International Women In Engineering Day

[Ingenieur]

June 23rd was International Women In Engineering Day, celebrating the achievements of women in the traditionally male-dominted engineering industry.

Who knew that wearing a floppy hat was all it took?

To highlight the "stolen valour" of men claiming the achievements of women.

It's not on the basis of his body, so it must be his hat.

OK, right 🙄

It's especially frustrating to have Women in Engineering hijacked in this way because it is widely recognised that early educational barriers are major cause of the underrepresentation of women - barriers that would simply not have existed for male children.

Indeed, "flat chested" does not mean male. But it's funny how many males think that gaining breasts = woman.

Flat chested + long arms + large hands + wide forehead + brow = man.

But we don't even need to deliniate it in those terms. We can just see it.

Look at the three of them cutting the actual women out of that grouping.

Agreed. At a "Women in Anything" it would be exasperating enough. But at "Women In Engineering"? 🙄

But we don't even need to deliniate it in those terms. We can just see it.

This is absolutely spot on, of course. But because we have been harassed and threatened and gaslight into having to deny the self-evidence of our own eyes and common sense, we end up with this kind of checklist, which plays straight into the hands of the "terfs are obsessed with the contents of people's underwear" TRAs.

And it's even more infuriating knowing that women would have thrown themselves into supporting "Trans folk in Engineering" day. Because I've no doubt that both transmen and transwomen face real, significant challenges that are unique to them as a group. But they are not our challenges.

Well, to be fair, transmen in STEM face the same challenges as we do. Because they are women.

But maybe they face more challenges as well, in that men don't see them as men.

Women have evolved a better sense of sex than men have, over the millenia. Because women face more danger from getting it wrong.

I don't blame the (2) trans women, I blame the people that chose the photo to publish for women in engineering day. Bastards.

Not sure why you have such a problem with that man's hat though.

Yes, exactly. A transman should be equally welcomed in both woman's event or a trans event, because I would imagine that they would have faced unique challenges on both those fronts.

if you search #INWED25 on Twitter you'll see lots of pics and stories about real women in engineering. The interesting bit for me is - why aren't TRAs shouting at all these women and telling them that if they like doing manly jobs then they were obviously born in the wrong body?

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice hat. But it's an example of the superficial costume that men don to appropriate womanhood.

If you're upset about "stolen valour", OP, then please could you link to, or upload, a better version of that photo.

Because I reckon three men are stealing female spaces, there.

Is this even a genuine photo? Where's the link to the original on the internet?

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7343358320117772288

Thank you.

Having seen the original, and Googled, I think it's clear that the person on the left is a woman, who went to a girls' school and achieved fantastic results (thank you, Linkedin). Women can be tall and do not have to have large breasts. It is totally inappropriate to speculate with no evidence, and I hope those that have done so ask to have their posts deleted.

That leads me to wonder whether the person in the hat is a transman, in which case it's totally appropriate that they appear here.

I'm GC, but come on, this thread is totally inappropriate without any evidence.

An article she's written on her experience as a woman in physics...
freyasgrant.medium.com/my-experience-as-a-woman-in-physics-344ebf440b43

@PreFabBroadBean the engineer in the centre is not a trans identifying female.

Yes, if you know, that's fair enough. It was the speculation about the woman in the photo that I found quite distasteful.

@PreFabBroadBean yes, I agree.

The only barrier is what you wear, everyone knows that. If you just dress like a man, then all the problems with girls school education, the peer pressure to conform to stereotypes, the structure of further education, the quite aggressively competitive nature of research, the misogyny in the workplace, casual sexual harassment, maternity leave penalties, everything. It all goes away.

Or… you can just be a man dressed like a woman and then you understand the whole situation perfectly and you can speak about how you feel as a fellow skirt and hat wearer in engineering.

Well at my DD’s work they got a lovely meal and their photos were taken for publicity, my dd as usual attempted to hide from the cameraman but he didn’t let her get away with it. They are all natal women doing a job which 13 years ago women weren’t allowed to do!

I have reported my post to MNHQ & asked that it be deleted.

I didn't actually speculate whether any of those in the photo were male although now I see how my comment has been misinterpreted it's better to remove it.

Thank you for posting this reply, you've summed up my feelings rather nicely. As a women (yes, a real one) and a chartered engineer with the IMechE (whose logo does indeed appear in the background), I hate these sorts of scenarios. I don't look too different to the lady on the far left: tall, not much in the boob department and long limbs. I would be ashamed and embarrassed if people were scrutinising my appearance to work out if I was actually a man. I've battled enough in my career to be taken seriously, and it fucks me off that these men can slap on a floppy hat and skirt and appropriate our spaces and then, to add insult to injury, cause suspicions to be rasied about the actual women who have every right to be there.