Our guest writer today is Sarah Fennema. Sarah graduated from Calvin in 2012 with an engineering degree, and went straight to graduate school for structural engineering at the University of Illinois. During her first weeks at U of I, her lack of friends drove her to start a blog (almost-urban-adventure.blogspot.com) where she writes and doodles on whatever subjects are interesting that day. For her last class for the U of I in the summer of 2013, Sarah decided to study abroad in New Zealand. She ended up finding an internship which has since turned into a full-time job in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

“Really? Isn’t that normally a man’s job?” she asked, incredulously.

I think my outward reply was still cordial, but inside, I was a little upset. Well, I suppose I was a little more than a little upset because now I’m writing a blog post about it.

I just started working as a structural engineer. I am a girl. I am not a girly girl, but I certainly am a girl. Somehow, in a lot of people’s minds, those two don’t go together. I can’t tell you how many times people are completely shocked to hear what I do. I’ve been told everything from, “Wow, you don’t look like an engineering girl,” to “Well, I guess that’s a good way to find a husband.”

When I decided to go into engineering, I wasn’t trying to be a feminist. I wasn’t trying to fight gender roles or anything like that. I just knew that I liked calculus and solving problems and figuring out how things worked. Engineering seemed to be a good fit for me. I knew going in that there would probably be more males than females in my major, but I thought I could handle that.

I didn’t realize that I was being different.

Fast forward four years, and I was graduating from Calvin as one of only four females in a class of sixty-odd engineers. Our year was particularly low in women for some reason, but still. We were the few, the proud, the girls. We had to be.

I thought that maybe once I started work, it would be different. In my mind, there would be some company out there with a completely balanced work force in terms of age, gender, and any other distinguishing factor. But engineering only started attracting women a little while ago. Things haven’t really balanced out yet.

Right now, I’m working in New Zealand for a year. It’s my first (real) job ever, and I really like it thus far. I get to investigate buildings that were damaged in earthquakes and write reports about them. It’s really interesting work, and I don’t know if I could have dreamed up a better first job. Like, really, living in New Zealand?! Yes. A job that combines writing and engineering?! Yes.

The culture down here is a little different though. All of my girlfriends at church are right around my age. All of them are married. Some have jobs as teachers or nurses or social workers or radiation therapists. But when I showed up as a single, unmarried woman working in a “man’s job,” I think they all thought I was a little crazy. The older ladies were even more confused. How could I move to a new country without a husband? I think they’re all used to the idea of me now, but it took a while. I kept getting the sense that since I wasn’t married, and I was working in a man’s job that somehow made me less womanly in their eyes. Maybe the attitude would be different in the States, but I don’t know for sure.

So let’s call the whole “you’re doing a man’s job” attitude Typical Reaction #1. Typical Reaction #2 when I say what I do is, “Wow, you must be so smart.” While that’s a very kind compliment, I never feel qualified to accept it. First of all, I always feel like there is a hint of Typical Reaction #1 lurking in the background. Do people really say that when they meet a male engineer? Maybe I’m being oversensitive.

But in general, I think Typical Reaction #2 is a little off. Let me be very honest here. Based on the other authors of this blog, most of the readers here are English majors. I’ll let you in on a little secret that the people across the CFAC parking lot and Commons Lawn never want you to know. Engineers are really no smarter than you are. Don’t put all of us on a pedestal. To steal from every educational philosopher ever, we’re all smart in different ways.

So please don’t think that I’m a super smart woman because I made it through engineering school. I’m not.

I just get annoyed when I get the impression that people think I’m less of a woman because I am an engineer or, conversely, that I’m less of an engineer because I am a woman. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I can sometimes see it in people’s eyes, a brief flash of judgment. And that rattles me. After all, I didn’t start this job to fight a battle. I just wanted to do something I love.

What reaction do I want instead? Well, I wish I could tell people that I’m a structural engineer and have it be a normal thing. Someday maybe it will be. And I hope that the next time each of you runs into a female engineer, you won’t think she’s weird or uber smart. Just treat her like any other girl.

Sarah Fennema