Conclusion
Going into this project, I had my own ideas about women in engineering and believed some of the stereotypes to a certain extent. Although my research changed some of my viewpoints, overall, I was not surprised by the results. Nevertheless, there was one thing that stood out to me. Looking at Google, I saw a large amount of results for engineering were discussing women in one way or another. It was interesting to see how a historically male dominated field is always talking about women. I always knew female engineers were encouraging of each other, I did not see the extent to which that was true.
Some stereotypes were supported by the research. The research proved, such qualities as attention to detail and perfectionism. Others were rejected by it, such as the lonely “nerd” persona. The idea of all female engineers being antisocial and “nerdy” was one that, I have to admit, I believed in. However, after watching the female engineers interact with each other, I was proved wrong, thus changing my aforementioned viewpoints.
Studying a community so thoroughly was enlightening. Usually when I watch a group of people interact, I don’t really notice the small things or think about the reasoning behind each action. However, in an ethnography, it is exactly those things that I am forced to think about. Once I notice each action and try to piece together why it is happening, everything starts to make sense. Combining my online research with my in person studies, my hypothetical reasoning turned into facts with the support of other research.
Conducting research this thoroughly and writing about it in a cause and effect type of manner is very beneficial to my future as an engineer. Engineers have hundreds of projects and sometimes it will be something they don’t know much about. Because of this, they need to know how to properly research and discern good sources from bas sources and well as decide what information is important versus non-important. Engineers must also write as if the reader knows nothing of their topic, because the chances are that they don’t and they need to write about it logically and orderly. This ethnography helped me with this because I’ve discovered new ways of finding sources and I also learned how to combine different types of research, such as the observation and interview. Overall, learning new things, whether it be characteristics of a future community or how to properly research, will improve anyone’s skillset and prepare them for their future in the outside world.