women's difficulties in achieving what some men take for granted.

from the title of the post.

Which is nice.

Thanks for posting!

I expected the usual "This is our field / Only here because of political correctness / They go easier on you / Not a real engineer" screed. I was pleasantly surprised!

him

Pleasant surprise!

Obviously a young person too.

The women engineers and other technical women in my department are promoted and given job assignments on par. Glad I work for a company that values people for their brains.

Less so at the highest levels, but it's not non-existent. Since there are actually laws regarding this corporate behavior, i'm surprised we're surprised!

The chauvinist people have been minimized and are retiring over time. Basically they were bullies to everyone. So the net result is a less sexist and less racist work environment. Less BS, more productivity.

I have a beautiful 20 something daughter who would love to meet this guy.

in this context.

For several years now the number of women accepted to our university law school has exceeded the number of men accepted.

nt

and dashed to the Google machine in an attempt to disprove it's authenticity.

That's a sad commentary on the quality of men I know.... and a credit to Jered Mauldin for being a young man of incredible insight.

Thanks for posting.

K & R

I started off as an engineering major back in the Dark Ages, and women in the field were more rare back then. I think my specific engineering major started off with around 85 men and 12 women in the group as first year students. The sophomore group that had been through a year had seen every woman but three drop out. I think they had started off with a similar number of women.

While it was a tough major that had attrition every year (like me after 1 year), it obviously wasn't a 75% rate for guys like it was for women. I'm sure some of the women left because they were made to feel unwelcome by a group of the guys and maybe some of the professors. (Note - most of the guys were probably thrilled they had women in their engineering and engineering related classes, but there was likely a group of men that turned them off to engineering, or at least that major)

It's definitely gotten better since the 1980s, but there is still a long ways to go in fields that have been traditionally male dominated.

He doesn't really mean any of it.

(Snark, as if it was necessary)

". . .are not threatened by women seeking equality"

Jared Mauldin is a real man of quality.

I always tell people that I'm thrilled my wife makes more money than me. I'd almost think it was crazy to be threatened by that. I have a pretty good job, and if she makes more than me, it means we're doing pretty well overall.

I'll eat my hat.

This was an excellent editorial! Kick and Rec!!!

Engineers are ethical.

which is why we need more of them in Congress.

Even if they seem a little odd at times.

Disclaimer: until now, I had not been fully aware that there were two John Sununus. I did not know that the one who was in the Senate was the son of the one I was thinking of.

John H. Sununu

Thanks for posting

Not at all what I expected. Thanks so much for posting this, kpete!

Out of the park...

Faith in humanity, restored!

What else can I say...

I really appreciate this letter.

By the time I started in 1980, a third of our entering class were women, and by the time I graduated the freshmen were 50/50.

i salute these talented, brave, exceptional women.

Bravo!

Equality for all, now please.

My daughter already learned this!

Thank you.

going to have this letter hung around his neck for the rest of his life. Then, at the end, he flips the perception of his letter. And, I thought "oh yes", this smart guy is going to have this letter hung around his neck for the rest of his life.

...pricks that get in the news.

I just love it when people get it!

I'm a civil engineer and one of my favorite PMs is woman. Plus she's real cool. She just came back from climbing Mt Kilimanjaro.

The structural engineer to teach me all about retaining walls (one of my specialties) was a woman.

A female engineer also broke my heart.

Two out of three ain't bad.

The old boys network of professional administrators (non-engineers) got a hurting put on their fun and games miss-management style. Karma and justice in one feisty package. Things that were common sense obvious for years became reality.

not so much because it's rare for a man to understand the onslaught of subtle slights that women endure, but in the
ways I've failed to understand the effect of them on myself as a woman. This letter, and even more so his response to the letter being praised really hit some unconscious sore spots.

Jared tells the Ms. Blog:

I really enjoyed this response from Jared. His wife is a lucky woman. I grew up with some extremely smart and talented women in grade and high school, which means that my class scores were always lower than theirs so always felt inferior. I'm so happy that this guy 'gets it'.

As a retired Mechanical Designer with more than forty years of experience, I have seen how poorly female engineers are treated. Women always had to do more to prove that they were capable and many of the male engineers were terrified that a woman might succeed and be promoted to a senior position.

Misogyny was a fact of life in all the companies I worked for. There were unwritten policies that no female engineers were allowed. The excuse was that women would create sexual tension and disrupt the work place. Some of the larger companies had female engineers but they were few and far between.

Some women (Carly Fiorina comes to mind) are really hurtful for the advancement of females in any technical business after she ran HP into the ground.