Resilience, Flexibility, Optimism: Women Engineers Discuss Their Journeys

President Andrea Goldsmith at the Presidential Panel Discussion on Women in Engineering on April 15. Photos by John Griffin.

Women represent a growing but still underrepresented demographic in STEM fields. While gender disparities in leadership and career progression persist, the number of women entering engineering is rising.

As part of Inauguration Week, Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith moderated the April 15 Presidential Panel Discussion, "Women in Engineering," bringing together distinguished women engineers to discuss their journeys and successes, and what lies on the horizon.

Joining President Goldsmith were: Jennifer Cochran, vice president for the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and vice president for strategic initiatives at Stanford University; Ayanna Howard, an international expert in robotics and AI and dean of engineering at The Ohio State University; Muriel Médard, the NEC Chair of Software Science and Engineering for the School of Engineering at MIT and a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department; and Telle Whitney, entrepreneur and recognized advocate and expert on women and technology.

"I started off at NASA because I wanted to do robotics, and NASA was the only place that wasn't in the automobile industry of the military," said Howard. "I went into academia because I realized I liked students. My journey has really just been about opportunities and aligning my passion with my values, and then being open to exploring it."

Whitney described how she took over a nonprofit - the Institute for Women in Technology, now AnitaB.org - that had been founded by a friend who was diagnosed with brain cancer.

"I saw that it made a huge difference in people's lives," she said. "Sometimes your career takes unanticipated turns, but I loved the work that I was doing." Whitney served as its CEO from 2002 to 2017, transforming it into a recognized world leader for women and technology.

Médard spoke about her meandering path to engineering. "I went to college without a plan," she said. "I thought I'd be a math major because I could do math, and I loved literature, so I was also double majoring in Russian literature."

Her trajectory changed when she discovered that engineering had the rigor of math and the creativity of literature. "It was a complete surprise to me that you could do both. And it was challenging because there were very, very few women."

Howard said she knew what she wanted to do from a young age.

"I was always into science fiction. I wanted to build a bionic woman, which was a popular TV show," she said. "The Bionic Woman was the only predominant woman on TV. So what was the career that connected to that? At the time I said I wanted to be a doctor, because in the TV show, the cool people were the doctors. The engineers were the ones in the background."

A teacher later noted that Howard thought like an engineer. "Why not try it?' I had no idea what engineering was with respect to robotics, but in my first two years of college I figured out that computer engineering was the closest to what I wanted to do in robotics."

The panel also discussed the qualities of great leadership, emphasizing inclusivity, creativity and empathy.

Whitney noted that innovation and inclusivity are tied together, and that if you want to create a culture that is creative, you want to be open to ideas.

"Some companies devolve into a 'command and control' approach where the people at the top want everybody else to just execute their vision," she said. "But if you want to create a culture that fosters great ideas, you want to be able to create environments where all ideas are welcomed and listened to."

From left: Muriel Médard, Ayanna Howard, President Andrea Goldsmith, Telle Whitney and Jennifer Cochran at the Presidential Panel Discussion on Women in Engineering.

"What I realized is that being a good listener is very important. It's not always about me. Be present and listen to them, and meeting them with empathy is important," Cochran said. "People are human. They have challenges, they have problems, they have triumphs, and they have joys. Just being present and being empathetic to what people are going through, and just bringing your whole self to that situation is so important. That's what I try to practice in my leadership."

"One of the themes that we've heard a lot is this notion of twists and turns and not necessarily knowing the destination, but enjoying the journey," said Goldsmith. "That's certainly been true for me. I had no idea I would someday be a university president."

Goldsmith also spoke of the importance of confidence and believing in yourself, especially when you are a member of an underrepresented group.

"What I've heard in this discussion and also in my own journey, is you follow your passion, find something that excites you, and tune out the doubters," she said. "Focus on what you're passionate about and believe in. If you do that, then there is no failure. There's something joyous about that journey, and failure often is the best path to success."

- Robert Emproto