Times have changed dramatically and women are becoming more accepted in the engineering world, yet some still cling to the view that females don't have the right stuff to do real technical work. Moore recently wrote a piece for IEEE Institute to counter a Web article that had expressed the belief that "girls just don't do engineering." After her article ran, Moore was only mildly surprised with the feedback

"Most of the response to the article was supportive, but one guy was irate, saying that women were incapable of doing engineering and weren't dedicated enough," said Moore, a department manager at Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector's R&D unit, whose doctoral thesis was on 0.1-micron gallium-arsenide MESFETs. "We sent him back a note, and he wrote back even more angry."

Karen Moore is helping IEEE members learn how to blend women into the engineering work force. As head of the IEEE Women in Engineering committee, she is bolstered by growing membership and corporate support, but finds some people still feel 'women are incapable of doing engineering.'

Such aberrations arise, but for the most part, things are on the upswing for Moore and her counterparts in Women in Engineering. Membership on that committee, one of three within the IEEE that addresses non-technical issues, is growing. And in Moore's third year of involvement, the committee has moved up in the IEEE hierarchy.

"As a committee, we got board status a year ago — before that we were a standing committee," said Moore.

"In terms of bringing in new people, we recently got board approval to start setting up affinity groups. We couldn't do that until we were a board committee." The affinity groups, she said, "are like regional groups, they're for networking and information exchange on a non-technical level."

Though some female IEEE members still don't know they have a special-interest group, the IEEE is making an effort to change that. Already, many of the women who aren't closely involved with the emerging group nonetheless interact with it. The Women in Engineering Web site gets thousands of hits per month, and the group gets to publish in the IEEE's Institute an unprecedented six times per year.

"The IEEE has been very good to us, the executives are very supportive," Moore said. "They let us do a women's forum at the director meetings, where we have brought in forum speakers to address the people at the highest levels within the IEEE." That's a lot of attention for a pretty small minority. The IEEE estimates that about 5 percent of its members are female, totaling around 15,000 in a group that enrolls 300,000 around the globe.

While women make up a tiny percentage of the overall engineering world, Moore noted that their presence has to grow, for the good of the industry. At a time when many are wringing their hands over an engineer shortage and the American Electronic Association reports a decline in college enrollment for some engineering and computer-science disciplines, Moore sees an obvious solution.

"Diversity will become an economic necessity. By the year 2005, 62 percent of the people entering the work force will be women or minorities," said Moore, who got her EE degree from Duke and both her master's and PhD from the University of Michigan. "It may not be 62 percent for engineers, but companies will still have to look at women and minorities or they're going to have problems getting people."

There will be a few more women coming in the future, according to another government study. Back in the 1972-73 school year, when Moore spent her summer vacation fishing at her grandparents' farm, only 1.2 percent of the 51,265 BS degrees in engineering went to women. Figures for higher educational levels were 1.7 percent of the 16,619 master's degrees and a meager 1.5 percent of the 3,492 PhDs.

In 1994, when Moore finished her PhD and joined Motorola, 15.6 percent of BSEs were women. Other levels showed similar increases: 16.3 percent of MSEs were women, as were 11.9 percent of PhDs. That's a tenfold rise over two decades.

The dramatic increase of women in the overall work force has had pitfalls. Though engineering environments are normally occupied by more educated and sophisticated personnel than many other segments of America's working world, that doesn't mean the same quandaries don't arise.

"We have a running joke in our IEEE committee that every month someone will write in, if not about backlash, then on some very sticky issue like harassment," said Moore. "Harassment is certainly a very serious topic issue. Right now a lot of people feel they're walking on eggs because there aren't any clear guidelines. From all sides, that causes tension. We're trying to take a pro-active view, getting positive information to as many people as possible."

Moore said "talking about the general idea of affirmative action is often counterproductive." Instead, she focuses on the benefits of a diverse work force. Team members with disparate backgrounds can bring different perspectives and, often, improved results, she said.

The Arizona terrain is perfect for Moore's hobby, rock climbing, and that was one of the reasons she joined Motorola in Phoenix after leaving the University of Michigan. Having grown up in New Mexico, Moore doesn't mind the hot climate.

On the job, Moore spends her days exploring materials that will be used in Motorola's high-frequency, high-voltage ICs. Those devices are used in a variety of infrastructure products, primarily in the basestation and broadcast markets.

To date, she said that she hasn't seen much gender bias at Motorola, noting that the company supports her work as committee chairperson.

Some women aren't waiting around to move up the corporate ladder. "A lot more [are] starting up their own businesses now, and a lot more women are going into consulting," said Moore. "One of our members just retired from our committee because she started her own small business."

For those who don't want to go out on their own, the key is to find an employer who treats all employees with respect. Regardless of gender, some things in corporate society don't change. One is the decision of whether to work in a large company or a small one.

"A large company will be more bureaucratically loaded, so it will be harder to change. But the larger the company, the greater the chance for upward moves, or for lateral moves if you want to get away from something or just want a change," Moore said. "At a smaller business, there's a greater chance to make an impact, but there's a smaller management structure so it's harder to advance."