Sustainability through Women in Industrial Engineering
Women in engineering are underrepresented in their field. This is a large socio-economic issue that also has environmental impacts.
Introduction
Underrepresentation & Pay gap
The engineering field as a whole is largely male-dominated. In industrial engineering specifically, there is better women representation but it is still far from 50%. Data collected by the National Science Foundation shows that "...women represent 32% of all IE [Industrial Engineering] graduates in the U.S. but only 20% of all engineering graduates" (Brawner et al. 289). On top of underrepresentation, women face a pay gap. On average women only make 80-89% as much as men do in engineering ("Earnings Gap"). Implicit bias can be seen as a cause for both the lack of women in the field as well as the pay gap.
Implicit bias
Implicit biases are developed from previous experiences. They are generalized preferences that all people have for what is ideal in their mind whether they agree with it consciously or not. For example, I have learned that I associate men with having careers while associating women with family. This is an implicit bias of mine even being a woman in an engineering major who is actively involved in the Society of Women Engineers. Since I was born my mom has not worked while my dad always has. I have also seen more men in engineering roles whether it be on TV, on my high school robotics team, or in classes. Currently, I am working on fighting this implicit bias to become a better member of the engineering community.
Why is this Relevant to Sustainability?
Sustainability can be described as the triple bottom line, merging economics, society, and the environment.
Relevant Sustainable Development Goal
"End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere"
For this to be possible implicit bias would need to be addressed. At this time there are many forms of implicit bias that work against women. Williams groups implicit biases that women face in engineering into 4 categories. These include "Prove-It-Again", "Tightrope", "Maternal Wall", and "Tug of War" (Center for WorkLife Law, et al.). These biases were measure through a survey given to both men and women.
"Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life."
This is not only important for social reasons. It has an environmental tie. "A number of studies show that when women are in leadership positions in companies, governance, and society at large, CO2 emissions decrease and climate action increases" (Kerlin, Katherine E.).
"Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws "
This is strongly associated with the pay gap talked about earlier. With women engineers making less than the men they work with it can be more difficult for them to be economically independent. If a man is going to make more than a woman in a heterosexual relationship, this may be motivation for the man to work instead of the woman. This would only continue the problem, worsening representation.
Assessment
Gender inequity in industrial engineering involves a complex system. While everyone is a stakeholder the system map below only shows a few focus groups that are most directly connected. In bold there are large system impacts including the pay gap, implicit bias, idea generation, and school systems. Of these four the one that is the most important to target is school systems, specifically engineering departments and industrial engineering curriculum.
Industrial engineering fits well with sustainability practices but the education system does not integrate them. Industrial engineers optimize and improve systems. Sustainability involves the longevity of these systems which in many (or all) systems includes optimization at some point. Another thing that the education system can affect is implicit bias. Engineering departments can integrate different practices to fight implicit bias before engineers hit the workforce. In the paper " Implicit Bias in Engineering Departments " I dive deeper into what specific actions engineering departments can take. Many of the examples given in this paper relate specifically to women in engineering as this is what I am most familiar with, including personal experience.
When looking at Oregon State University's learning outcomes for sustainability and industrial engineering they have a decent amount of overlap. Common themes include interpreting data, identifying complex problems, communicating complex ideas, integrating systems as well as the consideration of social environmental, and economic factors. Below is a full list of the overlaps. There is also a full list of the learning outcomes side by side , in the additional materials section.
Material Issues
Material Issues are measurable sustainability problems within systems. These issues have stakeholders and can be measured over time. When it comes to the work that Industrial engineers do the argument can be made that everyone is a stakeholder. Everyone is purchasing things that were worked on by an IE or at the very least within a system that has been worked on by an Industrial engineer. When looking more directly at women in industrial engineering more direct stakeholders include engineering students, co-workers, IE hiring teams, and policymakers. Examples of material issues are gender imbalance, pay discrepancy, implicit bias, employee diversity, the promotion process, company structure, IE educational programs, and environmental regulations.
