Indonesian Agnes Irwanti never got to complete her degree in electrical engineering, as financial difficulties at home meant her parents had to choose which of their five children could finish their education. “I don't blame my parents, in my country and other parts of world, women don't have an obligation to complete their education, as they are expected to be homemakers.” However, Ms. Irwanti, the co-founder of Multikom Global Mediatama, Indonesia, did not let her lack of a degree hold her back and she won the IEEE Women In Engineering Most Inspiring Engineer Award in 2012.
She and other leaders in technology from across the world were in Bengaluru on Wednesday to be part of at the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Women in Engineering Global Summit.
While women represent about 40 per cent of undergraduate students in India, the numbers keep dropping in higher levels of employment. “While women in STEM education are 39 per cent, many drop out of work in middle to higher levels. At the highest executive levels, this number is just 10 per cent,” said Vasantha, director, Technology Path Finding, India. The number of unemployed female engineers in India was as high as 40 per cent, as per data obtained from girlsintech.org.
ADVERTISEMENT
In her address, Karen Bartleson, IEEE President-elect 2016, spoke about the many misperceptions women in engineering face. “A popular campaign last year had women sharing their photographs with the hashtag #illooklikeanengineer, to break the stereotype that engineers were nerdy looking people with no social life,” said Dr. Bartleson. However, sometimes sexism creeps in even then, like in the case of the IBM “hack a hairdryer” campaign. “People replied saying stuff like 'I'm too busy to hack a hair dryer, I'm working on nuclear science',” said Ms. Bartleson.
Over 200 engineers, academicians and students participated in the conference, of whom 35 international delegates came from countries like Japan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
ADVERTISEMENT