The Society of Women Engineers wants women to embrace their femininity – and if that’s while working on an oil rig, all the better.
The University’s SWE chapter hosted their seventh annual Women Impacting Style in Engineering networking night and fashion show March 22, bringing together female students from engineering, computer science, construction management and other male-dominated fields. Roughly 140 students networked with company representatives, alumnae and faculty members, as they learned what it’s like to be a woman in the field.
Biological engineering senior Alex Lassard, the University’s Society of Women Engineers chapter president, said a goal of the annual WISE event is to liberate women from appearance-based stereotypes. Many women in engineering and similar fields feel like they have to dress masculinely to be professional, but the WISE event shows you can be professional and show off your individual style, she said.
Style and dress are major components that contribute to comfort and confidence in the workplace, Lassard said. It’s important for women to know they can be themselves.
The WISE event shows women how they can strike the right style balance in a variety of settings, Lassard said. The fashion show included interview looks, a company tailgate look and everyday work wear.
Clothes can set the tone when you walk into a room. Because women may walk into interviews already at a disadvantage, it’s important to send a message of professionalism and confidence, she said.
“We want them to be chosen because their heads are right and they know what they’re doing — because our students do,” Lassard said. “They are just as capable of doing this job as any one of the male engineers at LSU and across the industry.”
For University alumna Jaime Glas, being fashionable and being professionally capable aren’t mutually exclusive.
Glas, a 2012 petroleum engineering graduate, is the founder and CEO of Hot Stuff Safety Wear, a female centric clothing company producing flame retardant jumpsuits for female engineers. When Glas first donned coveralls in the field, she said she knew the industry could do better.
Current coverall offerings are tailored to men, making them ill-fitting and uncomfortable for female engineers, she said. With women already a minority in the discipline, having clothes undermine their confidence in the workplace is detrimental, Glas said.
Glas’ coveralls are inspired by contemporary designs, bringing a fashionable and trendy edge to a safety industry staple. Glas used different collar and zipper styles, drawstrings and removable hoodies to provide options to women.
The looks are currently designed by Glas and The Brand Developers, an Omega Apparel-owned design firm in Nashville, Tennessee, with manufacturing done in Eunice, Louisiana. The line will officially open to the public in June.
Her line has four styles – Free, Fierce, Fever and Flex – as well as a pair of flame retardant overalls paired with a flame retardant t-shirt. The line comes in over a dozen colors, most with names inspired by female engineering friends and mentors in Glas’ life.
Glas said she wanted to honor and celebrate the women who helped her in life and her career because her female support network has been crucial to her success.
When you begin to doubt yourself, it’s invaluable to have women who understand who are just a phone call or email away, Glas said.
Events such as WISE are important to help young women gain confidence and see the career options available to them, she said.
“In our industry women have to support each other and build each other up,” Glas said. “It’s very easy to get discouraged when you’re the only woman in a room of 20 men.”
Glas said she hopes women feel empowered to embrace both their intelligence and femininity in the workplace when her line goes public. Glas said she knows women sometimes feel they need to hide their femininity for fear of being objectified or not taken seriously, but since embarking on this project she said she has received only support from her male co-workers.
“You can be a beautiful woman and still work in a man’s field,” she said. “You can prove to them with your brain and your confidence that you are smart and you know what you’re talking about.”
