SWE was founded in 1950 with the mission of empowering women engineers. Women were (and still are) a gender minority in engineering. Nowadays, this mission can extend to the transgender community because they are also gender minorities who are more likely to get fewer job offers and lower pay than cisgender men. This is why the SWE conference exists: for gender minorities to make connections with each other and have space to pitch themselves to companies for jobs. For us, it is a way to increase opportunities. For exhibitors, it is a way to expand diversity within a company. It’s a corporate win-win.
In 2020, HeForSWE was created as a diversity affinity partner. It’s a group for men to support the mission of SWE and to “grow inclusion and advocacy efforts”. If a man is a HeForSWE member, he can attend the SWE conference and career fair. He can pitch himself for jobs at the fair and interview with companies, just like a regular SWE member.
I can see how this can be helpful for the trans community. If someone can’t out themselves as transgender, they can enlist as a HeForSWE member to access the conference. This is not what I have an issue with.
What I do have an issue with is cisgender men seeing HeForSWE as another way to scope out jobs without recognizing that this space is not meant for them. They who within the engineering field are set for success as they are perceived by society as the “higher being” and the “moneymaker” while women are only ever set for housewarming and, at most, a marketing position. They who, when entering a space such as the SWE conference, are not only actively attempting to take away opportunities for gender minorities but are also being absolute dicks while doing so.
I could not count the number of times I and other SWE members would get dirty looks from men at the SWE conference for just standing in line behind them. As if I was invading their space when, in fact, it was the other way around. Why would you attend a conference meant to give gender minorities opportunities for engineering internships and jobs? Why would you greedily see the SWE conference as another way for you to get a job under the guise of being supportive of SWE’s mission?
In my eyes, allyship means stepping aside and letting gender minorities have the spotlight. It means extending a hand when society hinders gender minorities from having a successful engineering career. It means recognizing your current place in society in comparison to gender minorities. It means understanding why a conference like SWE needs to exist in the first place. With all these in mind, it creates a valid argument for imploring one very simple thing:
Don’t look for jobs at the SWE career fair if you’re a cisgender man.
Want to attend the talks? Sure, they’re pretty cool and valuable. But please, don’t look at the career fair sign and think, I can get a job from this. Even just standing in line to try to get a job at the conference means you’re just adding to the barrier that gender minorities face in a place that is meant to aid in dismantling that barrier.
By choosing not to go, you actually prove yourself as an ally of SWE, regardless of whether you’re registered in HeForSWE.