Gender Imbalance
US News rates Georgia Institute of Technology as the top school for Industrial engineering. At the school they deem to be the best there is still a gender gap of 44.1% women to 55.9% men in their undergraduate program. This gets worse in their graduate program where only 32.4% of IE’s are women. Looking at Georgia Institute of Technology’s female enrolment compared to the national average they have been above the curve for a long time. Looking at female enrolment in engineering departments as a whole is an indicator of gender imbalance in the workforce. Another indicator would be looking at the number of women in leadership positions at different levels. This would show whether the diversity was isolated or not.
Environmental Regulation
Environmental regulation plays a role in what industrial engineers need to include in the improvement of the systems they work on. There is evidence that a higher representation of women in leadership roles, as it applies to politics, generally results in lower CO2 emissions (Kerlin, Katherine E.). As regulation is so connected there must be indicators attached. This can include a percentage of the regulation IE's abide by as well as the amount of regulation being passed.
Pay Discrepancy
The gender wage gap has been a problem as long as engineers have been a thing. As mentioned earlier industrial engineers are not left out on this issue. Indicators for the pay discrepancy include the size of the pay gap itself as well as maternal leave and other compensations.
Addressing the Issue
In the industrial engineering department at Oregon State University, there are women professors but they do not make up close to the majority. I was not able to find out what they were doing about that specific issue. In future years I would like to see growth in this area.
For the amount that industrial engineering and sustainability overlap I was not able to find resources that specific. There are however resources for increasing women in engineering and addressing the gender pay gap.
The World Economic Forum has "Gender Parity Accelerators" in multiple countries. They state that "advancing women’s employment could add $12 trillion to global GDP and boost some countries' economic output by as much as 35%." They work to show pay discrepancies as well as provide services that make it easier for women to join the workforce. This includes working with employers.
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a support group for both students and professionals. They host conferences with career fairs as well as provide mentorship programs and other informational systems and support. Additionally, there are student chapters a universities including Oregon State.
The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) has a sustainability division. In that division IE's solve sustainability issues outlined in the 17 sustainability goals using their specific problem-solving skills. There is a student chapter of IISE at Oregon State however I have not heard about any specific sustainability divisions.
Conclusion with Policy Recommendations
To work toward solving this sustainability issue some actions can be taken at various levels. This is not an exhaustive list as there are many underlying issues but it does touch on many different areas.
Government policy should require the absence of wage gaps.
There is currently the Equal Pay Act that "requires that men and women in the same workplace be given equal pay for equal work" (“Equal Pay/Compensation Discrimination”). However, based on data that shows that there is still a pay gap this law is not fully effective. While this law seems very simple there is much more that needs to be done to make a difference. People are still having to convince people that the gender gap is real. CNBC made a video, linked bellow, about ways to prove that the pay gap is still present and a problem.
Indicators for the pay gap are quite simple. There is data about how much women make compared to women and the smaller the discrepancy the more progress that is being made. Overall there should be no difference. Indicators can also include surveys taken by women to see if they feel they are fairly compensated. This of course would have more bias in it but could have valuable insight. It is also important to look at the promotion process. As women get fewer promotions even with equal or higher education this plays into pay discrepancies.
Industrial engineering departments, and universities in general, should integrate implicit bias solutions.
As I outlined in the paper linked in the last section, the effects of implicit bias start before entering the workforce. Things that departments can do "include implementing implicit bias training, work in diverse groups, opportunities to reflect on conflict and diversity represented in leadership" (Mathews).
There are a variety of indicators to see if these are working but none alone are perfect. One way is to have students take implicit bias tests at the beginning of their undergraduate journey and then again at the end. This kind of testing results are generally more accurate on a larger scale. Another indicator would be the diversity of students and faculty that are in the department. The greater the diversity the better.
The industrial engineering curriculum should integrate sustainability.
With specialization in optimization and systems, industrial fits so well with sustainability. As seen in the previous section even learning targets overlap. If industrial engineers were to understand sustainable practices their influence would be broad. Working in pretty much whatever industry they want the opportunities for major improvement are there.
An indicator that could track the success of implementation could be the number of classes with sustainability-focused learning targets. Additionally, there could be a survey given to IE students asking questions to determine their sustainability knowledge.
