Entrepreneurial women engineers
gyfirms, as a look a t tbefaces of the top management in such companies quickly confirms. It is true that the pool of technically trained women to bring into the top ranks of management i s small. IM the United States, less than one in ten engineers i s a woman. Worldwide, the number is even smaller, Even 50,far less than 10 percent of tbe chief executive officers and chief technical officers in high-tech U.S. firms are women To become an engineer or a scientist in tbefirst place, a woman needs more than brains and interest. She also needs the actioe encouragement of teachers aizd t b e support of family members to counteract the pervasive impression that women are simply not good a t math aizd science But once through school and into an industrial environment, many women engineers report that technical competence and congeniality alone are inadequate for survival, let alone for success. In fact, vigilance, bulldog determination, and fierce independence are necessary dtfenses against t h e subliminal messages of inferiority, indifference, and isolation that are often sentfrom colleagues and managers This "water torture," as one wornan engineer calls it, causes many wornen to quietly leave the profession. But, for some women, entreprerzeurship may be a rewarding alternative. To answer the question ofwhat professional qualifications and personal characteristics a woman needs to start and run a successful engineering business, IEEE Spectrum recently convened a muidtable oJ entrepreneurial women engineers. At the most basic level, the women felt tbat the requirements f o r entrepreneurial success are the samefor women and men. Beyond the minimum requirements of aptitude, determination, and independence i s the need for exberience and contacts. And these things Pat Nelson [M), founder, Nelson Electronics Inc., Ellicott City, Md , afirm tbat represents manufacturers of electronic componentsfor military and telecommunications systems. Shari Lawrence Pfleeger [MI, president of SystemslSoftwnre Inc., Wasbington, D.C., a consulting firm tbat sDecializes in the eoaluation of technology effectiveness. She is O M the editorial board of IEEE Spectrum and is associate editor-in-chief of IEEE Software magazine. Linda Weaver [SM), cofounder of TecKnowledge Healthcare Systems Inc , Halifax, N. S., Canada, which provides technology products and consulting services to the healthcare community She is the Director of the IEEE Region 7 [Canada) and the President of IEEE Canada.