Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 26-1 - 23

womenI&M
in
Ferdinanda Ponci
The Women Side of Diversity in the IMS
T
he elimination of the barriers related to gender that
influence participation in technical and professional
activities and the active pursuit of gender diversity
and inclusivity is one side of the rise of diversity, equity and inclusion
in all forms in IEEE and in the IEEE
Instrumentation and Measurement Society
(IMS).
Participation, leadership, technical and
professional contribution, awards, visibility,
and recognition; women's share is on
the rise, and this is good news for a broadly
diverse, inclusive, and equitable community
in Instrumentation and Measurement
(I&M) and beyond.
Here are some thoughts to turn into
" actions " in the workplace and one's own
community, and some examples to inspire.
IMS Leads the Way
The barriers to the participation of women in technical and
professional activities in I&M are partly those shared with
other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM) disciplines, and engineering in particular, and also
partly linked to the specifics of the I&M field and the IEEE IMS.
While some have been overcome, others are still in force.
Extensive literature covers the general barriers of STEM
subjects. Women in STEM fields suffer from barriers related
to upbringing, family and society expectations, the arguments
used to attract students in STEM program, difficulty
in explaining the role of I&M, as well as the fact that in many
education programs, no sharp definition of I&M exists in the
classical education tracks (i.e., no degree name, mixture of
fields of applications, courses sparse in different faculties).
The latter two factors may interfere with expectations of the
group surrounding the individual (i.e., family, friends, teachers,
others) and female individuals in particular. In fact, the
questioning that female potential engineers are subject to (the
questioning being a recognized hurdle factor in literature)
may be strengthened by the unclear articulation (to non-engineers
and non-scientists) of the function, sector, and job of the
I&M expert.
The specifics of I&M are difficult to quantify as this field
does not appear as a typical label in institutional surveys, and
February 2023
the sector related to control and instrumentation, for example,
has fewer women than other engineering sectors. Academic
research in I&M may be the exception.
The barriers for women to enter a poorly diversified sector
may be found in the lack of role models, implicit bias, misconceptions
of the type of professional opportunities (e.g., job in
industrial plants with shifts), and the perception that career
advancement is difficult/weak/impossible.
Composition and leadership of professional societies that
do not implement diversity-affirming actions do not benefit
from diversity. Often the motivation for a professional to become
a member, and a member to become a volunteer and
a leader, goes through the existing professional networks,
which suffer from lack of women and female role models. The
presence of a critical mass of females and female advocates
will break this barrier for good, and this is what the IMS has
achieved.
Noticeably, the development of I&M technologies is affected
by the gender of the user, the developer and the subject
(when a human) in various ways. In the medical sector sensor
ranges, sensor and device wearability, models and more, are
gender-dependant and have gender-related aspects that are
often overlooked. The IMS community is very active in this
sector, see for example the related special session papers at
IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Industry 4.0 & IoT.
Besides, instrument co-location, interfaces, physical manipulation
needs, and in general reachability and accessibility may
also be affected by gender.
Goals on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and promoting
women as the spearheading leaders, are key factors to the
development of the IMS. They are the drivers of most of our
current initiatives, and the target of a good portion of the IMS
expenditures in this area. Women are the first group that first
and most easily can " lead the charge " , and open the way for
other diversities (other than gender) to be included (e.g., from
geographic diversity, to physical abilities, etc.). This focus
makes it possible to reach out to people who can enrich the I&M
field via writing for and reading IMS publications, attending
IMS conferences, participating in IMS Technical Committees,
offering and using IMS educational opportunities, serving as
volunteers, nominating for and receiving Awards, forming
and leading IMS Chapters, strengthening the networking and
introduce new ways to achieve all of these goals.
IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine
1094-6969/23/$25.00©2023IEEE
23
Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 26-1

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