Women engineers are among the most underrepresented people in STEM. Some of the in STEM can be seen in the technical field. Women consist of professionals in the fields of architecture and engineering.
Technology is a diverse field. It includes specialties such as mechanics, software, chemistry, energy and biomedical engineering. Women are not equally represented in technical fields; research shows that women are most likely to be environmental engineers.
Meet women in STEM who are making waves in a variety of engineering fields, while also building a more equitable and inclusive future for women engineers.
Kylie Taitano: Software engineering
is an engineering manager at Intuit. Originally from Guam, she remembers being without power for months as typhoons hit the area.
When she was eleven, her family moved to San Diego, California, and she knew immediately that she wanted to go to college there. Taitano initially thought she would study aerospace engineering.
“My backup choice was computer science because I loved playing video games, but coding wasn’t even in my vocabulary at the time,” she explains.
She was accepted into the program and became a software engineer. Before her management role, Taitano was a , meaning she specialized in both front- and back-end development.
“It’s so easy to have (a) good impact on hundreds, thousands, millions of people,” she says.
According to Taitano, being a software engineer is not as complicated as some people make it out to be. “You really don’t need any special expertise to be a software engineer,” she says.
She tells Built By Girls, a San Diego-based nonprofit she founded to empower girls to pursue technology, incorporates real-world situations into their coding education curriculum to appeal to participants without prior coding experience.
“I didn’t know coding when I went to college. So it was very dry… and it was hard to keep up with the pace. When we teach our coding classes through Code with Her, we try to make it fun,” she says.
Sydney Floryazia is currently a PhD student in chemical engineering and has advice for other female engineers. Engineering is one of the STEM fields where women are most underrepresented.
Sydney Floryanzia: Chemical Technology
is a chemical engineer and PhD candidate at the University of Washington. Floryanzia works in Dr.’s laboratory. Elizabeth Nance and studies the .
“I study three of them (the neurons of the brain). They form the so-called blood-brain barrier, so they line the inside of your capillaries and protect your brain tissue,” explains Floryanzia.
Growing up, her mother, who worked as a career counselor, encouraged Floryanzia to try engineering. She gave an ultimatum: go to an engineering camp and try it out; if she didn’t like it, her mother wouldn’t bring it up again.
“I’m going to camp. I’m not trying. I think I did this, haha, take it, mom,” Floryanzia laughs. “But in the closing session, this woman stands up and talks about the… One of the challenges was reverse engineering the brain, and how this could possibly be achieved by studying the effects of music,” she recalls.
In this context, hearing about music, one of her other interests, caught her attention and changed her view of technology forever.
Now a chemical engineer, Floryanzia says her field centers around two things. “I define chemical engineering as a liquid in a pipe. So if that liquid is a blood solution with a drug in it, and that pipe is a capillary, now we’re talking about medicine for the body,” she explains.
The other part of chemical technology consists of processes: the study of systems, inputs and outputs.
“Having a process approach is one of the things I like about chemical engineering,” she says, adding that this perspective can also be useful for professionals in other fields. “A whole big wide world opens up for you once you get a degree in chemical engineering!”
As an Engineering Manager at Spotify, one of Taylor Poindexter’s favorite parts of her job is supporting other engineers.
Taylor Poindexter: technical management
is an Engineering Manager at Spotify and leads a team of software engineers.
“Originally, I thought I wanted to be a doctor or a marketing professional,” she tells Built By Girls. “A family friend asked me what I thought about software engineering, and I thought, ‘Actually, I don’t think this is for someone like me.'”
After more encouragement from that person, she decided to try it out.
“I hated it, but I enjoyed the software development journey,” she recalls. “(I) changed my major to computer science incredibly late in college.”
Poindexter specializes in the work that happens on the backend of software development. Poindexter is now a manager and doesn’t code every day, but she supports other engineers.
“When I started my career in software development, I had the unfortunate experience of working under a manager who was not a good manager,” she says. Early career experiences can be especially influential for women in tech. It is estimated that they leave the field or never enter the profession.
“I love that I get to work with people who I can support in their career journey, ensuring they have a psychologically safe space to build their career.”
Her early experiences with software engineering also inspired her to start , an organization that supports Black software engineers through community gatherings and networking. Poindexter and her co-founders were surprised to discover that thousands of Black software engineers in Washington DC were interested in their initiative.
“It has honestly been one of the best parts of my career and has introduced me to people that I truly believe I would never have met without Black Code Collective.”
Inspire the next generation of engineers
Despite working in different technical fields, these women have at least one thing in common: they are invested in building a better workspace for the next generation of engineers.
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help,” Floryanzia emphasizes. “Know when to give up on the problem, but don’t abandon the major.”
Meanwhile, Poindexter emphasizes the importance of building a strong network. “Especially as a woman of color, I have leveraged my network a lot… to ensure that I continue to work in psychologically safe spaces.”
She adds that women in tech must be willing to stand up for themselves. “Be deliberate and vocal about what you want in your career,” she asserts. “Do you want a promotion? Tell your boss and ask him…exactly what he or she would need to see from you to feel comfortable taking you to the next level.”
Taitano wants future engineers to remember that the right opportunity will present itself at the right time. “Success is when preparation meets opportunity,” she says, reciting her favorite life quote.
“You also need luck to be successful,” Taitano adds. “For those fortunate enough to be successful… please create opportunities for others.”
