UPDATED: Oct. 1, 2018 at 4:48 p.m.

As the only two women aerospace engineering majors in their class, seniors Bridget McDonough and Kayla Simon said they have been outnumbered by men in every engineering classroom since their freshman year at Syracuse University.

Aside from adjusting to demanding classwork, McDonough said the greatest challenge was overcoming the fear of not being “as good as all the guys.” She even remembers feeling too intimidated to raise her hand in class.

Even in her senior year, the classroom dynamic hasn’t changed.

“It’s really intimidating sometimes to say something in class because it’s like you don’t want to be seen as dumb,” she said.

This Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the #MeToo movement sweeping across the United States, and today, women students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science grapple with the effects of working in a men-dominated industry.

In spring 2018, about 25 percent of undergraduate students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science identified as women, said Maria Marceau, director of records and study abroad at the college. The school’s faculty also includes fewer than 35 women, out of the 95 full-time faculty members.

Mechanical engineering senior Ivy Christensen said she’s only had one woman engineering professor. She has noticed students treating Michelle Blum, her only woman professor, differently than that of her men counterparts. She said in one class, students began booing and yelling from the back of the classroom when Blum announced an assignment.

“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like this where people were blatantly disrespectful to a professor,” Christensen said. “We have another professor who’s very strict and he’s a male, and that would have never happened in his classroom.”

After telling a classmate that she felt confident she had aced a test, Christensen said that classmate, a man, replied by saying that wasn’t possible — his male friends said they thought they had failed.

Beyond feeling pressure to never make a public mistake in class, Christensen said she feels an added pressure to look a certain way. While she loves wearing lipstick and dressing up, the SU senior doesn’t always feel comfortable in feminine clothing in class.

“If I do look very feminine when I come in, I notice that people kind of just look at you more, and it’s kind of uncomfortable,” she said.

But Andrew Lee, systems and information science program director, said he feels differently. In his personal experience, the classroom atmosphere isn’t only influenced by gender, but also differences in cultural backgrounds.

“I am not an expert. I do not know how to single out … one dynamic based on boy and girls,” Lee said.

Lee said the engineering classroom dynamic depends on the size of the class. He’s noticed that in both large lectures and smaller classes, women students tend to sit together “like they have some kind of sisterhood.”

In course evaluations written by students, Lee has noticed that when students say they felt uncomfortable, they “seldom relate it to gender,” but rather attribute a lack of resources or individual attention from faculty.

Lee said he believes the starting point for resolving issues is to have more conversations instead of “keeping it a secret,” so the faculty can work with the students.

“It’s my top priority that every member of our community feels supported and positioned for success,” said Teresa Dahlberg, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, in an email. She said a lot has changed for women in engineering since her experiences in the 1980s, saying now “there is a support system that better allows women to thrive.”

Following Theta Tau’s expulsion from campus in April, Simon reached out to a professor in the aerospace department to discuss her concerns. But she said he didn’t take her or other women classmates seriously when confronted with their grievances.

“He didn’t believe us until we said men had validated us,” Simon said. She instead found comfort in talking with Melissa Green, a professor who Simon said was very open to discuss concerns regarding the incident.

Like Simon, McDonough said she feels more comfortable talking to women professors — but she didn’t have a woman professor in her major until the spring semester of her junior year.

“I still kind of believe it’s easier for one of my male classmates to bond more with male professors,” she said.

McDonough and a recent woman graduate of the aerospace engineering major recently produced a video celebrating women in STEM in honor of International Women’s Day. The video was inspired by conversation about the challenges women in STEM face — such as how some women students feel they need to be forceful or aggressive in group project settings in order to be taken seriously.

Christensen, Mcdonough and Simon, who are roommates, have dreams of working in the aerospace industry together after graduation. Their goal, which Simon said “seems more and more attainable as time goes on,” is to work on rockets together and have a role in shaping the space industry.

“I would hope that I’d be given a job because of my skills and not just because they want to add diversity to the company,” McDonough said.

Cover photo by Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Andrew Lee’s position was misstated. Lee is the systems and information science program director. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on October 1, 2018 at 2:08 am

Contact Haley: hrober03@syr.edu