Why girls CAN, and SHOULD, study an engineering degree

5 THINGS THAT GIRLS STUDYING AN ENGINEERING DEGREE MUST KNOW

Being a girl in engineering degrees has never been easy. Still, who says that we can’t or shouldn’t become engineers?

We are first year students in Mechatronics and Industrial Engineering and, our experience has taught us that, what most people often ask a girl in engineering is: “Why Engineering? It is a men’s degree”. The worst part is that this question has been asked (mostly) by women, and there is something we must understand before taking the challenge of becoming engineers:

1. There is NO degree that is a “men’s degree” nor “women’s degree”. The degree that you choose is one of the most important choices that you will make in your life and there is no condition in what you like to do! So, who says that a women can’t take a screwdriver and change the World? Of course we have tried to explain people why women are completely capable of being the best engineers, but it is then when you realize that, in order to understand this, people need EVIDENCE, which leads us to:
2. Confidence. Although being a female engineer is easier nowadays, sometimes it’s hard to not feel like the female engineer stereotype. Some might think that male engineers are more effective than female engineers, in order to change that thought, you must have confidence in your work. Your gender does not define your performance as an engineer.
   
3. Don't doubt! If you want to be an engineer, is because you want, not because someone told you to be, you know who you are and what you want to the rest of your life. It’s important that you know this is what you want, so you can be more secure about your choice.
   
4. People will talk. There will always be friends, family, students, people you just met, who will say “Are you studying Engineering?”, including girls who say “ugh”; but is your choice whether you care about those commentaries or not. You must be straight in your choice and not listen to them, because in the end you are the one who is studying that career, and you can be sure it will be awesome.
   
5. You can do it!! If you already have had the courage to be different and become an engineer, despite the commentaries that people make, now the only thing you need to do is not to give up. No one can say you can’t do it because it is not true, you are as capable as any other person.

There are a lot of good reasons to study an Engineering degree, but in the end is your opinion what matters. You are going to have to work hard in order to get what you want, but remember that you can get over any obstacle. You must not listen or care about other people’s commentaries. It is not a men’s degree, women can do that work even better, we are not in a time in which girls can’t do certain things, for the contrary, women have proved they are more than capable of doing those things including being an Engineer. So there are no reasons why girls shouldn’t be engineers.

“The perfect woman, you see [is] a working-woman; not an idler; not a fine lady; but one who [uses] her hands and her head and her heart for the good of others.” - Thomas Hardy

This blog was written by Elizabeth Hernández Torres and Paulina Chávez García. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule.