Professional and Career Topics

Before jumping into my personal experience, I wanted to give a brief timeline of ASCE Milestones from the past few years along the topic of diversity:

• August 2017 – ASCE adopts Canon 8 in the Code of Ethics: "Engineers shall, in all matters related to their profession, treat all persons fairly and encourage equitable participation without regard to gender or gender identity, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation, or family, marital, or economic status." Read the full code at Code of Ethics 
• January 2018 - For the first time in the Society's 165 years, all three presidential officers are women – President Kristina Swallow, President-Elect Robin Kemper, and Past-President Norma Jean Mattei.
• March 2018 - ASCE News launched a Women in Civil Engineering Series which covered some great topics including the gender wage gap. The full series can be viewed here: ASCE News Series: Women in Civil Engineering 

I am happy to report that I have seen some progress first-hand spanning from topics such as unconscious bias being discussed in my office to the diversity of our executive management. I am thankful for the great support network of both women and men I have around me. Something not many people in our profession can say, but I have an opportunity to work for and with several women through the transportation group and bridge inspection practice at my company. Although I don't work with all of them on a daily basis, it is encouraging to have these women to look up to as role models. Just as important as having female role models in leadership positions, though, is having male allies that support the advancement of women in our profession. We need all stakeholders to be part of the conversation to move forward. My colleagues and I are encouraged to be active members in professional societies, including diversity-based organizations like the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Society of Black Engineering (NSBE), and Society of Hispanic Engineers (SHPE). Organizations like these can be great resources to learn about how to promote diversity and foster inclusion in the workplace and beyond. 

Diversity in the field of civil engineering is more important than ever, and while there has been progress there is much more work to be done. What progress have you seen for women in the Civil Engineering profession this decade?

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Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA
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One of the biggest things I've seen is just the ability to have a conversation about it. Although I graduated college in 2002, when I first started I remember talking to some (but not many) women in the field, and all of them told me things like "gender has nothing to do with engineering" or "gender has had no effect on my career." That made it incredibly difficult for me to reconcile comments like that with some of the actual behaviors I witnessed, because of the denial that it was happening at all. For example, women being expected to take care of a bunch of non-technical tasks in the office (what we now call "office housework"), or being cut off or talked over in meetings when they were explaining a technical concept. Or contractors deferring to the guy (even if he is a junior engineer) over his senior female project manager. Or general surprise that "they sent a girl" to the site. 

The fact that we can have a (mostly) mainstream conversation about barriers women, our LGBT friends, and minorities face is the beginnings of progress. Yes, there's still a contingent of folks who insist that there these barriers are overblown, no longer exist, or aren't true in their experience, but the door has been opened with a mountain of data that says otherwise, accompanied by a second mountain data that shows firms with inclusive leadership and a diverse staff result in better project outcomes, and make more money along the way. 

Next step: Moving the needle faster on creating more inclusive work cultures for more engineers.

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Stephanie Slocum P.E., M.ASCE
Founder
Engineers Rising LLC
www.engineersrising.com
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Stephanie, 

The Wall Street Journal wrote about "Office Housework" this past Sunday in Don't Ask Me to Do Office Housework!

Unless and until women civil engineers are, at the very least, on parity total compensation-wise with their male civil engineer counterparts, the notion of "Progress" will remain elusive.

 Please review the thoughts and research data expressed in the post

"The Gender Wage (and Workforce Participation) Gap in Civil Engineering"

recently posted by Peyton Gibson and others elsewhere herein.

Respectfully,

Bill Hayden Jr.

 

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William M. Hayden Jr., Ph.D., P.E., CMQ/OE, F.ASCE
Buffalo, N.Y.

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." -- George Eliot 1819 - 1880
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Back in my university days three decades ago, the men far outnumbered the women, but I never had the sense that the women were viewed as inferior with regard to their ability, motivation, and potential as future engineers.  Fast forwarding through the three decades of my engineering career so far, I similarly haven't generally seen a difference in how women are viewed and compensated as compared to men, though I've heard of a very few isolated cases where women were treated unfavorably by male supervisors.  I hope and believe that such cases of discrimination will continue to be relatively rare outliers in the future.

My advice to women engineers, which is the same advice I give to my daughter who will be starting college next year, is to assume that your gender has nothing to do with your ability and career prospects, work hard, be just as assertive as men in supervisory and group settings, and be realistic about the consequences of choices you're making as far as work/life balance.

