All PEng's should have received their voting packages via email yesterday, January 18th.
One of the questions that was not asked during the Coucillor-at-large webcast was our thoughts as candidates regarding PEO's role in the Engineers Canada 30 by 30 initiative. I noted a thread on the LinkedIn Professional Engineers Ontario Discusion Group with comments that this is an OSPE and not a PEO responsibility and that the PEO should not be contributing resources to this. This is my response:
"I’d like to offer a
different perspective. We’re not talking
about a driver’s licence. If this was
simply about obtaining a P.Eng. licence and making sure that the process was
equally accessible to everyone, I would agree with some of the comments, but
that’s not the case. When you obtain your
P.Eng., you are also becoming a member and associated with that is the PEO and
chapter culture. We have chapters, we
want people to be engaged in their chapters and in our self-regulated
profession. For some, obtaining and / or
retaining their P.Eng. is a choice if they are non-practicing or employed in a
workplace that falls under the industrial exemption. Our annual licence fees contribute to the
culture.
Have you ever had men
email you and share that they attended a few chapter events, but they didn’t
return because, as a man, they felt uncomfortable and unwelcome? I have had women contact me with exactly
those words. Have you ever been at PEO event with your non-engineer wife and
have her later share with you that she was talking to a female chapter member about
your engineering work and the woman stated to your wife “More important than his
work, is he good in bed?” – this has happened to me and my non-engineer husband. How many dozens upon dozens of PEO and
chapter meetings and events have you sat through and the only pronouns used in
reference to engineers throughout have been masculine?
We, the PEO, need to
sell the profession and value of becoming and staying licenced even if an
engineer, like myself, is non-practicing. We want female graduate engineers to want to
become Professional Engineers and to be proud of being one. The PEO has the responsibility of ensuring the
PEO and chapter culture is inclusive and welcoming – we need to put resources
towards continuing to change the culture and to making sure that it actually changes."
What are your thoughts about the chapter and PEO culture? What changes would encourage you to participate more in the volunteer aspects of our profession?
