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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You might want to ask recent grads.  I was an engineering graduate in the mid 80s.  I hope to god it's changed since then, because the misogynism ran deep.  Especially in the "hard core" disciplines.

I'm now in the defense industry.  Apparently a glutton for punishment.  [/quote]

Thank you. May I ask where you attended school - hopefully things have improved.[/quote]

Penn State[/quote]

Ditto for U of Md college park. 
The other students were ironically the ones that were rampantly sexist. I enjoyed my professors and classes in undergrad. Grad school not so muc that's where it really was awful. But the working world was the worst as the men seemed to unite to put the women down and label them useless whenever they could. I wasn't even allowed to work on a project that entailed subject matter that I had graduate degrees in - in favor of guys who needed special permission to graduate with low grades (i.e.: D's and C's). I got mostly A's and I was told that I had probably received those not because I was smart and worked hard but because I had 'sat in the front row wearing a short skirt'. Yeah - no. School was a picnic compared to work.

At least now they make you do an internship - so maybe you can choose law or medicine instead.

Maybe things have improved but I'm glad my own bright daughter does not want to do STEM (also - low pay for long hours)

OP I think things have improved - I hope - but I'd recommend that your DD get a PhD if she wants to be in STEM. It will go a lot better for her.[/quote]

Female engineer here, b.s. 2003 and master's in 2009.

I disagree with a lot of your points.

You absolutely do not need a PHD to be in STEM; most engineers don't need it. I have a Master's and didn't need it.  Engineering firms care more about job experience than grad degrees.

You only need a PHD if you go into academia.

Also, STEM is certainly not low pay for long hours.  I have no clue where you get that.  We get decent pay for a 9 to 5 job.[/quote]

9-5 job? Never had that we worked long hours.
The pay is great, sure, if you don't mind living in a run down aluminum siding house in PG county.[/quote]

While I appreciate a good debate, the PP who mentioned salary first is being too vague. Engineering starting salaries are very high. http://www.mtu.edu/engineering/outreach/welcome/salary/

Most e schools also publish surveys on their website about careers and salaries of the graduating class. [/quote]

For the Washington DC area those salaries are not high.

First of all I don't know anyone getting anything like the upper tier of that salary except for phd's. The phd's I know get paid more, are respected more and have more control over their careers.

Most engineers that I know of here that work for government contractors get closer to the bottom tier of that salary chart and work extra unpaid hours for that salary. It is slightly more than what a teacher gets and probably less than nursing, depending on the fueld.

Couple that with another engineer of a nurse/firefighter/teacher salary and it's enough to live in a modest home in PG or in the modest Baltimore suburbs somewhere.[/quote]

Ignore this poster - very clueless. I'm an ee and broke $100K 6 years after I graduated. This was back in 2010 in D.C. Area. It's not a high salary for the area but it is not a low one either.  I don't know many nurses or teachers that make that much after 6 years out of college. I pretty much work 40 hours a week. I make around 136K now; raises have been pretty stagnant but I have refused the management track and have not been job hopping much.[/quote]

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