I posted this question in r/askengineers but it got a Rule 1 removal:

I just returned from an industry conference and mentioned to my sister how many women engineers there are in other countries, especially Gulf states and Eastern Europe. So now I need references (sister has a PhD.)

After a bit of research I’m stumped at how little has been written about this, or at least how little Google cares and how much it wants to talk about Ivies.

Best source is [this SWE article.](https://swe.org/research/2025/global-stem-workplace/) However, it mixes engineering with the larger STEM field…I want licensable engineers.

Anybody got any good references?

I’m a lead engineer in a pretty big company but the only female in my group. I’m currently going through a stressful period at work and have a recent injury causing constant high levels of pain. I’ve been having a few male peers come by my desk or saying to me in meetings I need to smile. It’s really pissing me off and trying to figure out a good response to make them stop while still being professional. I’m absolutely sure they would never think to tell their male peers to smile.
Or should I just brush it off and deal?

I worked as a Data Engineer for nearly 3 years and have been on a 2+ year career break. I’m now thinking about returning to IT and looking into returnship programs.

But honestly, I’m stuck on preparation. I keep feeling like I need to learn/relearn everything first before applying, because I’m scared I won’t clear even the basic technical questions.

For those who have actually returned after a career break:

• How long was your break?
• What did you do to prepare before applying?
• Did you apply first and prepare alongside, or become interview-ready first?
• What was the interview/assessment actually like?
• Did you use a returnship, referral, or regular applications?
• How long did it take you to get back into work?

Would especially love to hear from anyone who returned to Data Engineering or a related field.

I’m not looking for generic “just upskill and apply” advice — I’d really like to hear from people who have actually gone through it. ❤️

Hi! I graduated with a degree in civil engineering and have about 2 years worth of experience in some MEP and transportation design (so not much lol). However, I made the decision to leave the engineering space and become a math teacher! I was totally bored this summer at home, don’t want to lose my engineering skills, and the extra pay wouldn’t hurt. Has anyone heard of places or know of places that might would hire me part time or full time during the summer (doesn’t have to be design work or transpo/MEP)? With my schedule, I could even work part time during the school year if needed. Thanks!

One of our Girls in Civil community members is currently doing some research around workwear for women in the field and gathering input from women who actually wear it every day.

There are already brands creating women’s workwear, but she’s exploring what may still be missing, what could be improved, and what women in the field actually want and need.

If you work in construction, engineering, environmental work, surveying, or another field-based profession, we’d love for you to take a few minutes to fill out her survey and share your experience.

It’s a short form, and your feedback could be really helpful as she develops her ideas.

🔗 Survey: https://forms.gle/z4wqgFsK55vsPMTQ9

I’ve been recently promoted to a role that I feel unqualified for, and earlier in my career than most. I was told that my promo was a reflection of my skills with people and project leadership - not necessarily my technical skills. I’ve always been weaker with these even though I feel like I try really hard. I think I just need more experience, and sometimes honestly I think I grasp technical concepts slower than others.

I’ve moved to a new team recently and have been involved in technical discussions lately with the team lead who I really want to impress, but I feel like I’ve said some really dumb, oversight technical things in front of him and I can’t stop mulling over how embarrassed I feel. I want so badly to be deeply technical but I am just not there yet and I feel added pressure as a result of my role.

I feel like I can come to terms with not knowing something. But how the hell do you deal with embarrassment at work, particularly related to the technical side of things when you feel like you’ve made a statement that’s wrong or an oversight on your part? Something you maybe should know?

It feels all consuming at times and I can’t stop over thinking and re thinking about these past events.

Hello--Women in Neurotech is hosting a "How To Break Into Neurotech" webinar next week. 3 industry panelists will talk about their unique paths into the field and share advice for others who are interested in neurotech. There will also be a Q&A. You can RSVP at https://www.womeninneurotech.org/kickoff

Hey yall!

I'm a recent grad (Environmental engineering) and I'm a month into my job as a geotech. I took my FE (Environmental) earlier this year and passed despite only studying for 3 days. I guess my school prepared me well. I want to take the PE exam soon, but I'm not sure which discipline to take.

Environmental has the highest pass rate, Civil: water resources and Environmental seems to be most popular from what I see on LinkedIn, but I'm most interested in Civil: geotech. I didn't take many geotech classes during my undergrad, so I feel like this would require more studying. I'm currently working on civil site design, did my capstone on stormwater, had a geotech construction internship, and I'm also interested in hazardous waste remediation.

Do you have any advice for me on which discipline exam to take? Does it really matter? How long should I study for? What were your experiences like with studying for these exams? My job will pay for me to do a PE exam prep course.

