To think that hard hats do put off girls from pursuing engineering?

[LivingDeadGirlUK]

Having a discussion on facebook about this article.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50315019

I think the association of engineering with hard hats and dirty work is a big issue in attracting both men and women to the industry however another poster took exception to the stereotype of 'heels and dresses' being used to combat the stereotype of 'hard hats'. Person in question did not believe that women are put off of engineering because of the protective gear. However I disagree and think that it is a factor (alongside many others) as young women can be very sensitive to their image and 'fitting in' during that secondary school age range when we think about our careers and uni choices.

AIBU to say that for quite a proportion of teenage girls the thought of wearing a hard hat and boots and being outside/in a dirty environment all day would make them dismiss a career in engineering, given the association?

(think this is my first AIBU so please be gentle :) )

I've also had an incident where I was attending a trial of equipment. I was talking to some of the operators about it - questions I needed to ask for the assessment and was abruptly told to be quiet by one of the older male engineers. He didn't shush any of the men. I think he assumed I was just gassing aimlessly because I was a woman. I'm afraid I was so shocked at this I didn't pull him up on it, but I can see how that attitude would really shake the confidence of a young female engineer to work with someone like that.
These people are getting fewer, but there's still some about

What a knobhead Missillusioned :o was that an isolated incident?

As someone who works on site every day I find the notion that anyone would be put of by ppe a bit ....
It was never factored into my decision when I decided my career. I have had many, many female colleagues of all shapes and sizes and I doubt it was factored into their decision. PPE now comes in a variety of shapes and sizes for men and women. To the extent that I've recently seen maternity ppe.
An engineer rarely needs to be out on site 100% of the time anyway. There is so much paperwork to keep up with it's impossible to be out and keep up with paperwork.

Imo it's down to a lack of career guidance at second level. It was never given as an option when I was doing my subject choices. I now go into colleges etc to discuss my career in the hope of getting more female students into construction.
I've worked with companies before where I never actually visited site either so I have seen both sides. I actually prefer getting to site as I've more control of what info I have and need to do my job

My Oh has just retired from lecturing engineering students and i dont know about image but he said that female students on the whole did very well on results put more effort into their degrees and were more likely to show up for every lecture as opposed to looking on blackboard and not even turning up at classes

I work for a scandi company and our PPE kits look amazing on women - we have a lot of women engineers and so have ‘non manly’ choices for women. Hard hats are uniform though.

Oh, of course, OP, and all that scary big machinery. You could break a nail or anything. Back to the kitchen.

@LivingDeadGirlUK it was the only incident that was that blatant, but in mechanical engineering there are a lot of 'robust' characters. Men who will steam roller over people in their way and think they can ignore anyone who isn't very firm. Women who thrive in that environment tend to be older and/or very assertive. To be both a timid teenager and a very visible person (Because female) is a challenge.

You don't know very much about engineering if you think everyone wears hard hats and PPE gear!!!

Just had a thought that medicine suffers from the opposite problem. It has a glamorous image, but the reality is anything but, by the sounds of things (I am not a doctor, but am the sister, sister in law, cousin and the daughter of doctors).

I think some people come straight out of school, I to university studying medicine and get a rude awakening.

That's not a great article at the start, and not really representative of the larger campaign "This is engineering" www.thisisengineering.org.uk/
There is a huge diversity issue in engineering and one cause is that representation is important to young people when considering a job. For some if they don't see it as a job for them or think they may not fit in they are less inclined to consider it.
The high vis hard hat stereotype just isn't a fair reflection of the majority of what modern engineering is. Nothing really to do with wanting to wear heels

I was the only girl in my Physics A level class in 1988 and we dont seem to have moved on since then.

I completely understand why industry needs more women - they can't recruit enough people of any gender but why are "we" trying to encourage girls into industry? For the level of qualifications required, engineering is really badly paid. Unless a person really wants to work in engineering, if they're good quality degree material , they'd be better advised to do almost anything else.

It depends I think software engineers get a good wage and industries like oil etc can pay really well but yes I do think the pay is an issue and its probably why so many of my class went into financial services!

Both of my aunts are engineers, neither wears a hard hat and the women I know certainly wouldn't be put off a career choice by headgear.

They both earn very very well, although are very experienced, one works in a niche area though and the other is now a consultant in her area of expertise

It's pretty offensive to those of us females who did graduate in engineering to suggest that somehow we should have been put off by hard hats. Like I'm not a proper woman because I don't give a flying fuck what I look like in PPE

I don't work in the sector because of the rampant and frankly disgusting sexism I experienced when I left university. From middle aged white men who seemed to think it was the 1950s. I'm still fucked off that all that hard work was for nothing thanks to those cunts.

For all the marketing and funding being thrown at the issue it's not going to improve until those white men retire and get the fuck out of the way of the next generation. Utter cunts the lot of them.

Ok, I am a highly qualified electrician and earning good money, my daughter wants to be an engineer when she is older. I’ve worn a hard hat probably once in the past 10 years. Stereotyping the careers of young women is awful. I don’t care what I look like, I am doing my job, earning good money and providing for my family

I have to say that the idea of hard hats putting women off engineering is unmitigated bullshit.

However, it is easier to blame a tangible piece of plastic than generations of discouragement and sexism, right?

I wear my hard hat (and the rest of my PPE) with pride. Now, if I could find a comfortable fall arrest harness to accommodate my chest, that would be a miracle.

@Preggosaurus9 its a good job no one has said that then O_o The question was does unfounded hard hat/dirty work image of engineering contribute to the low uptake of engineering careers. As I said in my OP its not the main issue but I do believe it can be a factor.

Lots of people have said 'im an engineer and it never bothered me' its never bothered me either but its not those of us already in the industries we are considering here.

@LionelRitchieStoleMyNotebook pay in my industry is low compared to other proffesionals in this sector but I still think its a good wage.

I have a shiny green hard hat and pink steel-toed boots. Mining-haute-couture. I love my job. And my boots. :-)

Dd1 loves science and maths and wouldn't be put off by a lab coat but she wouldn't be seen dead in heels or a dress.
Ixf dhe liked engineering she would hsppily wwear a hard hat and boots.

If she liked engineering she would be happy to wear a hard hat and boots.

I've just realised that some of these replies sound strange because people must have only read the title, which tbf does make me sound a bit dim :p

thats the second pair of pink boots, Im going to have to investigate these!

No way, I would love to wear a hard hat! I don’t know any women who would think like this.