About twice a year — shortly after the fall college term begins, and again as graduation approaches — we can count on stories that decry the so-called “lack of gender balance” in university engineering schools. The Duke Chronicle provides today’s installment, which discusses what’s happening at the Pratt School of Engineering, or as the headline proclaims it: “Gender Numbers Unequal in Pratt.”
Here’s an excerpt that, sadly, illustrates how some young women view this issue (emphasis is mine).
Freshman Rachel Fleming, a member of the Society of Women Engineers, said a balance between the sexes is important because every project is group-oriented and so people from different backgrounds can help cater to various types of individuals.
“If you’re designing something specific to women’s needs or all people’s needs, you’re going to need women to help design whatever you need,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s not going to work very well.”
Let me make sure I understand this logic. Apparently, a male engineering graduate of Duke’s Pratt school isn’t sufficiently trained to design something women will use. Left to his male-only, neanderthal ways, “it’s not going to work very well.”
I presume, then, that women engineers are incapable of designing something to be used by men.
Yeesh.
