Uniform Perspectives • Poor
Portrayal • Elmo's Ire • Bad Chemistry
 
Uniform Perspectives
Editors:
The "young U.S. Army punks in uniform" ["Letters
from Afghanistan," November- December 2002] made it possible
for our equally young [Barnaby] Hall to wander around Kabul taking
pictures, without having to worry about getting his throat cut.
His comments caused me to wonder if he was not the real punk.
Walter Boomer '60
(via e-mail)
The correspondent is the U.S. Marine Corps general, now retired,
who commanded Marine forces during the first Gulf War. He is first
chairman and CEO of Rogers Corporation.
Poor Portrayal
Editors:
As a woman engineering graduate student at Duke, I was made to
feel unwelcome and unwanted by many male faculty and peers. One
faculty member explicitly promulgated his belief that women did
not belong in engineering at all; not one other faculty member
publicly challenged him on this. One hopes that time brings enlightenment
and changes in attitude.
Imagine my disappointment upon reading in the November-December
2002 issue, in a review of Henry Petroski's latest book, that "Engineering
is a discipline that separates the men from the boys.... The best
engineers, be they male or female, are a lot like boys." In
a misguided attempt at humor, the book reviewer does women and
the profession of engineering in general a great disservice.
Obsessive inquisitiveness, love of trial and error, a knack for
fiddling with gadgets, and appreciation of design and building
as playtime are indeed characteristics of many good engineers.
To define such traits as characteristic of boys, alone, is to imply
that girls and women are somehow unnatural engineers.
Is Petroski's book truly a testament to the "indefatigable
curiosity of boys," or is the book about Petroski's indefatigable
curiosity? If the latter, why generalize to all boys (they don't
all become engineers) and leave out girls (many of whom do)?
In To Engineer is Human, Petroski lays out a thesis that situates
engineering as the most human of activities. Not the most boyish--the
most human.
I don't think this is a minor issue. Consistent, persistent portrayals
of engineers and engineering as the proper domain of boys and men
contribute to the discouragement of many young women who could
bring valuable contributions to the profession. Ask Dean Kristina
Johnson if she thinks of herself as being a lot like a boy, or
just a lot like a good engineer.
Suzanne Elizabeth Franks Ph.D. '91
(via e-mail)
The correspondent is director of the Women in Engineering and Science
program at Kansas State University.
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