In 2017, Google fired one of their engineers for disparaging female engineering abilities. His memo became public, a heated discussion arose about diversity, and then he was fired. However, the company settled his unlawful termination case. Probably because he had almost 100 years of research backing his assertions.
Would I Make a Good Engineer?
Engineering careers demand the highest scores in two very specific driving aptitudes or abilities: Spatial Theory and Spatial Visualization, but also Design Memory. The Highland’s Ability Battery test can help you discover whether you possess these traits.
In other words, these traits come naturally, like thirst and hunger, and there is a push inside to express these abilities.
The Highlands Ability Battery is an aptitude test.
Females score far lower on average than men because hormones tend to affect the expression of this ability. Women score differently on the SRV test at different times in their cycle. *See link at the bottom of this post.
Race Factors into Engineering Abilities
In fact, Caucasians score far higher on engineering abilities than any other racial group. That can be explained in part by epigenetics (the way the environment changes genetic expression). In other words, those persons without the ability to engineer homes to withstand heavy snows of the north died out and so the gene pool among northern Europeans was left with primarily engineering related genetics.
Sadly, in this day and age, the Spatial Visualization ability is coming under assault because men possess this quality and women do not. It’s not surprising that we are seeing a rise in depression and anxiety or numbing behaviors among males. They possess significantly higher scores than women making it “driving” in them. They may even turn to gaming to relieve the need to manipulate hands, which causes depression, anxiety, or other mentally dysfunctional behaviors.
I, Marjorie Wall-Hofer, founder and CEO of TestEts, had this ability first tested in high school. Back then they didn’t understand the full expression or need function of it. I was just told I could do physics. I chose not to because not many women were taking the course at the time so I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it either.
Driving abilities generally get passed down from father to daughter and mother to son. Therefore, if male, you will likely share more abilities in common with your maternal grandfather than with your father. If female, you will likely share more driving abilities in common with your paternal grandmother.
Women Meeting the Engineering Quota
Women with the engineering profile tend to prefer to enter into human systems engineering such as clinical psychology, behavioral therapy, or human systems research. One client with high intelligence and the engineering profile was pursued in high school by Harvard and MIT and Stanford. This irritated her greatly because she felt that she was sought out only because she was a woman with the ability to do engineering. Well, there was great truth to that. Both companies and educational institutions are trying to increase the number of women engineers. While they have no quotas, there is a public perception that there is intentional inequality in engineering jobs.
The inequality in engineering programs and companies is not about bias as much as it is simply lack of ability.
Interested in learning more about the Google engineer or women in engineering? Click here: https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/8/8/16106728/google-fired-engineer-anti-diversity-memo