There's one important and true one on that list, which is number 12, and the "male" part of number 1 is also true and important. (The rest of this list is just weird and a bit silly, a five minute survey in Devonport Dockyard, for example, would turn up a huge range of rather different results. *)


I have done an (admittedly very small scale) empirical study of how many engineers have a parent who is an engineer, and it does seem to be true. For anyone who works in an office of engineers it's a very interesting one to try. It's not really surprising, engineer's work is very obscure to most people, so it's not that surprising that the children of engineers know rather more about it and so are more likely to consider it as a career. So for a non-engineer to inspire a daughter - or indeed child of any sex or gender - to become an engineer is hard, it's not just being inspired by the subject but also understanding what a career in it actually involves - which as Roy points out very well is actually a whole range of options.


The only answer I know for this one is for a whole range of us to go into schools as much as we can and show what we actually do day-to-day and how we got there (particularly those rather younger than I am). Work experience is of course good as well, but requires the student to be interested in engineering in the first place to want to apply for it. Any other suggestions would be VERY welcome.


But I also strongly believe that it's a good idea to interest our children in all sorts of things - including engineering - irrespective of where their future careers might go. (I really hate any idea that childhood experiences should all be about careers - life's much more interesting than that!) My son and daughter both seemed to gain a huge amount from the various engineering things we did together, some of which were rather extreme, even though I guessed from young ages that neither of them were likely to become engineers (which they didn't). The important thing is that they're both highly comfortable with technology.


In summary, all credit to the original poster for wanting to encourage their daughter 


Cheers,


Andy


* I scored 4 out of 12. 1, 3, 9 and 12. What was scarier was the fact that a survey of primary school children saw engineers as "a white, short, middle aged man with glasses and a beard." A: This is not true either for the average engineer in my experience, but B: oh dear...anyone who's met me will know why that hit a nerve...particularly the "short" bit.  

There's one important and true one on that list, which is number 12, and the "male" part of number 1 is also true and important. (The rest of this list is just weird and a bit silly, a five minute survey in Devonport Dockyard, for example, would turn up a huge range of rather different results. *)


I have done an (admittedly very small scale) empirical study of how many engineers have a parent who is an engineer, and it does seem to be true. For anyone who works in an office of engineers it's a very interesting one to try. It's not really surprising, engineer's work is very obscure to most people, so it's not that surprising that the children of engineers know rather more about it and so are more likely to consider it as a career. So for a non-engineer to inspire a daughter - or indeed child of any sex or gender - to become an engineer is hard, it's not just being inspired by the subject but also understanding what a career in it actually involves - which as Roy points out very well is actually a whole range of options.


The only answer I know for this one is for a whole range of us to go into schools as much as we can and show what we actually do day-to-day and how we got there (particularly those rather younger than I am). Work experience is of course good as well, but requires the student to be interested in engineering in the first place to want to apply for it. Any other suggestions would be VERY welcome.


But I also strongly believe that it's a good idea to interest our children in all sorts of things - including engineering - irrespective of where their future careers might go. (I really hate any idea that childhood experiences should all be about careers - life's much more interesting than that!) My son and daughter both seemed to gain a huge amount from the various engineering things we did together, some of which were rather extreme, even though I guessed from young ages that neither of them were likely to become engineers (which they didn't). The important thing is that they're both highly comfortable with technology.


In summary, all credit to the original poster for wanting to encourage their daughter 


Cheers,


Andy


* I scored 4 out of 12. 1, 3, 9 and 12. What was scarier was the fact that a survey of primary school children saw engineers as "a white, short, middle aged man with glasses and a beard." A: This is not true either for the average engineer in my experience, but B: oh dear...anyone who's met me will know why that hit a nerve...particularly the "short" bit.