Women In Engineering

This quality engineering manager says engineering offers challenge and variety, and she believes more women should give it a try.

By Laura French, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: May 15, 2006 - 9:24 AM

When Heidi Bolton was at the University of Wisconsin-Stout five years ago, she was one of about five women out of 200 students in the engineering program. Today, she's the quality engineering manager at Steinwall Inc., helping to design quality into the company's processes and products. Bolton says engineering offers challenge and variety, and she believes more women should give it a try.

Engineering Offers Women Challenge and Variety

Bolton was always good at math and science. She assumed that meant she'd use her math skills to become an accounting major. Unsure if that was exactly what she wanted, she started college as an undeclared major. She talked to the directors of a number of programs, saying she was looking for a challenging occupation that would use her skills and satisfy her interest in "how things work."

The director of the manufacturing engineering program told her she'd be a perfect candidate for the program. She knew nothing about engineering, but, she says, "I figured, 'Why not?'" She started classes and soon discovered she loved the field.

"The job isn't the same from day to day. There are lots of challenges and lots of variety," she says of her position. Bolton deals with new-parts design, helping to define customer requirements and document how to manufacture each part.

Intimidating At First

Bolton says she's found the industry to be supportive of women in engineering, although she found it "intimidating at first." She found herself doing a lot of things she'd never done before, like welding. At the top of her class in high school, Bolton went down to B's in her first engineering course work.

Carol Smorch, senior quality engineering specialist for 3M's Drug Delivery Systems Division, had a similar experience when she majored in industrial engineering at Northwestern University in Chicago. Having graduated at the top of her high school class, Smorch found herself getting B's and C's in the engineering program. "It's tough," she says.

Smorch thinks the drive for perfection might keep some high-achieving women from trying an engineering major. "You don't need straight A's," she says. "You keep thinking, 'I can do anything I want to do!'"

Engineers Energizing Others

Smorch remembers walking into a factory for the firsttime as a 19-year-old, in a dress, with "guys whooping and yelling." She says, "They were looking for a reaction. I just walked over and started talking to them."

Today's business world favors cooperation and the ability to "energize others" - skills that women tend to bring to the workplace, Smorch says. "The speed of work is so fast that you can no longer do things on your own. You need to work through people," she says. Smorch includes problem solving, active listening and conflict resolution as "skills I use right now" in her engineering career.

Smorch laments the lack of role models for women in engineering. She says people sometimes look at her colorful clothing and exclaim, "You're an engineer?"

She assures them that being a woman engineer doesn't mean wearing a white lab coat and a pocket protector bristling with mechanical pencils. "You can be a valued individual and have fun every day," she says.

Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville.

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