This morning I got to work, like many mornings before. Today, during the first ~10 minutes at work all the employees I saw were women. It was curious, as most of the people working in this company are men. However one thing I noticed in myself was that I didn't even try to come up with tasks they might be doing. "Maybe she works in the kitchen, that one girl is maybe a secretary and the third one is from marketing" - how could I know if they all weren't engineers?

The example thougts, which I didn't have myself, are way too common. Quite many engineer women I know have met people questioning their profession. Even though the stereotypical engineer is a man and most assume (or know) most engineers are men, nobody needs to question women who are engineers only because they are women. Neither should their real profession be questioned, as stereotypes are not the whole truth, even if they are based on real things.

Even though most engineers are men, it doesn't change the fact there are woman engineers. Just like most men are taller than 175cm/ 5'9", it doesn't mean men shorter than this don't exist.

Some background about where our personality and thoughts come from

Our aims and goals are determined by many factors. Theree are studies which indicate that boys and girls have differences in what they want and what they do even when they are babies. We can't assume men and women think the same way, not only on individual level, but on general. However, this won't restrict women and men from being different than the majority. There can be huge amounts of women who are different from the average woman and the average differences between men and women aren't restricting them.

Which is more important, we shouldnt' make the mistake to name all the average differences between men and women as genetic differences. We grow and educate boys and girls differently. We treat them very differently. We advice them to do very different things... typically based only on their sex.

However, sometimes the different ways to act with boys and girls come from the childrens nature. If a boy and girl happen to be interested in different things, they shouldn't be forced to do the exact same things. However, if a boy or a girl wants to do something else than others boys and girls they shouldn't be forced to be like the others. Taking account the individual differences in children and people is important, even though sometimes the individual differences aren't very big ones.

Individuality of children isn't forcing people outside the natural and general mindset. If a boy wants to build with construction blocks, he should be allowed to do that. If a girl wants to play with dolls, she should be allowed to do that. In some cases, children are banned from playing with toys they want and forced to use the stereotypical toys of the other sex is typically playing with. This is as bad (or worse) than forcing all the boys and girls to be like others with skipping their individual differences.

But now, back to the subject.

Women can be as good or better engineers than men are. It's not up to their sex. There are no reasons why they couldn't be more women who worked as engineers. There are studies which show that children who are told they are worse in math do worse in math, underestimating boys and girls skills in math will only decrease their skills in the future too. Lying to children that they are good - if they aren't - isn't a way to go, but finding encouraging ways to teach children mathematics and science can do good for us individually and as a society.

The math skills are not alone getting anyone interested in engineering or science, but lack of them might kill the interest. There are also many other kinds of ways we can kill anyones interest in engineering or science. One of them is disrespecting people who are interested in becoming and being an engineer.

Engineering shouldn't be made pink or specially woman friednly, but the disrespect of women and insulting and suspecting woman engineers only because of their sex will kill the interest in science in a multitude of women. We can make fun of each other, laugh and question each other, but we should respect each other and understand each others individualities.

The magic trick isn't to treat women and woman engineers differently, it's stopping to treat them differently in a disrespectful way. Telling women "You have to be an engineer" or "You can't be an engineer" are neither fine, as we should be seen as individuals. Not as a part of your fantasies seeing "50% men 50% women" scenarios (falsely called equality) or "All engineer should be men".

In a perfect society, in which woman engineers are not disrespected for their sex, we are unlikely to see a "50-50" situation, but the perfect situation is when our ability to do any work isn't decided based on if we are either men or women.

All the photos are from Pixabay

_{You can't force anyone to be an engineer, but you should let them be if that's what they want}