Female engineers are in the minority at most universities, and LSU is no exception. 

Although the College of Engineering is the largest college on campus with 4,093 students as of fall 2019, only 886 are female. The gap has not deterred the women in engineering at LSU.

Environmental engineering junior and Society of Women Engineers Treasurer Gabrielle Langlois acknowledged the difficulties of walking into a classroom of mostly male students. 

“There is a lot of time you work with guys and they assume your role, which I don’t really sit well with. I think the thing that’s got me through is that I’m direct,” Langlois said. 

Women in engineering are able to find community in organizations such as the Society of Women Engineer (SWE). This club brings in representatives from companies to network and speak with members. 

“We bring in companies to come in and recruit our members directly and we network them and work on our professional development,” Langlois said. “It’s having women coming talk to us not only recruiting us […] but also these girls will come in and give us really good advice.”

Mechanical engineering junior Sofia Greenwood said she is thankful for the organization for providing insight on post-University life. Company speakers demonstrate that women can get the jobs and recognition they deserve. 

“We have these meetings with these companies with SWE, they’ve actually brought in male representatives and it’s been a lot more progressive,” Greenwood said.  “It’s nice to know leaving LSU I’m going to be able to experience that.”

Greenwood also finds support through surrounding herself with other engineering undergraduate women. While she was previously struggling to find someone to talk to within her major, she was recently paired with a mentor who has been helping her with problems specific to being a female student in the College of Engineering. 

The  University often brings in women to speak to their students, according to Associate Director of Diversity Initiatives Sarah Jones. It also holds a networking dinner in partnership with SWE called Women Impacting Success in Engineering, where all LSU women in engineering get an opportunity to network with corporate partners.

Greenwood has a passion for dance but ultimately decided to pursue engineering. She is able to keep her love of the arts alive with her minor in dance and use her strengths in math and physics to pursue engineering. While she is glad, she chose this path, it can be challenging.

“I was always scared to go to office hours whenever I had a male teacher because I had a bad experience previously where I basically left feeling dumb and I don’t know if it was because he saw me as a girl trying to do this or saw me as a weak link,” Greenwood said.

As many as 61% of female engineers reported they felt like they had to prove themselves repeatedly to get the same level and respect as their colleagues, according to the Society of Women Engineers website. 

The University has female engineering professors and staff, but they out numbered. Both Langlois and Greenwood each report having only one female professor in their three years at the University. 

“We have 20 females in the college, someone in every department,” Jones said. The number includes only full-time instructors, no female graduate assistants. 

Langlois has been doing research since her freshman year and this has given her a love for research and has made her want to go to graduate school.

While women comprise only 11% of the engineering workforce according to the Women’s Engineering Society, that number has been steadily increasing over the past few years. Women like Langlois and Greenwood hope to be apart of the change and see statistics continually improve.