Running head: BREAKING BARRIERS

Women Breaking Barriers in Engineering

Renata Lopez
University of Texas at El Paso
RWS 1302 Research and Critical Writing
Paul Vierra

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In the past few years, there has been a major number increase of women enrolling in
engineering fields. More universities around the country are graduating higher numbers of
female engineers compared to previous years, but not enough. The following two genres discuss
the subject of female underrepresentation in engineering and how women are trying to change
this. Zane Schwartzs scholarly journal, Do the Math, states the concern of women engineers not
excelling in engineering leadership roles compared to their male counterparts (2015, para. 1).
The reason for few women taking engineering leadership roles compared to men is directly tied
with the fact that there are fewer women working as engineers than men. The second genre is a
video by TEDxPSU where engineer Debbie Sterling, the speaker of Inspiring the Next
Generation of Female Engineers claims, I dont fit in, but I believe our little girls will
(Sterling, 2013, 2:36). Sterling mentions that as a woman she did not fit in her engineering
classes and at her work. Although women do face bias in engineering, fitting in or not fitting in a
certain group, in this case engineering, depends on the group, and on the person joining the
group. These genres will be analyzed in the following essay discussing the genres themselves
and their relation to the main subject. This essay will also show that the scholarly journal is a
better scholarly source than the video.
Audience and Purpose
Audience and purpose are the basis for any genre. Audience refers to whom is the work
intended to, while the purpose is what does the author wants the audience to do with the
information presented with his or her work. The first genre, Zane Schwartzs Do the Math is a
scholarly journal published on April 2015. The intended audience for this genre is other scholars,
male and female engineers interested in the topic. The journal is mainly raising awareness
towards its audience about the bias and sexism in engineering towards women. While making the

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audience aware of such, the author is indirectly convincing the audience that something has to be
done in order to improve womens opportunities in the engineering field, specifically to stop the
stereotype of women being incapable of juggling home and work (Schwartz, 2015, para. 4).
Before reading the article the audience is likely to be already informed of the inequality that
women face in the workplace, but want a deeper understanding of some of the reasons for it, as
well as reasoning behind why have women not excelled in leadership roles within engineering
compared to their male counterparts. The genre is not long, and contains plenty of information
such as quotes and claims from varying scholars, engineers, and percentages. For example,
There are now 22 Canada Excellence Research Chairs: 21 men and one woman (Schwartz,
2015, para. 13). Because of so, the reader has to read the information carefully in order to obtain
a clear understanding of what the author is trying to get across to its audience. Schwartz journal
is written in formal language, Although Alex Benay, CEO of the Canada Science and
Technology Museum, which houses the Hall of Fame, said (Schwartz, 2015, para. 15). This
type of language is appropriate not only to the genre itself but also to the audience of the genre
because a scholarly journal is most likely to attract a scholar and a highly educated audience.
The scholarly journal and the video have different audiences and purposes. TEDxPSU
published Inspiring the Next Generation of Female Engineers with Debbie Sterling as the
speaker on YouTube in April 2013, is the second genre. Unlike the scholarly journal, the
intended audience for the video is people interested in engineering, and parents. While the
purpose for the scholarly journal is mainly to raise awareness, the purpose for video is to
persuade the audience that women are capable of working and succeeding as engineers. Sterling
(2013) wants her audience to change their view of women in engineering, doesnt mean because
this is the way things are, it is how they have to be (14:20). She wants her audience to

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understand that a person starts an interest in engineering at an early age, and therefore parents
should encourage this interest to their daughters when they are kids. Besides the speaker making
this point across to her audience, she also wants her audience to know that if this interest is
encouraged there will be major changes related to women in engineering. Another difference
between the scholarly journal and the video, it is that the video is longer than the scholarly
journal; the video is seventeen minutes long. Unlike the formal language used in the scholarly
journal, the language used in the video is informal, Usually when I tell people I am an engineer,
they look at me and say ha, no really what do you do?, or ow, woah, you must be some kind of
genius (Sterling, 2013, 1:20). The length and the type of language used is appropriate for the
audience because by talking in an informal language she can relate her stories better to her
audience and her audience can relate better to her. By making this connection with her audience,
Sterling will be able to persuade her audience effectively.
Pathos
According to Aristotle, pathos is the ability to persuade the audience by evoking
emotions from an audience (Henning, 1998, para. 2). The journal and the video have specialized
vocabulary such as bias, and sexism which helps the speaker produce emotion to her
audience, specifically an emotion that makes the audience ally with their position. Both genres
are able to create an emotional response from their audience. The scholarly journal creates
emotions of irritation due to the authors way of describing his topic. Schwartz opening sentence
is a great example of how he evokes the emotion of irritation, Women are enrolling in science
and engineering in record numbers, but don't win awards and don't stay in the field. What's
happening? he later mentions that women engineers not being able to win awards due to biases
is discouraging (Schwartz, 2015, para. 3). At the beginning of the video, the emotion created

