I agree entirely with the theme of the article, we need to do more to attract women into this type of work. Different perspectives will only lead to enhance the industry overall. I am, however, confused about the term ‘engineer’. In North America, the word is used to describe an individual who, through post-secondary education through a degree-granting university, coupled with at least one year of articling beneath a professional engineering firm, has earned the right to call him- or herself an engineer, and use the initials P.eng, after his or her name. In the article, there are pictures of several women whom are referred to variously as ‘sales engineer’, ‘support engineer,’ ‘crane designer,’ and so on. KCI Konecranes has a wonderful habit of introducing their service technicians as ‘service engineers’.
It seems to me that confusing the customer with terms like ‘sales engineer’ serves nobody’s interest, and is woefully misleading, if my assumptions above are correct.
Jack Miner,
President, Atlantic Crane & Material Handling
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