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Irfan A. Alvi, P.E., M.ASCE
President & Chief Engineer
Alvi Associates, Inc.
Towson, Maryland
www.alviassociates.com
ialvi@...
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@Stephanie Slocum, @William Hayden,  and @Irfan Alvi - thank you for your thoughtful responses! What I have been doing to combat "office housework" is now that we have two new graduate engineers (one who identifies as male and the other who identifies as female), I will delegate some of those types of tasks put on my plate to both of them EQUALLY.  Another actionable item is examining my own unconscious bias when faced with the unfamiliar. More about unconscious bias in a TEDx talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP-cqFLS8Q4 

ASCE Plot Points, a podcast that tells the robust story of civil engineering one civil engineer at a time, is in Season 2 and is looking for answers on this topic. If interested, email your answer as a voice memo to <maskemail>ASCENEWS@... </maskemail>for a chance to be featured in the next episode. I submitted an answer to one of the featured questions last season, so feel free to respond here or message me with any questions. ​​​

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Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-18-2019 07:24
From: Irfan Alvi
Subject: Progress for Women in the Civil Engineering Profession

Back in my university days three decades ago, the men far outnumbered the women, but I never had the sense that the women were viewed as inferior with regard to their ability, motivation, and potential as future engineers.  Fast forwarding through the three decades of my engineering career so far, I similarly haven't generally seen a difference in how women are viewed and compensated as compared to men, though I've heard of a very few isolated cases where women were treated unfavorably by male supervisors.  I hope and believe that such cases of discrimination will continue to be relatively rare outliers in the future.

My advice to women engineers, which is the same advice I give to my daughter who will be starting college next year, is to assume that your gender has nothing to do with your ability and career prospects, work hard, be just as assertive as men in supervisory and group settings, and be realistic about the consequences of choices you're making as far as work/life balance.

------------------------------
Irfan A. Alvi, P.E., M.ASCE
President & Chief Engineer
Alvi Associates, Inc.
Towson, Maryland
www.alviassociates.com
<maskemail>ialvi@...</maskemail>
------------------------------

As an update, the episode of Plot Points that covers this topic is live: https://news.asce.org/asce-plot-points-season-2-episode-4-becoming-leaders/ In this episode, we hear from Carolyn Emerson who talks about challenges she saw for women in civil engineering more than a decade ago and what progress she has seen since. Also covered is unconscious bias and what advice Emerson has for addressing it, especially when early in your career. 

If anyone in this thread has any comments about this podcast episode I would love to hear them!

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Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-21-2019 13:12
From: Danielle Schroeder
Subject: Progress for Women in the Civil Engineering Profession

@Stephanie Slocum, @William Hayden,  and @Irfan Alvi - thank you for your thoughtful responses! What I have been doing to combat "office housework" is now that we have two new graduate engineers (one who identifies as male and the other who identifies as female), I will delegate some of those types of tasks put on my plate to both of them EQUALLY.  Another actionable item is examining my own unconscious bias when faced with the unfamiliar. More about unconscious bias in a TEDx talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP-cqFLS8Q4

ASCE Plot Points, a podcast that tells the robust story of civil engineering one civil engineer at a time, is in Season 2 and is looking for answers on this topic. If interested, email your answer as a voice memo to <maskemail><maskemail>ASCENEWS@...</maskemail> </maskemail>for a chance to be featured in the next episode. I submitted an answer to one of the featured questions last season, so feel free to respond here or message me with any questions. ​​​

------------------------------
Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 10-18-2019 07:24
From: Irfan Alvi
Subject: Progress for Women in the Civil Engineering Profession

Back in my university days three decades ago, the men far outnumbered the women, but I never had the sense that the women were viewed as inferior with regard to their ability, motivation, and potential as future engineers.  Fast forwarding through the three decades of my engineering career so far, I similarly haven't generally seen a difference in how women are viewed and compensated as compared to men, though I've heard of a very few isolated cases where women were treated unfavorably by male supervisors.  I hope and believe that such cases of discrimination will continue to be relatively rare outliers in the future.

My advice to women engineers, which is the same advice I give to my daughter who will be starting college next year, is to assume that your gender has nothing to do with your ability and career prospects, work hard, be just as assertive as men in supervisory and group settings, and be realistic about the consequences of choices you're making as far as work/life balance.

------------------------------
Irfan A. Alvi, P.E., M.ASCE
President & Chief Engineer
Alvi Associates, Inc.
Towson, Maryland
www.alviassociates.com
<maskemail>ialvi@...</maskemail>