Changing ‘What an Engineer Looks Like’ One Boardroom at a Time

I am lucky. For as long as I can remember, I have been surrounded by people— parents, friends, teachers, colleagues, mentors — who have not just supported but downright pushed me to go into whatever field I wanted to; including and probably especially STEM.

Based on early academic preferences and the intricacies of the French school system, my path toward engineering was less of a conscious decision and more of a logical progression that led me to become a Mechanical Engineer. The amount of time I spent playing with Lego as a kid was either foreshadowing or some kind of conditioning master plan put in place by my parents. If the latter, I need to thank them. I have found a career that is the best kind of challenging, incredibly rewarding and never dull. It has taken me from manufacturing aircraft wing assemblies, to business development for UAVs and satellite ground systems, to building and testing satellites; and I’m only a decade in. The career options available are endless and that was, and still is, one main appeal of my engineering degree.

My career choice has seldom been questioned by other engineers and my support system always gave me the confidence to ignore the people who told me I didn’t “look like an engineer”. One of the key lessons has been learning to work around the people who doubt your ability based on your gender and focus on the people who will support you and help you grow in your career. Your actions will prove the naysayers wrong soon enough — and it is particularly satisfying to prove them wrong.

I am not made to feel “less than” by my colleagues and have continuously felt that I was treated simply as an engineer rather than a ‘women engineer’. Hearing accounts from other women in this field, I realize that this is not always the case, and I know I have been fortunate in the people I have worked with. Nevertheless, sitting in a 30-person meeting and realizing there are only two other women in the room can make anyone feel out of place, no matter how the equally other 27 treat you. In the case of most of the women I have had the chance to work with, I think it has given us additional drive, conscious or unconscious, to prove that we have what it takes and deserve to be here.

Engineering is still very much a male-dominated field (according to Engineers Canada, less than 13 percent of practicing licensed engineers are women) and may stay that way for quite some time, but there is room for us. We may still need to do more than the man sitting next to us to prove that we deserve a seat at the table. But the more of us who do that and claim those seats, the more we can challenge people’s view of what an engineer is “supposed to look like” and the easier it will be for girls and young women to see a place for themselves in this incredible field.

By Veronique Nell