Why engineering should be a woman's game

[Harbo]

Many as an engine was a war machine like a catapult.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_engineering

Rod

 

[RogerP]

Siege engine comes to mind.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

beer engine?

 

[doorframe]

Have you heard the radio advert that starts with....

"Gavin, 30, Technician for Autoglass"

It's just a bloke with a stanley knife, some string and some soapy water. But he's a technician!

 

[dickm]

The word "Civil" (Engineer) was given in medieval times to distinguish them from Military Engineers who used to undermine and destroy things like castles.
To quote - "Civil Engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings."

SWMBO was an academic in a university engineering department for most of her career, but she reckons she never met an engineer who was really civil .

 

[Cheshirechappie]

SWMBO was an academic in a university engineering department for most of her career, but she reckons she never met an engineer who was really civil .

That may say more about SWMBO than it does about the engineers....

 

[ajmacleod]

The misuse of the term Engineer has, I think, annoyed pretty much everyone who has actually done the hard work to gain some justification to apply it to themselves.

I have a decent BEng degree in mechanical engineering and yet have never called myself an engineer as I've never really worked in that sector (I know, I'm not too sure what was the point of my slaving for four years on the degree either!)

On the other hand, I can think of a handful of people with very little formal education and certainly nothing like an engineering degree whom I would feel quite justified in calling engineers... the kind of person who can make a machine or device to solve any problem you mention out of a pile of scrap and an intuitive understanding of engineering.

As to female engineers... we had maybe three or four reach graduation on my course (a few more were there at the start but didn't stick it); can't say they performed any better or worse than the rest of us as a group.

 

[finneyb]

I had no idea we had so many Chartered Engineers on this forum - I was a Chartered Civil Engineer.
My next door neighbour is doing one day a week for 10 weeks to become a Civil Engineer - damn fast learners in that generation

Brian

 

[Mark A]

My next door neighbour is doing one day a week for 10 weeks to become a Civil Engineer - damn fast learners in that generation

10 days and he's a civil engineer? That's nothing... my neighbour did two lessons in night school and he's now a neurosurgeon!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Ten weeks ago I cudn spel enjinere, now I are wun.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I had no idea we had so many Chartered Engineers on this forum - I was a Chartered Civil Engineer.

Chartered Engineer here too, but I'm not civil ! I'm an electrical. Or is that a technologist, or whatever it is the IEE/IET call themselves now.

I have been for about 10 years, and the two most boring aspects are the incessant handwringing about the lack of female engineers, and the lack of prestige associated with the term "engineer".

So the binman in Coventry can call himself the "City engineer". I can call myself "Doctor" but it doesn't mean I can cure illnesses. We have the specific title "Chartered Engineer" which means something. I think a bigger problem for prestige is that we allow "scientists", "architects" etc etc to be credited for things which are actually engineering achievements.

 

[finneyb]

I had no idea we had so many Chartered Engineers on this forum - I was a Chartered Civil Engineer.

Chartered Engineer here too, but I'm not civil ! I'm an electrical. Or is that a technologist, or whatever it is the IEE/IET call themselves now.

I have been for about 10 years, and the two most boring aspects are the incessant handwringing about the lack of female engineers, and the lack of prestige associated with the term "engineer".

Both have been going on since the 1970's. In Civils the women do seem to be coming so far as I can see the numbers have been helped because the scope has increased to include such things as the Environment etc.

Once a larger proportion of females are in the Engineering workforce the next whinge will be we can't manage with all these females wanting maternity leave and carer leave - my daughter has just had 12 months off on maternity leave; I don't object to it, but it must be difficult for an employer.

Brian

 

[Harbo]

Don't forget separate female toilets!

Rod

 

[DTR]

So.... If anyone can call themselves an engineer, what is the definition of a "real engineer"?

 

[StevieB]

So.... If anyone can call themselves an engineer, what is the definition of a "real engineer"?

Someone who has a chip on their shoulder about other people calling themselves 'engineer'

Steve (speaking as a scientist in a medical school, where the medics all think they can do science simply because they cure (or bury) patients!)

 

[heimlaga]

In Finland there is a clear definition for the word Ingenjör in Swedish and Insinööri in Finnish. It means a Batchelor's degree in applied science and industrial technology. Be it structural engiheering or machinery or HVAC or electricity or chemistry or whatever.

I think there is a mayor flaw in the industrial way of thinking nowadays. In the world of today the engineer is the last stop in the design chain after the architect/designer and the marketing department and the economy department and the health and safety department and a whole bunch of government bureaucrats.
The engineer is expected to make a readymade design work but not allowed to change anything to make it work and not allowed to spend any time nor use any materials. All those buildings and machines that just barely work on the day of delivery and not for very long afterwards are bound to become expensive in the end..... not to mention all costly and overcomplicated solutions that are born when a mechanism or structure is designed to fit within a cover or a facade instead of the cover or facade being designed to fit the underlying structure.
I think we need a design cirkle instead of a design chain.........

I also think that we need to legalize mechanical and industrial inventions in Europe. Theese days all new inventions are forbidden in law. A prototype cannot be CE-certified and therefore cannot legally be put into real use to test how it works before developing a new prototype which may be upgraded and put into serial production. At least if you cannot afford to hire a full time lawyer. I have had my disputes with local safety officials over theese totally insane regulations.

 

[lurker]

Someone who has a chip on their shoulder about other people calling themselves 'engineer' !)

=D> =D> =D>

 

[DTR]

So.... If anyone can call themselves an engineer, what is the definition of a "real engineer"?

Someone who has a chip on their shoulder about other people calling themselves 'engineer'

Steve (speaking as a scientist in a medical school, where the medics all think they can do science simply because they cure (or bury) patients!)

Haha! =D>

 

[goldspanner]

Nice to see this forum is full of decent people!
And fully agree on the misuse of the 'engineer' title