The girls storm polytechnics

Since the launch of the “Girls at polytechnics” campaign, the number of female students at technical universities has increased by almost 24,000.

The share of female students at technical universities in Poland is already 37 percent. and is constantly growing. This is largely due to the campaign “Girls at polytechnics”. – It cannot be counted that the majority of polytechnics will be women. There is a stereotype that the sphere of technical activity is the domain of men. It is also transferred to making decisions regarding the choice of fields of study – says Magdalena Dyderska, action coordinator at the Wrocław University of Technology. – It’s worth noting, however, that this type of thinking is changing.

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The university in Wrocław is among those that have recorded the highest increase in the number of women among students since 2009 – their number increased by almost 25%.

A woman soothes the morals

We should remember, however, that future students mainly choose studies related to architecture or chemistry (at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, women in these faculties account for over 70% of all students), which have long ceased to be perceived as stereotypically male. It is much easier for us to imagine a woman in a laboratory than in a helmet at a construction site.

– The fact that women inspire less trust in certain professions is mainly due to their habits in perceiving roles and the fact that women themselves believe that there are professions in which they might not work – says Mariusz Skiba, senior consultant Randstad Technologies. – Entering typically male professions requires a lot of courage from women, because – at least in the beginning – it may condemn them to alienation.

At the Białystok University of Technology, the faculties of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering are the worst in terms of the proportion of women (female students constitute 7.38% of the total number of students, and that is still twice as many as 4 years ago). – For years, technical universities have been perceived as “typically male”, eagerly chosen by graduates of secondary technical schools: electrical, construction or mechanical – comments Agnieszka Halicka from the Białystok University of Technology.

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Henryk Krawczyń, rector of the Gdańsk University of Technology, emphasizes that his university relies on interdisciplinary teams. – I cannot imagine that there would be no female students in such teams! Their personal charm, predispositions to mitigate conflicts, as well as a solid approach and insightful solutions guarantee a better atmosphere at work – says the professor.

More and more female engineers

What happens next when educated women leave college and start looking for a job? Unfortunately, the last credible report on this subject was carried out by the Engineers Data Bank in 2011. According to him, the majority of women (75%) held specialist positions, 22% could boast the title of manager. Mr. However, all trends show that there are more and more women engineers.

– Much depends on the women themselves, whether they want to enter the competitions so far reserved for men – notes Mariusz Skiba. – This situation changes most quickly in environments where international teams, e.g. programmers, work. Attitudes related to filling engineering or IT positions are changing due to foreign trends, present not only in business, but also in widely understood customs.

Izabela Pilawska, a graduate of construction at the Lodz University of Technology, has never met in the humanities. – After consulting with my family, I made a decision that after the construction industry I would have the best chance for work – he says (today he is a road works inspector and deals with the Upper Route in Łódź). – There was no question of any kind of discrimination in my studies, and I was never treated relieved by my gender – the results counted.

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She admits that the beginning of her professional career was definitely the most difficult moment for her. – At the beginning of the 21st century there was a crisis in the construction industry and I saw that I had more problems with finding a job than my colleagues who completed the same studies – he recalls. – Fortunately, we were joining the EU at that time and many investments were planned. I decided to switch from building construction to road construction, which turned out to be a bull’s eye. In the company where I started working, the discrimination ended, probably also because the president was a woman. I was most afraid of how the workers would perceive me as a supervisor. Fortunately, the gentlemen pleasantly surprised me – he adds. – You just had to skilfully set the boundaries.

Piotr Kalsztyn