Individuals can preform self reflection activities.
To change things people must first recognize that something is wrong. Taking an implicit bias test is important regardless of who you are. Reflection can then be done and from that, you can modify your actions.
Indicators of what individuals are doing can be measured by the individual for the individual or as an overall population. For the overall population people could take a test that asks if they have implicit bias. The more people that admit to having it the better. Those who say that they do not are wrong. On an individual level, people can take the test again or reflect on there understanding of implicit bias.
For those interested in self improvement Project Implicit is a great place to start.
The Effects of These Implementations
The areas highlighted in green are the main targets being directly addressed by the proposed solutions. This may not seem like a lot at face value but if you look at implicit bias particularly so many things are attached to it. If it goes, so do almost all the socio-economic issues.
Additional Material
Implicit Bias Survey Results
Industrial Engineering and Sustainability Learning Outcomes
Work Cited (MLA)
“6 Ways to Convince Someone The Gender Pay Gap Is Real | CNBC.” YouTube, 10 Apr. 2018, https://youtu.be/psBpokjjqpA. Accessed 9 Dec. 2023.
“Best Industrial Engineering Programs - Top Engineering Schools.” US News, 2023, www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/industrial-engineering-rankings.
“Equal Pay/Compensation Discrimination.” US EEOC, www.eeoc.gov/equal-paycompensation-discrimination#:~:text=The%20Equal%20Pay%20Act%20requires,whether%20jobs%20are%20substantially%20equal. Accessed 9 Dec. 2023.
“Gender Parity - Accelerators Network.” Initiatives.Weforum.Org, 2023, initiatives.weforum.org/accelerators-network/gender-parity.
“Take a Test.” Project Implicit, www.projectimplicit.net/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2023.
“The 17 Goals | Sustainable Development.” United Nations, United Nations, sdgs.un.org/goals. Accessed 9 Nov. 2023.
“The IE Major at Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus.” College Factual, College Factual, 2 Nov. 2023, www.collegefactual.com/colleges/georgia-institute-of-technology-main-campus/academic-life/academic-majors/engineering/ie-industrial-engineering/#google_vignette.
Brawner, Catherine E., et al. “Women in industrial engineering: Stereotypes, persistence, and perspectives.” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 101, no. 2, 2012, pp. 288–318, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2012.tb00051.x.
Center for WorkLife Law, et al. Exploring the Gender Bias Experienced by Engineering Faculty, 2016, swe.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/aera18_proceeding_1305851.pdf.
“Earnings Gap.” Society of Women Engineers, 2 Oct. 2023, swe.org/research/2023/earning-gap/.
Ferraro, Xenia. 2012, The Emerging Roles of Industrial Engineers in Preventing Pollution and Creating a Sustainable Environment, https://openjournals.library.northeastern.edu/nuwriting/home/article/view/54. Accessed 9 Nov. 2023.
Kerlin, Katherine E. “Women’s Leadership Can Help Drive Climate Solutions.” UC Davis, 16 Aug. 2022, www.ucdavis.edu/climate/blog/womens-leadership-can-help-drive-climate-solutions#:~:text=A%20number%20of%20studies%20show,decrease%20and%20climate%20action%20increases.
“Oregon State University.” Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Major (BS, HBS) < Oregon State University, catalog.oregonstate.edu/college-departments/engineering/school-mechanical-industrial-manufacturing-engineering/industrial-engineering-bs-hbs/#learningoutcomestext. Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.
“Oregon State University.” Sustainability Undergraduate Major (BS, HBS) < Oregon State University, catalog.oregonstate.edu/college-departments/agricultural-sciences/sustainability-bs-hbs/#learningoutcomestext. Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.
“Sustainable Development Division.” Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, 2023, www.iise.org/details.aspx?id=35381#:~:text=The%20purposes%20of%20the%20Sustainable,voice%20of%20the%20technical%20specialty.
“Women in Engineering.” Women in Engineering | Georgia Institute of Technology - Atlanta, GA, 2023, wie.gatech.edu/.