Gender Minority: Society of Women Engineers, CSUN
The CSUN Society of Women Engineers (SWE), since the 1980s, has been a center for female engineering students to socialize, fundraise and network with professional women engineers in field. SWE serves as a provider of promising professional networks and job opportunities. It is also an oasis for women, the gender minority in engineering. CSUN’s SWE currently has 20 paid members, and 30 participating members.
Due to the Equal Employment Opportunity laws, which attempts to prevent discrimination in the workplace and ensure fair and balanced employment, it has facilitated integrating female engineers into the engineering field, a largely white male dominated field.
"I've always loved the roller coasters," Jessica Bacchus, the 21-year-old president of SWE said. "So I wanted to be someone who makes a roller coaster. And of course, after I grew up and majored mechanical engineering, I realized that there are not that many [female] roller coaster designers."
Bacchus said the most number of girls she had in her class was seven, and she said it was "a lot." According to CSUN Institutional Research, female undergraduate students are only 11% in Engineering & Computer Science Department. Not to mention, most engineering professors are also males.
Despite the gender minority of the department, Bacchus said it has not been a bad experience so far.
"I had never been considered a minority in my life," Bacchus said. "Now I am one, there are so many things I can do. There are so many scholarships and jobs that look for women engineers."
Bacchus said gender minority did not matter for her to pursue her career as an engineer. She believed such things should not scare you if you really love your job. Now Bacchus is preparing to graduate and get a job in her focus of aerospace engineering.
"Stats show that males are better at math. But I do better in class anyway," Bacchus said, "and there's less drama since there is no one to fight with." Then Bacchus burst into laughter.