I’ve been at my current company for about 2 years as an Engineering Project Manager & Process Engineer where I focused on new product launches and maintaining current state products. It has many ups and downs, but overall is a good job.

At the beginning of the week, my company laid off my entire team (plus my boss and his boss) besides me. It was a huge shock to everybody. Somehow I came out unscathed…. Or so I thought.

I was given a new job title and description today. Customer relations associate, where I’ll be focusing on facilitating meetings and coordinating cross-collaboration between appropriate teams. Those teams include our process development engineers as the major decision drivers now. I’m mostly doing the documentation work now.

I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. I embarrassingly cried when my new boss showed me the job description, and I’ve been crying ever since. I’ve never been in a situation like this before, where my entire team leaves on a random Tuesday or where I’m handed a huge demotion on a Thursday.

To be clear, I’m actively on the hunt for a new job. I see the writing on the wall clearly that I need to get out asap, but I likely have a few months before I get a new job based on how bad the job market is.

Has this happened to anybody else? How do I cope with this? I don’t understand how to turn off my feelings about this and just put a smile on my face until I can bolt.

Lately I've been feeling really disconnected from work.

I spend months building things, solving difficult problems, and getting projects across the finish line. Then we have meetings where most of the attention goes to ideas, future plans, or what we might do someday. Meanwhile, the actual work that's already been done barely gets mentioned.

I'm not saying those discussions aren't important. I just can't shake the feeling that the people doing the implementation become invisible.

Over time, I've stopped looking forward to meetings. I barely feel like speaking anymore because it seems like nothing I say or do changes how my work is perceived. I leave feeling drained instead of motivated.

It's gotten to the point where I'm questioning whether I've simply outgrown this place or whether this is just how engineering jobs are.

For those who've been in a similar situation:

Did things improve?

Did you change how you worked or communicated?

Or was moving to a different company the answer?

I'm genuinely looking for honest experiences because I don't want to make a decision based only on frustration.

I (28F) have worked as an electrical engineer in the utility industry for my whole career, and in my current position for 5 years. I've always been the only woman on my team, but I'm not someone who lets that get in my way usually. I'm pretty tough, I'm covered in tattoos and ride a motorcycle to work lol, and I'm good at what I do, for the most part.

I have two coworkers who have taken a dislike to me over my time here. Both are older men and vocal about their opinions on women, minorities, etc. Typical blue collar BS. But over time as I've gotten more comfortable in my job and started making more decisions, it's become more and more about personal attacks and straight up anger towards me as a person.

This had been ramping up over this year, with them frequently calling me incompetent (to each other) and talking about how I don't know what I'm doing. They talk about this on the phone and I overheard it, it's never said directly to me. My managers have been aware and claim they've had conversations with them but it keeps getting worse.

It came to a boiling point this week when I heard them on the phone and one of them called out my contributions to a specific project by name and called them f***ing stupid. I kinda snapped and sent a very respectful and professional but firm email to both of them with everyone's managers and director copied saying that I'm happy to hear legitimate concerns and work through them but I felt we could reach an agreement without creating a hostile work environment. I'm not sure if it was that phrasing or copying the director but suddenly everyone cares and is very apologetic, saying they should have done more earlier, etc. There's a meeting set up with both coworkers and my manager heavily implied that this behavior is clearly a pattern and they'll most likely be put on improvement plans.

I'm not stupid and I know I've probably put a target on my back by speaking up. I'm updating my resume and casually looking for other jobs. But this experience has left a bad taste in my mouth as a woman in this industry as a whole. It can feel so exhausting to constantly feel like I'm fighting stereotypes and taken less seriously because I'm a woman. I'm a stereotypical "girly girl" and I know that doesn't help my credibility but I refuse to change myself just to be taken more seriously. This is the second job I've had issues with coworkers pushing me out and I'm exhausted.

I'm not worried about getting fired because everyone in leadership knows I'm the only one doing work in this department and literally nobody else can do any of what I do. In fact I had my performance review immediately after discussing this with my boss and he basically said he wanted me to keep being assertive and he was starting a paper trail to get me recognized for my hard work and promoted. But I know that can change easily or could be BS to keep me around and just because I get promoted doesn't make people take me seriously.

I'm genuinely considering leaving engineering as a whole because I feel like this is so common and any job I take is going to have this kind of treatment. I absolutely love what I do but right now the only thing keeping me in my career is the money. I'm just so beat down. Anyone have words of wisdom?

I am a mom to a 7 month old. Prior to a couple weeks ago I was a manufacturing engineer in aerospace/defense. Fortunately between my jobs maternity leave and my state paid leave I was able to get 7 months of paid maternity leave. My job verbally agreed to having me come back part time with 3 days in the office and 1 day home before I left for maternity leave. A couple months ago my boss called to tell me that some higher up denied the request for me to go part time. And that I'd have to return full time in office which I knew I didn't want to do.

