SWE - Spring 2009 - (Page 59)

ENGINEERING WORLD low on competence. By contrast, confident and ambitious male candidates are viewed as both competent and likable and therefore are more likely to be hired as managers than either confident or modest women. Julie E. Phelan, Ph.D., Corinne A. Moss-Racusin, and Laurie A. Rudman, Ph.D., of Rutgers University taped both male and female applicants interviewing for a position as a computer lab manager. All applicants presented themselves as competent, but also as either confident and ambitious or modest and cooperative. Participants then evaluated the applicants’ competence, social skills, and hirability. Results show how disparate hiring criteria further discriminate against ambitious, competent women. When judging the ambitious women’s hirability, a perceived lack of social skills formed the basis of the hiring decision, and the women’s high competence was relatively neglected. For ambitious men, however, perceived competence and interpersonal skills were weighed equally in the hiring decision. Women were doubly disadvantaged because even when female applicants adhered to stereotypic expectations by presenting themselves as modest, they were unlikely to be hired because evaluators emphasized their relatively low competence and discounted their (high) social skills. According to this research, women who seek managerial roles face a double bind. In order to be viewed as sufficiently qualified for leadership, they must present themselves as confident and ambitious. But if they do so, they risk prejudice for acting “unfeminine,” which can result in hiring discrimination. Thus, in performance settings where confidence and ambition are required to get ahead, men have a clear advantage. critical to expanding the engineering profession’s opportunities to collaborate globally. Thus, distance education, “while not new in itself,” he stated, “can provide new capacity in work-force development, one that opens the door to individual endeavor and accomplishment.” Before an international gathering of engineers, professional associations, and members of academia, Barlow said that engineering companies and research institutes build their reputations on “specialized knowledge that must be continually updated and shared across teams and generations.” The impact is great when learning is related to sustainable development. “Engineers must adjust to an ever-increasing learning curve The Key to Advancing Technology and Business According to Thomas M. Barlow, ASME president, training and human development are changing engineering education and are SWE SPRING 2009 59 http://pbsj.com http://pbsj.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of SWE - Spring 2009

SWE - Spring 2009 Heritage Club Contents President's Note View from the Executive Suite Editor’s Page Honoring Women’s History Public Policy Update First Lady: The “Second-Hardest Job in America” Bringing Science and Engineering into Public Policy At the Intersection of Engineering and Public Policy From Research to Reality Coffee Table Dialogues Membership Information & Calendar A&B Winning Essays from the Lava Lounge Engineering World: Issues • Events • Technology • People Point of View: Your Role in Public Policy Career Toolbox: Communicating with Congress; Finding Your Voice Corporate Partnership Council Media Shelf: Women’s History Opportunity Index SWE Scrapbook: Dressed for Success

SWE - Spring 2009

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