Assignment 22- Madison Underwood- A Female in Engineering

From a young age, I have always loved all things math and problem-solving. My combination of competitiveness and stubbornness has always motivated me to never give up on finding a solution. I can't see me working in a field that doesn't include math, and this year I have been exploring the field of engineering more and more. This brings me to my unusual circumstance which is in fact that I want to be an engineer. How is that weird or uncommon? Well, I am a girl entering the field of engineering. There's no denying that this field has a dearth of females, and this has been evident to me more and more this past year. Colleges are creating special days to encourage more and more women to enter engineering. I participated in those of UK and the University of Cincinnati where I noticed that just about every faculty member was male, and that the ratio of male to female student population was extremely disproportional. But this shouldn't have been of surprise to me as I looked around my AP Computer Science classroom the next day and was reminded that I am 1 out of 4 girls in the class, and one of them is my teacher. I make up 1/3 of the female student population in a class that is becoming more and more relevant in the field of engineering. However, as I continue to search for the perfect secondary schooling location for me, I am not concerned with going to the school with the highest population of female engineering students. For my life personally, I prioritize other factors far more than equal gender representation, and I'm actually extremely excited to see so many more schools and organizations taking the initiative to encourage young women to consider pursuing a career in engineering.