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"What do we expect from our next generation of American women? Not a whole lot, says Sheryl Sandberg. \u201CWe don\u2019t raise our daughters to be as ambitious as our sons,\u201D the Facebook COO said several weeks ago at the World Economic Forum. \u201CLast month, there were t-shirts sold [at Gymboree] that said \u2018Smart like Daddy\u2019 for the boys and \u2018Pretty like Mommy.\u2019 Not in 1951. Last month.\u201D\nIn an effort to tackle some of these ingrained assumptions, today marks Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, an initiative launched by the National Engineer Week Foundation, which aims to promote this career path to young women. Why girls rather than women? Erin Wakefield, a senior component design engineer and engineering manager at Intel \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tINTC\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t, believes we\u2019ve got to get girls interested at the middle school level. \u201CWhen they don\u2019t get interested in engineering at a young age, it\u2019s almost too late.\u201D\nTo be fair, more women are entering the engineering world today than in years past. In 1983, only 5.8% of engineers in the U.S. were women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fast-forward 26 years to 2006, and 10.7% of engineers were women. And women made up 20.2% of computer software engineers, 18.4% of chemical engineers, 8.1% of engineering managers, and just 5.9% of mechanical engineers as of 2009. So we\u2019ve made progress, but not much. So, then, why are women treating engineering like it\u2019s the Plague (especially when it&amp;#8217;s one of the most well-rested professions around)?\nMuch like Wakefield, Wendy Hawkins, executive director at the Intel Foundation, thinks it comes down to making an appeal to girls at the right time in their lives. \u201CMiddle school is a crucial decision-making time. Kids finally have the education to make their own class schedule choices, and exciting and engaging work appeals tothem.\u201D\nIntel has teamed up with programs like the SRC Undergraduate Research Opportunities (SRC-URO) and Engineering is Elementary (EIE), as well as networks like the Society of Women Engineers to promote engineering education and awareness among young women. The Intel Foundation also created the Intel Science Talent Research, a pre-college science competition. (The 2011 runner-up was 17-year old Michelle Hackman.) But Hawkins admits these efforts are modest. \u201COverall, there\u2019s a lot of attention toward women and engineering. But it\u2019s difficult to invest and maintain a program long enough to bring about change,\u201D she says. Just 20% of the Intel Foundation\u2019s investments are reserved for fostering engagement in women and minority students, according to Hawkins.\n\n  See also: Nursing makes a comeback: Just in time?\n\nIs it time for companies to step up? \u201CMost companies in the high-tech industry have efforts focused in this direction; it\u2019s a constant topic of conversation,\u201D says Hawkins. But she seems to think the focus is off. \u201CWe need to focus on girls, on young people. We need to put more young women in contact with adults in engineering. Is this the life, the whole package that they want? [Girls] need more opportunities to create, design, to make something.\u201D\nFor Wakefield, it was just that combination that got her interested in engineering. Role models played a major role in shaping her career path,especially at a young age. \u201CMy dad worked in computer science. He was a tech dork. With him, it was never weird that I was a girl working on computer things,\u201D she says. \u201CAnd my cousin Stacy was about 15-years older than me. She was a mechanical engineer, and I saw her as glamorous corporate woman, often traveling to cool places with lots of money and she always dressed nice.\u201D\nWakefield\u2019s cousin made engineering seem cool when she was young. As she grew older, though, her interests shifted. \u201CGenerally, guys in engineering are motivated by coolness. Women are motivated by their impact to help.\u201D\nWakefield hit a point in her career when she felt apathetic about her work; she was building a graphic chip and hated that she was working her butt off to allow some kid to play Halo with better explosions. As the chip developed, though, the Mayo clinic got involved, adding a medical imaging component to the project. She had found a source of motivation.\nA personal story like Wakefield\u2019s can change a woman\u2019s view toward engineering. But there\u2019s always room for self-doubt along the way. The \u201CImposter Theory\u201D or, as Wakefield defines it, the \u201CI-hope-no-one-figures-out-I\u2019m-not-as-good-as-they-think-I-am\u201D theory, is a huge factor for women who change their college majors from engineering to other disciplines. \u201CWe need to help them gain confidence. They need to know that just because they didn\u2019t construct a floppy disk at age five doesn\u2019t mean they shouldn\u2019t be there.\u201D\nThe noble-but-small initiatives like the kind that Intel has been promoting are obviously not enough. The complete solution remains elusive. Hawkins emphasizes that the industry is desperate for women. \u201CHow are we supposed to design products that appeal to women without women?\u201D Good question."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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