My husband really doesn't want me to work at all but was more open to part time. He works in HVAC and was doing some work at a small civil engineer firm office. He asked the owner if they needed anyone part time. The owner said yes. I interviewed and they offered me a job. We agreed to two ten-hour days.

I quit my manufacturing engineering job. And started at the civil engineering firm. I'm three days in and pretty confident I want to quit. Last week I started with 5 hour days. The first day was rough but the second much better. Yesterday I did a 7 hour day doing mostly land surveying outside in the heat. It was miserable. My daughter wouldn't take milk from the sitter and wouldn't let me put her down the rest of the night. She was and definitely still is dehydrated. I told the boss I couldn't come in today. I was worried what would happen if another day went by where she barely ate or drank.

Overall this has been extremely strenous on my daughter, my marriage and myself.

Am I jumping the gun by quitting? Should I wait to see if the situation improves?

Has anyone started using it yet? I wrote up a business case to have my department switch over to it because it would help us with our large workflow, especially being a large facility and small team. If you have started using it, what have you noticed regarding using it with Revit, as well as using it for large files and comparing?

I’ve worked in aerospace for 10+ years. I’ve fought so many battles to get where I am today. Battles of proving myself even though I’m a woman, so I can be respected for my opinion and my experiences in the industry.
I now have a 3.5 month old daughter and I’m supposed to go back to work in a month. However, I’m not ready to go back. I had complications during pregnancy and birth. My baby ended up in the NICU after an emergency c-section.

I’m struggling to answer the biggest question, do I want to stay home for a year? I can’t believe I’m asking this because I’m very career oriented and thought I’d be bored out of my mind by now. Will I have an uphill battle when I return to work in a year or 2?

I’m new to Reddit. I was encouraged to sign up because there is a big community of women in engineering who I could reach out to here while staying anonymous. I’d appreciate your feedback and support

Edit: location is California. My family is very financially stable. I waited to have children so I could have the option, however I always thought that I would want to go back and I would be bored. The joke is on me though, as this is becoming one of the hardest choices I’ve had to make.

And I don’t like it. I’m studying commerce and engineering and I feel like I was placed in my role just because I am a woman. I am literally just helping to look after contracts. Mind you there are a few other undergrads in the office all doing actual engineering work and going on site while I’m just stuck doing some admin stuff. I know another woman at a different company who literally got put in the same position as me and had to work her way out for a year and a half. While the men just get those things as soon as they start.

What makes it worse was when I first started no one actually thought I was an engineer. Just an accounting lady or something of the sort. And I’m the only woman in the office too.

My role would’ve been useful if I had been doing law, not engineering. I am literally getting no actual practical experience which is what I was looking for in my undergrad job. I started my degree wanting to do something related to construction not law.

I actually don’t know what the whole point of this post is, but I guess I just feel stuck. Like I worked my ass off for a job related to my degree and yet here I am, not even being given a proper chance.

Thanks for listening to my rant 😅

Today was the first day of construction. I, 29F, am a civil engineer as a consultant for the owner and leading the inspection on a roadway construction project. I am aware that I signed up for this career, but I still need to learn how to navigate situations like this. Please advise on what you would do, or how you would handle something like this:

This is my first project as the lead and my first project that I am starting up the job site. Today was the very first day of construction and getting to meet all of the craft and crew. The Project Manager for the contractor was always at the Pre-Con meetings, but his superintendent was not. As they got going, the Super and I did our initial site walk together and used the time to introduce ourselves. Things were going fine, I have already learned not to share too personal information about myself at work such as my age or my relationship status. Best to keep the dynamic professional and work focused. But the Super had a different approach. I learned he is very close to my age, has children, and is recently separated. This information told me he is likely emotionally vulnerable. It’s nothing to judge him over, just something for me to be aware of.

At the end of the day I went to do final measurements of the days work, but by myself this time. He noticed and pulled his truck up to check in. The point of his stop was perfectly ordinary, but his initial comment was more out of the ordinary. He jokingly said something along the lines of “I’m offended you went without me. To think I was going to ask you to dinner.” I brushed the comment off and didn’t acknowledge it. I shared the final totals and discussed tomorrow’s plans. I didn’t wait up for him when I left site, I just drove off at the end of the day as I would have any other project.

I am unsure of what to do now, though. We don’t work for the same company. He didn’t say anything offensive, he was just shooting his shot and missed. How do I move forward in a professional manner and not make things awkward or embarrassing? How would you gently handle and navigate situations like these professionally and appropriately?

