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Crystal Oseagulu ENGW 3302- Thomas Akbari Unit 1 Final Draft September 23, 2013 Analyzing the Professional Society of Women In the past, women have been defined for who they are based mainly on their marital status. Newspaper job listings ads even went as far as to specify separate jobs for men and women. As a result, on May 27,1950 a group of women met in New Jersey to officially form the Society of Women Engineers(SWE)as a way to ease into a profession that did not welcome them. With the creation of this society came the official Society of Women Engineers website. The following is an excerpt was taken from the History page of the Society of Women Engineers website (www.swe.org). They did so not out of a desire to agitate or to rock the boat, but rather because they wanted the opportunity to develop their abilities, to give expression to their potential, to contribute to society. 1(para 1.) It is apparent that gender roles have existed throughout our history especially in regards to profession. As stated in the quote, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) has an urgency to inform other strong, confident females of the great opportunities that are available in engineering, a historically male dominated field. The webpage itself is filled with an even mixture of both pictures and text. The target audience of this webpage includes women of all ages, whether current members or not. As a result, the webpage is easy to navigate. There are drop down menus and info tabs incorporated into the website to assist the audience with locating the specific information they wish. A large audience of the society is young adults, like myself, who wish to pursue a possible career in engineering. The website contains four icons in the upper right hand corner for the most popular

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social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. One could make the assumptions that these websites are directly on the top of the page because young adults make up a large base on social media websites. Social media sites are a way to expand knowledge to a large mass of people at once. By including these website links directly, the society has introduced a means to promote and expand their organization to others. The organization simultaneously presents a welcoming and friendly, yet professional standing throughout the community. A major piece of the website is an interactive timeline located in the center of the homepage, specifically titled SWEs History is Incredible and Inspiring.1 This is a very powerful document on the website because it illustrates both visually and verbally the long journey that women engineers have made in order to get to where they are today. The information provided in the timeline could easily be written as a large block of text in an article; however, the women of the society instead chose to present the information as a user-interactive timeline. This is a great idea because the society sparks the interest of young adults to get into engineering. Further, many people are visual learners as well. Supplying smaller blocks of text with appropriate images helps these readers to retain and engage the information better. Another notable observation is that the timeline images starts out black and white in color, but gradually, the timeline pictures gain both complexity and color. This further demonstrates to the audience the significant transformation and advancement that the society has made over time. The chronological order of events on the timeline allows the audience to follow along the past and present of women engineers in a way that is easy to understand. The timeline acts as a narrative device to tell the story of the struggles and steps that were taken to achieve greatness and end discrimination of the past. Due to the discrimination that women have faced in the past,

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it only seems right that a story is needed to explain the steps that it took to gain more freedom. For example, the timeline begins with a heading titled 1950- A National Organization Is Bor n1(Year 1950). The next event features Moller Gilbreth, renowned pioneer in time motion studies and industrial engineering, as the first to receive honorary membership. Two years later, the first achievement award is presented to the society due to Dr. Maria Telkes contributions to the utilizations of solar energy. Each of the event titles is short, yet effective. A major accomplishment included in the timeline that stands out was 2006- SWE launches new outreach program and website. SWE launches its Wow! Thats Engineering outreach program and unveils a product of its partnership with IMB aimed at K-12 girls1(Year
2006)

. In my opinion, I believe that the development of the K-12outreach program is a great effort

the society has made in order to reach out to young kids at an early. It should be noted that were this society not in place when I entered into college, I probably wouldnt have even imagined entering into what was considered a male only major in the past. The ability to reach out to children at a young age to spark interest in design and development will only contribute further to our future generation. This directly correlates to the websites main heading which states, Society of Women Engineers: Aspire, Advance, Achieve. It is known that engineering is not the easiest of majors; however, those who want it badly enough, similar to the women who first desired to open up the society, can too, become accredited, professional engineers with dedication and determination. The timeline was sure to feature prominent female figures in engineering, as well as young adults who are just beginning their own journey into engineering. This proves that the society is a support system to all. This observation within the timeline communicates to the audience that anyone has the ability to make a difference in the world whether large or small.

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Thus, it is apparent that the Society of Women Engineers does an effective job at presenting information with the intention to inform and support. The website features social media, color, pictures and text. These all contribute to the friendly nature of the society. One of the most powerful documents within the website is the interactive timeline. The timeline serves as a narrative device that shows the result of the initial dilemma that women interested in technology and engineering have faced. The storytelling within the timeline further emphasizes the great achievements that women have gained as a result of the society. Despite the relatively simple word choice and good amount of images, I believe that the site still effectively presents the information while maintaining very reputable and professional organization.

Reference
1. Society of Women Engineers [Internet]. Chicago(IL [2013, cited 2013 September 16] .

Available from: http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/