Engineers Week: Disrupting the Pink Aisle

In honor of Engineers Week, I thought I’d highlight a neat new company I’ve been watching with interest. GoldieBlox – a start-up founded by Debbie Sterling. Debbie is a mechanical engineer. She shares the same concern that most in our industry have: why aren’t more girls going into engineering?

Unlike some career paths which are bastions of manhood and very hostile and unwelcoming to women, I think engineering is hardly so. Engineers are generally very focused on smarts and output, and barely care about (or even notice!) a person’s gender or other physical traits. Given that most “boy nerds” grew up with some level of social ostracism as punishment for their smarts; adult boy nerds are rarely prone to exhibiting discrimination based on outward appearance. Rather, geeks of all types tend to band together based on their common love of math and science. Our field, as a whole, is very concerned about the shortage of engineers. Especially female engineers. So, a lot of effort is being invested in studying and trying to remedy the problem.