Jane Muldowney: Girls need chance at tech careers

I have good reason to believe that engineering is not encouraged nor promoted as a career for students at some girls' schools.

I have a question: why do Year 9 students at girls' schools have sewing as a compulsory subject?

I ask because sewing is possibly of no use to anyone in modern day living. Also my next question - if it can be proven that sewing is deemed useful and essential for a child's formal education, why is it not compulsory for boys?

This is just one of the observations I have made over the last two years or so since both my children started high school - one being at a boys' school in Hastings and one at a girls' school here in Napier.

I am quite willing to allow my daughter to learn sewing and I am sure that it will do no harm to her, however, she hasn't asked for a sewing machine yet and I am not even sure where to buy one.

My daughter has, however, asked for a laptop. I am proud of her for this and I know she will go far.

By the way, I have no issues with sewing if being a seamstress becomes your chosen career - in fact, I admire good seamstresses.

Possibly a few decades ago it was the intentions of a girls' school to groom their students into being "good mums and wives". Luckily we live in an era where being a good mum and wife often includes having a good career. And I say luckily because this means we are working towards providing equal opportunity for both men and women in their chosen life path.

But this is not the only thing bugging me - another thing is the lack of STEM (science, technology, maths and engineering) subjects in some girls' schools.

Well the first three are compulsory, however I have good reason to believe that engineering is not encouraged nor promoted as a career for students at some girls' schools.

However in contrast, some HB girls' schools are very strong at promoting technical subjects for girls - good on them.

I know this because I have worked with Youth Futures to try to promote engineering, particularly for females. I have faced a number of barriers, with one of the biggest problems being that a lot of teachers and career advisers themselves do not realise the vast scope of work that is out there for engineers and what a valuable career path it can take you on.

Valuable not only in monetary terms but valuable for one of the most important reasons: job satisfaction and fulfilment. We must give every student the same choices and opportunities, and not discriminate against them depending on whether they are girls or boys.

At the moment, some girls are not offered engineering as a possible career option and some do not know it exists as a job.

In our rapidly changing world, we need to keep up. Old-fashioned ideas need to be done away with to make room for new ideas. The purpose is to hopefully create a better way of living for our children and the generations to come.

I challenge schools in HB to keep adapting to our ever changing society, and make the subjects and material that is being taught relevant to today's society.

Youth Futures HB has made it possible for me to talk to students in schools to promote engineering as a career.

Also I have worked as an ambassador for Ipenz (Institute for Professional Engineers NZ) to promote women in engineering. If there is anybody interested in knowing more about what engineering is, and what the path is to becoming an engineer, I am happy to help anybody work towards this goal. It is worth it.

- Jane Muldowney is senior structural engineer at WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff in Napier.

- Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz