Mar 31, 2010
Barbie Inspiring Female Engineers
My friend Lori just tweeted about this article found in today’s Metro, and I can’t help but share it on my blog as well.
A few quotes by an assistant engineering professor at the Dalhousie University, taken from the article:
“That’s probably one of the biggest problems we have in engineering. It’s catch-22: There aren’t a lot of women in engineering and to attract more women to engineering, we need more women in engineering,” she says. “I think any opportunity we have to put that thought in girls’ heads is a good thing.” — Corinne MacDonald
Female role models, even plastic ones, help young women visualize themselves as engineers, she says. — Corinne MacDonald
Both of the ladies interviewed in this article pointed out that they never had “female engineering role models” to look up to. Unfortunately, I think this is still the case. But considering how Barbie’s 125th career is now a computer engineer, I think this is a good start! And it’s good to know that more and more people are becoming aware of all the opportunities in the computer/IT industry, and how they aren’t just for men.
But yeah, just a thought I wanted to share. :)
It’s questionable how plastic dolls can act as role model though… unless said plastic dolls come as parts with assembly instructions and is programmable via bluetooth.
On a more serious note, trying to shoehorning engineers and computer scientists figures into plastic dolls sounds like an exercise in futility, when barbie is still focused on impressing kids with the perfect image of a swimsuit model, which, beside the point, is totally inappropriate for the age group they market to. I was not inspired by engineer action figures to dabble in computers and robots, and I doubt many other engineers are.
I saw the initial voting campaign on Reddit and I totally voted for that career!
@Q I don’t see how its necessarily an exercise in futility. Sure, most of the parents out there shopping for their kids will probably pick up a swimsuit Barbie over an engineer Barbie for their kids. So what? Simply having an engineer Barbie out on the shelves is enough to challenge people’s preconceptions about female engineering.
In fact, I don’t think anyone out there really believes that the engineer Barbie is a silver bullet solution. Its not like that one barbie will magically force future generations of girls to become interested in computer science. All it does is raise awareness to the fact that its _okay_ become one.
Hell, even GUYS don’t have a strong set of engineer role models. Bill Gates? Steve Wozniak? Richard Stallman? Only geeks look up to those guys, not kids. I think it was mostly Bill Gate’s enormous wealth combined with the tremendous growth of the dot-com era that made engineering and IT a socially acceptable domain for guy to go into.
Its about time that we encouraged more girls to go into engineering, and I think Mattel’s choice in the Engineer Barbie is a bold statement that`s a step in the right direction
(sorry for the rant)