Dean Wells on the urgent need to humanize engineering

This is an excerpt of an opinion piece by Dr. Mary Wells, dean of Waterloo Engineering, and Dr. Suzanne Kresta, former dean of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, published today in the Toronto Star. 

34 years ago, 14 women lost their lives because a man who had not been accepted into the École Polytechnique de Montréal was convinced that he had the right to kill women who had earned their place. This killing was an act of unprecedented violence against women and our profession. 

We are two deans of engineering faculties and we each have a daughter in engineering; We pause together on December 6 to remember this tragedy, celebrate the present and reflect on the future. 

In 1989, when we mothers were students, there were only 4,000 female undergraduate engineering students in the entire country, and they made up only 12% of the undergraduate student population. Today, while we girls are also in the field of engineering, there are more than 22,000 female engineering students in Canada and they represent almost 25% of students.  

Since 1988, the participation of women in undergraduate engineering programs has been 5.5 times higher. This is encouraging, but for real change to happen, more female graduates need to stay in the profession. As we commemorate, we must amplify the voices of our daughters and our shared dreams for the future of engineering. 

The greater presence of women in our engineering programs is a good indicator of a more positive and inclusive culture. This change, moving from isolation in small numbers to a more inclusive and supportive organizational culture to achieve true belonging, is the dream of all of us. However, to fully promote this cultural change, we believe it is urgent to modify our professional approach. 

If we want to attract and retain women in the engineering profession, we need to focus on why we build, not just what we build. Unless we listen to people who represent the social and environmental ecosystems surrounding the things we love to build, and consider the impacts of the built environment on these living systems, our economy and the quality of our engineering work will suffer.  

Read the rest of the article.