Letters to the Editor
Women engineers and the workplace culture
A response to “Wanted: More diversity in engineering” [September, page 11]
I’ve been in engineering since
1986 and often one of the few
women in the workplace. It is my
opinion that one of the factors
that keeps girls from entering engineering and women from staying has to do with the culture of
the workplace or academic institution, rather than interest or aptitude. This culture isn’t necessarily
one of discrimination, but it is
more about how people within
engineering organizations interact
with one another. Women haven’t
CONNECT
AND NETWORK
ACHIEVE
AND PLAN YOUR CAREER
INSPIRE
AND LAUNCH A LEGACY
JOIN
AIAA STUDENT MEMBERSHIP
AIAA Student Membership offers a
great return on investment.
www.aiaa.org
14-223
put their mark on the organizations, and so we continue, after
all these years, to fit into a culture
that doesn’t fit many of us. I believe the combined attributes of
the existing and new cultures will
serve all best, but I don’t know
that anyone is really trying to
study those effects.
Having worked in several
companies and two industries
(energy and aerospace), I still see
that the women who succeed
have adapted to the culture created by men and have not tried
to make the culture change. Until
this happens — for women or
those from other backgrounds —
engineering will continue to be
an unfriendly work environment.
Talking about diversity helps
people understand that cultural
norms vary, but it doesn’t talk
about how people should be
treated. Treating everyone just
like you treat everyone else is not
the solution, if you treat people
poorly.
I would like to see some
studies address this aspect.
Thank you for bringing the
issue to the audience of Aerospace America.
Karen MacKenizie
Seattle
kdm075@icloud.com
What’s lost with renewable fuels
The article on
synthetic fuels
was very informative and encouraging in certain
respects [“Biofuels
now,” October,
page 30].
However, we
cannot
label
such fuels as “renewable” if they
are derived from
the destruction
of wildlife habitat. Recently in
the Wall Street
Journal we read that the World
Wildlife Federation and Zoological Society of London announced the results of their joint
study finding that we have lost
50 percent of the mass of wild
animals (all vertebrate) worldwide over the last 40 years.
The greatest effects were in
October 2014
Central America,
losing 83 percent
of wild animals,
largely due to
destruction of
rain forest and
jungle.
Fly clean now with biofuels
We can reasonably ask if
some of the habitat loss was associated with the
cultivation
of
plants destined
to become “renewable” fuels.
Phil Barnes
San Pedro, Calif.
Phil@HowFliesTheAlbatross.com
SUGARRUSH
The tech behind the Army’s
vertical lift competition
FAA’s Bolton on getting
NextGen on track
AEROSPACE AMERICA/OCTOBER 2014
RT
A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS
COVER.indd 1
9/18/14 3:51 PM
Correction
QQQ
The article “Collateral Damage”
[September, page 36] gave an incorrect date for Russia’s annexation of
Crimea. The article should have said
the annexation occurred in March.
All letters addressed to the editor are considered to be submitted for possible publication, unless
it is expressly stated otherwise. All letters are subject to editing for length and to author response.
Letters should be sent to: Correspondence, Aerospace America, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Suite
500, Reston, VA 20191-4344, or by email to: beni@aiaa.org.
AEROSPACE AMERICA/NOVEMBER 2014 3