Dr. Karen Panetta, Chair of the Education Society, Boston Section
Nerd Girls boosts confidence and self-esteem, breaking down stigmas that intimidate women from engineering.
Women have struggled through traditional stereotypes and stigmas to gain recognition and respect in their fields of interest. The stereotypes and stigmas that exist within the engineering industry have intimidated certain women, reducing their confidence and hindering them from pursuing careers in such disciplines (Click here to read Help, I've Been Nerded and You're Such A Nerd).
Dr. Karen Panetta – Chair of the IEEE Education Society, Boston Section – noticed the lack of women in engineering during her undergraduate studies at Boston University.
When she was hired at Tufts University to be a mentor for women, she was shocked to find fewer women in the field than she saw in school.
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It’s Not All Math & Science
“Part of the real problem came in when people thought engineers were closet types of geeks that didn’t take care of themselves and had no other extracurricular interest or activities,” Dr. Panetta explains. “Another problem is that engineering is very misunderstood, where everybody would say you really need math and science – and that’s a filter we put on young people – which really scares people away because they feel they have to be the very best at it.”
Dr. Panetta explains that determination to stick with it and a willingness to learn are just as important, and emphasizes that the number one asset for being a good engineer is having a good imagination and creativity – which are gained through extracurricular activities and interests.
“The two things that were never put together,” Panetta says, “were that women could be a lot of different things, and at the same time they could be engineers.”
Engineering is more about bringing in your own creativity to design and create things that benefit humanity–message that Dr. Panetta claims women never received.
With all the misconceptions and misunderstandings that existed and still exist within the industry, Dr. Panetta decided to get a group of women together in 2000 to take on complex projects that would help create teamwork and build confidence as the teams found solutions to the challenges their projects presented.
Nerd Girls
To help women overcome their insecurities and their impressions of engineering, Dr. Panetta formed Nerd Girls. The group focuses on creativity, imagination and problem solving, rather than stressing math and science. Dr. Panetta selects projects about which she is not an expert, in order to demonstrate to her students, that just because someone has a PhD, doesn’t mean that they know everything.
The group also helps to dismiss the visual stigma sometimes affiliated with engineering. “Nerd Girls is about breaking down that visual stigma and showing women that they can be dancers, models, singers, etc. and still be an engineer, and that smart is the new pretty,” Dr. Panetta says.
Nerd Girls also reaches out to younger age groups utilizing arts and crafts, such as playdough, spaghetti and toilet paper rolls. The children are asked to build bridges or create a package that will keep a potato chip secure, promoting critical thinking and demonstrating how making mistakes is great for growth and development.
Dr. Panetta recruits members for Nerd Girls by participating in public discussions and promoting projects for the IEEE. She speaks with parents, and gets to know what their children’s interests are. She affirms that loving math and science is not a bad thing, but their likes are just as important to developing the skills needed to being a great engineer, scientist, mechanist, etc. “I don’t look at transcripts,” Dr. Panetta explains. “I never look at grades.”
What’s Next?
Nerd Girls has grown fairly quickly nationally though networking and word of mouth and Dr. Panetta has big plans to expand it internationally. “There are programs in Korea, Turkey and a lot in India – the places where there are a lot of women in the workplace but not in engineering,” Dr. Panetta says.
A reality show is also in the works to air with different programs around the world. The show will feature women working on major projects to help communities and the people that live within them. The show will also promote positive role models for younger generations, emphasizing that having a brain is “the new pretty” and that women are capable of doing multiple activities as well as pursuing opportunities in the engineering disciplines.
Nerd girls is breaking down barriers and disproving traditional stereotypes. Alumni from Nerd Girls have gained confidence in their researching abilities and have gained great success in an industry that has been male dominated for many years.
Some have moved on to major companies within the industry, producing projects that help various communities. Others have become project managers, using their research skills and finding solutions to challenges they may have been intimidated by if it were not for being involved with Nerd Girls.
With continued advancements, younger age groups are becoming more assured of their abilities and confident to pursue career opportunities within the science, technology and engineering industries. Nerd Girls has helped to shed light on traditional stigmas and stereotypes, and has been able to clear up some of the misunderstandings that have surrounded engineering. It has not only strengthened the skills of women within engineering, but it has strengthened the engineering community itself.