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by Sterling towards the audience is compassion, but towards the end the emotion of
empowerment is evoked. When Sterling starts her presentation, she starts by stating that she
does not fit in in her engineering classes, in her workplace (Sterling, 2013, 2:36). Towards the
end of the presentation, Sterling switches gears and begins to talk about how she did not give in
to pressures, how she persevered when others were not aiding her and her GoldieBox project and
how she finally sold her project to hundreds of stores around the world, thus evoking the emotion
of empowerment. By evoking emotions from the audience, the audience is helping the author and
speaker better achieve their purpose. This is so because when you are evoked a desired emotion
by the author you tend to associate with the author, and are more likely to agree with the authors
claim. Because both, the scholarly journal and the video evoked emotional responses from their
audience, the audience is more likely to respond in their favor, agreeing with them and therefore
helping the author and speaker achieve their purpose.
Logos
Logos is the use of reasoning and support for the purpose of persuasion (Henning, 1998,
para. 4). The scholarly journal and the video differ in their approaches to logos. Schwartzs
journal appeals to Endoxa, common knowledge. Common knowledge is a belief that has been
tested (Vierra, 2015). Schwartzs journal makes the claim of women not taking leadership roles
in engineering fields. He later justifies his belief with data, In the 24 years since the Hall of
Fame was created, 11 out of its 60 inductees have been women (Schwartz, 2015, para. 10).
Contrary to Schwartz journal where his claim is justified, Sterlings video appeals to Doxa. Doxa
is a belief that has not been tested, common opinion (Vierra, 2015). Sterling (2013) claims that
she did not fit in her engineering classes or at her work, but hopes that future women engineers
will not struggle as much as she did (2:36). Sterling provides evidence of why she felt as if she

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did not fit in, such as being criticized in her classes, and being poked by her professors (Sterling,
2013, 7:35). But there is no concrete evidence that by increasing the numbers of females enrolled
in engineering, bias and sexism in engineering will decrease.
Ethos
Ethos is referred to as the ethical appeal or credibility of the author (Henning, 1998,
para. 2). The scholarly journal applies to ethos by referring and citing reliable sources, while the
video contains ethos, not by citing others scholars work, but because of the speakers credibility.
Do the Math contains statistics from known universities, data collected from surveys,
professors, directors, and scholars claims related to the subject of women in engineering, It's
harder to be a woman in science, says Joan C. Williams, a distinguished professor of law at the
University of California's Hastings College of the Law (Schwartz, 2015, para. 5). By having
this data from known and reliable sources the author is supporting his claim with evidence hence
making his claim credible and reliable. Unlike the scholar journal, the video does not rely on the
credibility of other sources to support her claim, but the speakers credentials make it a credible
source: Engineering degree from Stanford, founder of award winning toy, Toy of the Year 2014,
GoldieBox, created viral fundraiser for I want a goat, among others. Because of her credentials
the audience can conclude that the information presented by Sterling is reliable.
Structure and Delivery
A scholarly journal has more limitations than a website. A major set back that the journal
has is that scholarly journals usually take a while before they are published due to the lengthy
peer review process it has to go through in order to make sure it is reliable (CQ University
Australia, 2014). The layout has some restrictions as well, a scholarly journal has to have an
introduction, a body, and a conclusion in order for it to have some organization. It can include

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pictures, graphs, tables, and other visuals but these are add-ons to the main organization.
Schwartzs journal has the basic organizational structure of a journal. It is about seven minutes of
reading and includes two pictures. On the other hand, a website has less limitations and more
freedoms than a scholarly journal. The website is a video which unlike the journal, contains no
text, it is just the speaker and a power point presentation that is displayed behind her to reinforce
her statement with some visuals. The video has more freedom than the journal in the sense of
expression. The journal is restricted to words and some visuals, but in the video, the audience
can listen to Sterlings words, listen to the how she speaks, to her tone of voice, watch her
movements, and wacth her facial expressions. All of which can contribute in persuading her
audience in agreeing with her claim. Sterlings power point presentation includes neutral colors
such as red, orange, and yellow when she is talking about her personal experiences. Blue and
pink were used when she spoke of situations where bias and sexism was involved. By adding
such colors, it adds to the environment she wants to create for her audience.
The scholarly journal and the website are two different types of media with one purpose
in mind, to get a message across to its audience. Both genres effectively conveyed their message
and purpose to their audience. The video was more effective in persuading the audience than the
journal, while the best scholarly source was the scholarly journal.

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8
References

CQ University Australia. (2014). Why use books, journals/journal articles and websites?
Retrieved from http://libguides.library.cqu.edu.au/evaluating-resources
Henning, L. (1998). Friendly Persuasion: Classical Rhetoric. Retrieved from
http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins/aris.html
Schwartz, Z. (2015). Do the Math. Maclean's, 128(16), 40-41. Business Source Complete.
EBSCOhost.
Sterling, D. (2013). Inspiring the next generation of female engineers: Debbie sterling at
TEDxPSU. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEeTLopLkEo
Vierra, P. (2015). Lesson 2.2.1. Introduction and Review.