• Question: Why do people make assumptions of what engineers look like?

    Asked by Abbi to Jamie, Kristen, Sheun, Simon, Will on 21 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Sheun Oshinbolu

      Sheun Oshinbolu answered on 21 Jun 2015:

      Its just a common stereotype that people have because they don’t know. Back when I was in school I used to think that engineers were people that fixed boilers and plumbers. I now know that I couldn’t be much wronger because I have had more interactions with engineers since then. Engineers come in all shapes and sizes and across all races so there shouldn’t be anything limiting you to become one!

    • Photo: William Scott-Jackson

      William Scott-Jackson answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      I think some of it stems back to the 1980’s, especially with programmers and computer scientists. Technology was a very diverse subject back in the 1970’s and then the 1980’s came along and people made films starring young wiz kid programmers who were all male and that movement killed off the diversity in technology fields but also cemented a stereotype for technology nerds like myself.

    • Photo: Simon Marchant

      Simon Marchant answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Even TV programs at the moment can be quite solid on their stereotypical engineers – as Sheun says, people don’t know any engineers so they make TV shows based off what they think they’re like… It’s definitely improving though, we just have a bit of a PR problem! Hence I’m An Engineer 🙂

    • Photo: Jamie Johnston

      Jamie Johnston answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      I would imagine it is because of the history of engineering, it conjures up images of men building railways or working under cars. The truth is that engineers are both male and female, they tend to be very “behind the scenes” and are involved with taking an idea and making it a reality through the application of STEM subjects, rather than the people who then build the final designs.

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