Demographics and Stereotypes of Agricultural Engineering (Blog Challenge)

By: Tyler Lahusky

The Demographics

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics have always had problems with the demographics of each field. Many times, these field have trouble finding people to work in the field, or are underrepresented by minorities. In the case of agricultural engineering, the job market does not struggle to find people to fill its positions and degrees, but is underrepresented by women specifically. (" Proceedings from AGROTEC/FAO Workshop Gender and Agricultural Engineering, Zimbabwe, 4-8 March, 1996")The total number of agricultural engineering degrees in the United States increased by 5.6% in 2011 ( Yoder, "Engineering by the Numbers"). Of these engineering jobs, just 18.4% of total engineering degrees (based on any discipline of engineering) had 18.4% of women with engineering degrees. Agricultural engineering specifically had 31.9% of its total degree holders to be women. To see the complete breakdown by discipline of the number of women in engineering (by percentage) refer to the graph below. ( Yoder, "Engineering by the Numbers")

Source: Yoder, Brian L. "Engineering by the Numbers." ASEE. American Society for Engineering Education, 2011. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

 The Stereotype

               The common stereotype for an agricultural engineer is a ‘glorified farmer’.  Like all stereotypes, this has some truth and some falsities. Agricultural engineers, just as any other engineer, is a highly educated individual in the field of engineering, with a profound knowledge in the area of agriculture and farming. Larry Hoover, a member of the NSPE, agues this stereotype of a glorified farmer stating that agricultural engineers are “More than just farmers in engineering”. (BOYKIN, "Standing Out") Most agricultural engineers have just the right mix of a passion for agriculture and a heavy interest in engineering. In order to remove the stereotype of people in the field, the name biological engineer has arisen. The removal of the word agricultural from the title helps to bridge the gap to a number of different people who aren’t necessarily ‘farmers’ but take an interest in the field.(BOYKIN, "Standing Out")

The Changes

               Biological and agricultural engineering has seen some changes, also, that lead to the addition of the word ‘biological’ within the title of the discipline. Agricultural engineering has seen a major movement toward the biological sciences. Instead of working heavily with machinery and processes, agricultural engineers are taking a major focus in biology and related field. In the past, agricultural engineering was overlooked by most people in the world and even in engineering. With the focus switching to biology, people are no longer overlooking agricultural engineering. It is no longer losing out to the major disciplines of engineering that everyone thinks of when they hear ‘engineering’ (eg. Mechanical, chemical, nuclear, civil, ect.). These changes along with agricultural engineering becoming more noticeable in the community is helping to bridge the existing gender gap within the field. The biology side of things is attracting more and more females to the field and is expected to continue to do so.  These changes for agricultural engineering are helping to set a new trend for engineering and a whole new take on a traditionally stereotyped field. (BOYKIN, "Standing Out")

Sources:

 "Proceedings from AGROTEC/FAO Workshop Gender and Agricultural Engineering, Zimbabwe, 4-8 March, 1996." Proceedings from AGROTEC/FAO Workshop. 4 Mar. 1996. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

 BOYKIN, DANIELLE. "Standing Out." Standing Out. National Society of Professional Engineers, 2012. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

 Yoder, Brian L. "Engineering by the Numbers." ASEE. American Society for Engineering Education, 2011. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.