• Question: Are you ever pre judged and ever heard sexist comments being said to you or about you because of your gender;feminine ?

    Asked by Ore Jay to Laura, Catherine on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Catherine Conaghan

      Catherine Conaghan answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Not really to be honest, I’ve had quite a good experience. There’s actually only one other female in my office at the moment (my boss) and the rest are male and I’ve never had any issues. I think it works to our advantage – Engineering may sometimes still be seen as an obvious choice for males in the past if they weren’t sure what course to do, so I think that means that females who choose engineering generally do it because they they are suited it to and ultimately will be become a better engineer then someone who just did it for other reasons! 🙂

    • Photo: Laura Tobin

      Laura Tobin answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      No and I consider myself to be lucky. No one should ever consider themselves lucky not to be at the end of discrimination. I do know of other women who have had horrific experiences based on the fact that they are women. Luckily there are lots of support groups out there. I’m a member of WITS Ireland (Women in Technology and Science). It’s 22 years old and it’s an active forum for women in science. They help women to become more visible in their fields and they help highlight issues.

      Just recently I’ve a friend (male) who refused to take part in a panel discussion because all of the panellists were male. They are lots of women in this field that would have been suitable but the organisers hadn’t considered it. It might not seem like a big thing, but it can be when you are looking to get promoted or are campaigning for funding. The organisers took stock of this and looked at becoming more inclusive and added some women to the panel.

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