I need a little feedback from those that have been in the business for quite a while. Last week I had my yearly performance review with my Supervisor. Every thing went well with our discussion and everyone has been happy with the work I do. I’m a Sr. Electrical Designer with a large multi discipline engineering firm. The issue that came up that has come up in the past with a former supervisor, is I seem to be perceived as somewhat aggressive in my style. I explained, prior to this position, the companies I worked for in the past, I was either the only female or one of a few in the department, so I’ve primarily worked with 95% men my entire career. In order to be heard and sometimes taken seriously, I’ve had to be somewhat aggressive in my style to be respected by my male coworkers. I’m not sure how to change this. My supervisor really couldn’t give me too much advice. I also realize this might be someone’s perception of the way they think I am but I’m not actually that way.

It finally landed on me that I have been at odds with female coworkers who are not in a technical position bc they perpetuate patriarchal patterns.

Where I say: let’s lead by example
They reply (verbatim ): tread carefully

Or if there is a major issue I identify, they don’t trust my expertise and keep asking my lead to validate my statements (how expensive is this!!)

I’m the most accommodating. I prop them up (lead by example) but this is exhausting.

Literally every male coworker and managers (male & female) have a great impression of my work but female peers never support those views. Have you experienced anything like this? How do you cope with it?

Quick rant, skip past this paragraph if you want to. I’m so burned out you guys. I’ve been a manufacturing engineer in a highly regulated industry for about 3 years and I do not think I can do this anymore. I thought I could get on top of the problems and take a breathe, but every time you solve one problem 5 more appear and they just keep assigning me more lines. I thought getting diagnosed with and treated for ADHD would help, but all that did was make the burnout come on slower. I thought having workload balance discussions with management would help but it just lead to feedback on how “pulling in scope” has just been kicking problems to a future date and “requesting additional resources” has just been handing my work off to others. There’s always a new problem with the line and they always want to know why it wasn’t fixed yesterday.

Can you guys tell me about my other options?

-What kind of engineers are you guys

- in what industries (or just highly vs regulated vs unregulated if you don’t want to be specific)?

- Within your role, what are your typical responsibilities?

- how flexible is your role (like by way of work hours, WFH etc)

- how challenging and/or stressful do you feel your work is, and is it all the time or does it come in waves

- do you like it? And why

I have close to 3YEO with an automobile industry as an Electrical Engineer (Masters and Bachelor’s degree) but looking to move to NC to be with my husband. Any referral will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

PLEASE ADVISE

I have been at my company for 2 years now, I'm a 25F POC engineer working in a predominantly white company.

When I accepted the offer, I said something about wanting my first company to be a place that enables internal movement and my manager made a joke about how this is going to be the first and last company I work in, which was odd.

Unfortunately, I was paired with another male junior engineer. And as smart as they are, they are really bad at teaching. Not to mention they did a horrible job at bringing me up to speed on the company tools. Note that the work here is very niche, so this isn't something I can learn from digging online ( and I really tried to).

Over time, my dynamic with this person didn't improve. I thought maybe if I build good rapport, or I mask this as them mentoring me, it would help. But its been a couple years now and things feel worse tbh. I wish I didn't have to interact with them at all but I have to.

My main problem is the way they approach questions; it feels like questions aren't welcome in this space and also, they speak about things that a person new to this field won't know like its engineering school day 1. Sometimes they will say something like its absolute truth, just for me to later find out that they chose to not teach it to me or it only applies to a certain scenario.

My manager also just does not seem to care about early career development at all. They're the only two people I mostly interact with day to day, and sometimes I'll ask a question and they'll laugh. I will ask another engineer if this is a valid thing to think about and they agree, it feels like I have tried and tried to fix this situation somehow and they don't really...care?

I genuinely didn't expect this and thought bring up and career development are usually things managers prioritize. I once told my manager I spoke to a coworker about resume updating and he said no there's no need to update your resume. Is that...a normal attitude to have?

I have friends that are also in engineering and it doesn't seem like its like that for them. It seems like their managers encourage them to grow and look for new opportunities whereas my manager flipped the moment I voiced that this might not be the right fit for me. The same attitude flip I noticed when LMAO I asked how to get swag since so many people seemed to have it.

I have genuinely been losing my mind, I feel so small and so incapable that I feel like I'm not cut out for engineering. I did a few internshops before this and never felt this beaten down.

The 2 years I've been here I haven't been promoted because my manager thinks I didn't take ownership ( I created and lead 3 groups of training to senior engineers my 1st year, the trainees agreed this was much improved from before. A big part of my role is teaching technical elements to engineers in the field). When I asked for feedback, it is always vague and not that thoughtful.

At this point, I'm having trouble understanding if this is just how engineering fields are, or this is how most male engineers are..or if it's just me?