10 Reasons Female Engineers Have it Made

10.  Someone ALWAYS offers to help them carry something, even if they’re not carrying anything heavy

I don’t know how many times I’ve been walking down the hall at work carrying something when someone offered to take it off my hands.  I’ve had people willing to go completely out of their way to carry something to my desk for me.  While this does happen male to male and female to female, most often it’s a chivalrous male offering help to the female.

9.  They don’t have to work hard to get noticed

Let’s face it.  When someone is a minority in the population, they stand out.  And while we may not like it, Image and Exposure (part of P.I.E.) help you vastly in boosting your career.  While white males are struggling to stand out among the sea of engineers, women pop out.  All women engineers have to do at that point is not screw up the “P” (Performance).

8.  They have many more opportunities than their male counterparts

From SWE to women’s conferences to company sponsored female-only networking events, female engineers are flooded with opportunities to help in all aspects of their career.  Not to mention, they can participate in all the ones their male coworkers are allowed to go to, as well.  And that’s not all.  Companies have quotas they must meet for percentage of female managers in order to satisfy stakeholders and the government.  Those percentages are much higher than the ratio of female to male engineers.  What does that equate to?  More management positions available to women.

7.  Management has to listen to them

Following on with affirmative action quotas, engineering companies are terrified to lose any of the female employees they have.  This means they have to keep them happy.  This means they have to at least listen to the unhappy ones.

6.  They have a huge dating pool at their fingertips, 40 hours a week

What young single female engineer wouldn’t love to have a giant pool of intelligent men to meet every day?

5.  They have immunity from sexual harassment accusations

OK, so this isn’t entirely true, but how many cases of a male accusing a female of sexual harassment have you heard of?  The few I have were mostly to make a point… that females get away with it.

4.  Dress Code = whatever they want

Feeling pretty today?  Wear a dress.  Tired and lazy?  Jeans and a polo.  Anything goes!

3.  They can be themselves

Males have more social stigma today than women.  They are expected not to cry and to always appear strong.  They can’t take on traditionally female tasks for fear of being called a sissy or gay.  Female?  They can do whatever they want.  From stoic and logical to emotional and flirty, from analytical to organized, they can be whatever suits them best.

2.  They almost always have the whole bathroom to themselves

What?  No line?  Yessssssssss

1.  They are respected for their brains, not their looks

So this one does apply to males, too, but how many times have you heard a woman say, “I want you to love me for what’s inside!”?  Engineers do!

• Posted in: lists
• Tagged: female engineers, performance image exposure, sexual harassment, SWE, women in tech