Day Eight: Girls explore careers in engineering, technology

Freshman and sophomore girls from Benjamin Logan, Marysville and West-Liberty Salem High Schools attended Ohio Hi-Point Career Center on February 3, 2010, for Women in Technology & Engineering Day. Girls participated in hands-on activities such as Multimedia Presentations, Electronic Soldering, 2D Animation, Photo Editing, Architecture Design and a CSI Science Lab. These activities allowed girls to explore possible careers in Technology and Engineering fields.

Since men in these fields outnumber women, this day provided girls the option to see if technology and engineering was a good fit. According to Tech News World, only 27% of workers in the computer field between 2000–2005 were women. The National Center for Women & Information Technology explains that women hold more than half of all professional occupations in the U.S. but fewer than 24 percent of all computing-related occupations. NCWI further explains that only 16 percent of Fortune 500 technology companies have women corporate officers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics explains that “Employment of computer and information systems managers is expected to grow 17 percent over the 2008-18 decade, which is faster than the average for all occupations. It’s important to have gender diversity in this field to promotion innovation and competiveness." 

Amanda Blackburn, Information Technology instructor at Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, stated that, “it’s important to get girls excited about jobs in science, technology and engineering because it’s currently one of the fastest growing fields. This day provided these students with the opportunity to explore these fields.”