. We must stop this inequity. My company has initiated a succession-planning program that I feel will help address this issue. Detailed job descriptions and required skill sets will be posted for high-level positions, such as group directors and office and division leaders. Employees will be evaluated for their readiness to move into these 

58 DIVERSITY IN ENGINEERING positions, and action plans will be prepared for those who are not ready, out- lining the job assignments and training they need to compete for promotions. This type of program is not a cure-all, but it could open a lot of doors to women in our company. In conclusion, to remain competitive, to hire and retain the best talent who can find the best solutions to engineering problems, you must train, encourage, and champion minority candidates, including women. Women provide a won- derful reservoir of engineering talent that is not being fully used. Taking advan- tage of it will help you build for the future. 

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers ORLANDO A. GUTIERREZ Past President Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers I represent the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), of which I was president from 1993 to 1995. I am still associated with SHPE, and my feeling is that if it didn’t exist, somebody would have to invent it. Hispanics are probably the least represented minority in the workplace. They are the least represented minority in government employment and engineering and science on all levels. This morning, one of the speakers stated that the Hispanic population in engineer- ing has increased to 4.8 percent. Compare that with 13.9 percent Hispanic repre- sentation in the population as a whole right now, and more than 20 percent repre- sentation in the nation among individuals under 20 years of age, the next generation coming out of college. There is obviously something wrong, but who is to blame? I think the Hispanic population is to blame. I think government organizations are to blame. I think American business is to blame. I think the educational and academic institutions are to blame. There is plenty of blame to go around. SHPE was founded in 1974 by seven engineers working for the city of Los Angeles who found themselves in a poor working environment. Since then, the organization has grown to include more than 1,400 professionals in science, engineering, and technology and more than 7,000 students in those fields throughout the country. We have 43 chapters from Seattle to Florida, from Maine to San Diego. We have chapters in about 160 schools. We are compara- ble to an NSBE for Hispanics, but we are a little bit different. When a company wants to recruit from underrepresented groups, it should not just consider minorities in general, but should look at the particular group they are interested in. Once that decision is made, the company should find them and treat them appropriately. Our organization is based on a process of self-help, our people helping our people improve at the college level, at the work level, at the precollege level. 59 

60 DIVERSITY IN ENGINEERING The main tool we use is very simple—networking, networking at all levels— professionals networking with college students; advanced college students net- working with incoming students to increase retention, college students mentor- ing precollege students. In order to do that, we have a few main programs. One is a scholarship program. Another is career fairs for employment; our career fair is benchmarking against NSBE’s. We don’t have 7,000 people there, but we now have 4,000, so we are creeping up. Our career fair is perhaps the best source of Hispanic undergraduate potential employees for companies. Our stu- dents are spread among colleges and universities that may have 3 or 4 percent Hispanic students, which means if you go to one university for one day of re- cruiting, your recruiter may see 16 people, 4 percent of whom will be Hispanic. I think that represents half of a person. The chance of that half person fulfilling your requirements is practically nil. By participating in the SHPE conference, you can see 3,000 students in one place and can probably find somebody to fit your needs, your characteristics, and your interests. We also run a lot of outreach programs in which our college students tutor and mentor high school and junior high students, getting them into the engineering/ science mind frame. If we wait until students are seniors in high school or at the bridge level, it’s already too late. Interest in these careers has to be generated when students start junior high, which is the most significant point in a student’s life. We also have a leadership training program to teach skills that are not taught at the university, such as how to operate a program, how to write grants, how to run an organization. We also produce a magazine, SHPE, which is one of the largest, if not the largest, Hispanic engineering magazine in the country. So what? So, we have programs. Are these sufficient? No. Are they effective? We have made some improvements. We have affected the retention level of freshmen in college by associating them with successful upperclassmen. Have we been able to help companies in recruiting? Yes. Companies that attend our conference and show their flags and show real interest, which is difficult to fake, are considered by our students to be employers of choice. Are we satisfied with what we are doing? No. A project like this—to help the community, which helps industry, which helps the nation—requires money. We don’t have enough. We have a scholarship program that gives about $275,000 a year in scholarships. That is a pittance. We are able to help about 270 students a year, but we have a list of 1,400 applicants, all of them worthwhile candidates. We spend about $120,000 a year for our outreach programs. Is that suffi- cient? It is a drop in the bucket. It should be 1.5 orders of magnitude bigger than it is. Can we generate the funds ourselves? No. We need to partner with industry, not to ask for gifts, but to seek investments in the future. You won’t see the results tomorrow. You won’t even be able to measure them in a couple of years. But you will see results in the future. I think that support of organiza- tions like ours, like NSBE, like SWE, is one of the best investments American industry and government can make.