IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2013 - 23

engineers at IBM-she could "speak
their language."
Collins' experiences working in multiple cultures allowed her to easily compare and contrast the different working
styles and approaches. She found that
many of the differences applied both in
and out of the workplace. The Europeans that Beth encountered were very
conscious of taking time off and tended to have a better work-life balance
than colleagues in the United States.
However, many of her German colleagues did not have children, possibly
due to their demanding job roles that
make it difficult to be home during the
middle of the day when school children
come home for lunch.
The stricter male-female protocols
and hierarchy that is at the core of Japanese society is also evidenced consistently inside the workplace. Collins found
IBM to be somewhat of an exception;
when she was working in Japan most
women were in nontechnical fields, and
women engineers were rare. Most of the
women in the workforce were young
since, traditionally, many Japanese
women stopped working once they married and had children.
Interestingly, the experiences of all
three of these interviewees revealed both
gender and cultural differences, though
neither were obstacles for them, personally. Each of our interviewees very
clearly articulated the challenges and
the gender-related issues, figured out
a method of overcoming them, and
moved on. The ability to do this-to
acknowledge, accept, and move on-is
a common trait we saw among all of our
interviewees. These women are resilient
and tough, do not dwell on the things
they cannot change, solve situations for
themselves, and find a way to keep moving forward. These traits, we believe, are
key to female success in technical fields.

Asia
The women we interviewed to provide us with a perspective on working
in Asia and Australia (A/A) have a wide
range of experiences and educational
backgrounds. As noted in our introduction, we had five women who have

fields opening up in China for women
connections with A/A by birth, heritage,
and management appearing to many
education, and/or working experience.
women to be an easier "climb up the ladIn explaining how they became interder" than staying in the technical fields.
ested in and entered their field, all five
Childress observed that, in Australia,
of our participants in the A/A geography
women are not pushed to enter sciresponded with a common answer-
ence and math, and women who have
that computer science/engineering/IT
advanced have done so by pursuing busiis the job of the future, with excellent
ness degrees and M.B.A.s. This
opportunity for growth and job
observation by Childress is
availability [11]. This same
corroborated by the statisresponse has been docuMany
tics quoted in our intromented ma ny times
women decide
duction [4].
in the literature as a
early in their
T he c ou nt r y in
reason for entering
which one works also
t he f ield. Ja ne Xu
careers to move
has an influence on
described her rationale
over to the
the work environment.
for entering the field:
business side.
Lee, Xu, and Childress
she was good at math
have all had experiences
and science, it was a growworking outside the United
ing field, and it appeared to
States. Childress observed that in
have great opportunities for excitAustralia there seems to be a natural
ing and meaningful work. Coming from
disregard for titles and authority. Saying
China in the early 1980s, Xu's own peryou are a "distinguished engineer" in
sonal drive led her to leave China and
Australia does not bring the recognition
pursue advanced degrees at the Universiit brings in the United States, and you
ty of Hawaii and the University of Southare more apt to be challenged. Lee, who
ern California. She did this despite the
worked in Hong Kong in 2004, observed
fact that her husband could not leave
that work-life balance was not regarded
China, which led to them being sepaas important there. Lee had been in the
rated for five years. Xu also shared that
United States for nearly 20 years, where
her early decision to enter the STEM
there was considerable accommodation
fields was due to a desire to help humanfor working women with children. In
ity. Her early role model was Madame
Hong Kong, although it was the same
Curie, but Xu chose computer science
company, the expectation was that you
instead of chemistry, since computing
took care of your personal life and did
appeared to be the future of science.
not bring it into the workplace, echoBoth Dong Dong Wang and Hosheng
ing Hong Kong's British culture and
Lee echoed similar lines of thinking in
heritage. The expectation was that your
choosing their direction. Good at math
family, and your extended family, was
and science, they looked for a way to use
there to assist you.
their skills for their career and so purOn the China mainland, where Xu
sued degrees in computer science and
worked for several years, there has
engineering.
been a major shift toward capitalism
Both Rhonda Childress, who worked
and expanded opportunity over the
in Australia, and Xu, who worked in
last decade, with women taking roles
China from 2005 to 2009 establishing
in science and technology that previIBM's Systems Lab in Shanghai, noted
ously were not open to them. This was
an interesting fact about women's lack
very different from the China that Xu
of longevity in computer science and
left to pursue her degrees. This modern
engineering. Many women decide early
view of China was reinforced by Wang,
in their careers to pursue management
who has recently entered the IT field in
or get a degree such as an M.B.A. and
China. Wang commented that she felt
move over to the business side. Xu's
it was a level playing field between men
observation on why this happens in
and women in IT. Comments by our
China dealt with factors such as more

June 2013

iEEE women in engineering magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2013