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Women in Technology
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Business New Haven
2/8/1999
By: Susan Banfield
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Everyone has memories from high school or college of young male nerds who were utterly absorbed by math or physics courses, guys who were happiest spending long hours at the computer lab or with their books. They probably went on to become engineers or software developers, pursuing technical careers they loved as much as they once loved their studies.
But what about young women who fit the same description? Women lawyers, doctors, and MBAs are today almost as
common as men in those same fields - but what about women “techies”? Has women's lib managed to infiltrate the world of technology?
The answer is that there are women in technical careers, as good at and passionate about their jobs as the men they work with. However, their numbers are not great. And neither are they growing.
Some women in technical fields knew from a young age that that was what they wanted to do. “I was one of those amazing individuals who know what they want to be when they are very young,” says Dot Gallager, vice president of pharmacology at Neurogen Corp. Gallager says she decided at the age of 11 or 12 that she wanted to be a scientist. She had the benefit of encouragement from her father, an engineer, who always challenged her when she asked about how something worked, to say how she thought it worked.
Susan Thomas, a mechanical engineer at Sikorsky, was always very interested in math and science, an interest she inherited from her father, an engineer at Pratt & Whitney.
Other women needed more of a push to unlock their latent love for science. Carol Coppa, a civil engineer who is the IT project coordinator for Northeast Utilities, entered college as a history major. However, she had never enjoyed writing papers, and had always built models for her projects when she could.
“A good friend [a young man] who wanted to be an industrial arts teacher turned to me and said, 'Why don't you go into industrial arts? We need more women in industrial arts,' recalls Coppa. “It was like someone switched on a light,” she says.
Coppa shortly thereafter switched her major to engineering, and found she loved it. “I felt ready to conquer the world coming out of that program,” she says of the two-year associate degree program she earned at Hartford Technical College.
Whether they were involved in technical studies from an early age, or whether they came to them somewhat later, women in technology seem almost universally to love what they do.
Susan Thomas works in Sikorsky's test engineering department, testing everything from small mechanical components to full helicopter systems. “It's never boring,” she says. “I get a great deal of satisfaction being able to find answers to problems, solving problems.”
Connie Galley, CEO of TSI, echoes Thomas by saying of her field that, “There are very interesting and demanding problems to solve every day. If you love to solve puzzles, it's fun.”
Saydean Zeldin is vice president of research and development at TSI. Earlier, while working at MIT, Zeldin wrote the software for the Apollo command module's return to earth. Solving problems is also a big attraction for Zeldin. She says she especially enjoys designing generic solutions to problems.
Dot Gallager describes her job as the fulfillment of her life's dream. “My lifetime dream was to develop medications for diseases [for which] there are not effective medications,” she says. While in high school, Gallager worked in a laboratory in a resident psychiatric institution. She was struck by how ineffective the medications used for schizophrenics and others seemed to be.
Today, at Neurogen, she is actively involved in developing and perfecting drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders.
Some women who have been out in the field for a number of years encountered problems of prejudice and mistrust earlier on. But most women have had positive experiences interacting with their male colleagues, especially in recent years.
When Thomas first arrived at Sikorsky 15 years ago, she recalls that men would blow their air guns as she walked down the production aisle.
“It was very intimidating,” she remembers. But, she adds, “I think it's changed a lot. I personally have had a lot of good experiences. I feel very accepted. It's like having a lot of big brothers.”
Zeldin says when she first started out, back in the 1960s, she was just about the only woman in physics. “Since there were no other women, no one treated me badly,” she says.
“There was a time when men felt you were really threatening,” says Coppa, “but if you're serious about your work, they'll take you seriously.” She adds that “There has definitely been a cultural change.”
While there is little prejudice these days about women entering technical fields, the numbers doing so are still quite low - with the exception of the biological sciences (Gallager points out that today 40 percent of degrees in life sciences are awarded to women, and notes that at Neurogen half the workforce is female).
Stephen Morse, professor of electrical engineering at Yale, says, “The number is not going up; it is small.” He also adds that the majority of women are international - from Poland, Russia, China.
Lester Lipsky, a professor of computer science at the University of Connecticut, has been teaching since 1968. “In the first few years women were willing to come in - a third of the students were women. Over the years, fewer and fewer women have come in.” Lipsky adds that, in addition, “The quality of the women isn't what it used to be.”
TSI's Connie Galley reinforces Lipsky's impression. “There are far fewer women in computer science,” she says.
Carol Coppa offers a plausible explanation: “I think there was a trend in the '80s to get away from curricula that were a little tougher.” Certainly, technical fields require hard work.
Many women in technology are actively involved in encouraging young women who show an interest in their fields to pursue their studies. Coppa and Thomas are both active members of the Society of Women Engineers. “I have spoken a lot for different school groups,” says Coppa. “I rarely turn down an opportunity to speak.”
Science education is a field of keen interest to Dot Gallager. She tries to expose middle-school students to the actual methods used in biotechnology, and takes a great deal of satisfaction in watching young people enter the field.
Connie Galley takes pains to point out what great career opportunities there are in computer science for women. “I think it's a tremendous field for women. It's very exciting - even in sales.”
She adds that there are many opportunities which are not purely technical, which allow women to employ other skills besides those involved in creating software: Workers are needed to sell, document work done, communicate about research, etc. BNH
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