Diversity in Land Surveying

I've often wondered that myself.

While I have worked for a surveyor that was a woman, and there have been a few women surveyors in my area (that I all highly respect), I have not encountered any surveyors that are (generally) different from my race. It is not a good thing, or a bad thing, or something that I prefer, I am simply a fact. Granted, I live in a slightly rural/suburban area of Virginia, and we are overwhelmingly WASP-y here, so my answer would be that (in my area) it is simply indicative of the population cross section.

Carl

For those in school or recently out of school

What does it look like for the future?

I have noticed and wondered about that also. I've been at it for 35 years and worked with a little over a handful of people not like myself.

I have my suspicions as to the causes of women not getting into surveying, so I will take a stab at it.

I am not aware of many women in any of the "construction trades", specifically the outside aspect of industries such as welding, surveying, working on buildings (outside), etc. I am going to hazard a guess that most women view the trades as "rough" (which they often are in terms of sexism, cussing, etc) and prefer a "cleaner" environment. Part of it I suspect is upbringing. Men are almost expected (especially "blue collar") to go into such trade work, women are not. They are "supposed" to be secretaries, teachers, librarians, etc.

In other words, I would argue that our culture fosters stereotyping, which is still widely accepted. When a guy is told "you can be anything you want", that might not typically include such thing as being a secretary. And a woman who "can do anything", is not assumed to be a boxing champion.

Maine is statistically one of the whitest states in the U.S. so that may explain the fact that our land surveyors are (to my knowledge) completely white. But as to gender, we've done well. I had a woman working for me a few years ago & she got licensed during her tenure with me. Maine also has a number of well-respected female licensees. Two I can think of are principals in their companies. Another was president of our State Society for awhile, another (now deceased) chaired that Society's education committee for a few years, doing an excellent job. We're getting there -- there are no real bars to entry into the profession to anyone. Though I have heard anecdotal reports from some of the aforesaid women of discrimination regarding pay and working conditions etc.

In my several years surveying I had two female party chiefs. Both were excellent in my book.
I am a little surprised no one has mentioned race. I have met only one black man involved in surveying and that was only when I did a class for LarryP. I heard about a year later that he didn't last.

The only thing I might profer is this field is like many others in that it comes from our raisings. Girls play with dolls and draw pictures and boys play with trucks and are interested in sciences and math and such.
I know that sounds stereotypical but it seems to be the reality of things.

South Dakota has a few women, and they are actively involved in our state society as well; at the annual conference I've only seen one black guy but never talked to him about why surveying, nice enough guy though.

> Why do you think this is?

Negative feedback

Surveying's a relatively small profession that doesn't get much notice in society. So a lot of surveyors get into the field because their father, uncle, friend's father, etc. was a surveyor. And people tend to associate with people who look like them.

Things are a'changing ... I see a large proportion of co-eds in LSU's Department of Construction Management. Some are in Civil Engineering, but there's a bunch in "CM."

There are a few women owned survey firms in Massachusetts who do very very well with minority business set asides.

That is a whole different topic though.

The Hack

BL-

I'm more interested in the smile behind the eye lid.

This next year Ontario has Dasha Page as the President of the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors.

Cheers,

Derek

Washington State has several woman, the 2011 Surveyor of the Year and Associate of the Year were both women. I would say, just guessing, that about %10 of the practicing, licensed surveyors in this state, maybe more, are women.

Doug Casement, PLS

I guess one might percieve the industry as being less diverse than others, but I've worked with all shapes, sizes and colors over the years. Innies and outies. I will say that everyone that I have worked with that wasn't an anglo male was well worth their salt.

Marcus Cochran was an instrument man for me for years. Best gunner I ever had. He didn't like the "black or white" general designation for skin color. One day at lunch I walked into a Sherwin Williams Paint Store and picked up a color chart...

We determined that I was "burnt peach" and he was "chestnut bronze" instead of black and white.

Now let's get some wood in the ground..."celebrar cincuenta y cien!" 😉

A few years back I ran through the entire list of Oregon registrants and out of roughly 3000 names there were about 15 whose were recognizably female. This occurred when a woman who had been licensed for about 6 months was appointed to the state board. The other 14 had already served.

Here is a nice article about a young lady in the profession.

The owner of the company that I work for is a woman PE/RLS and we have another woman RLS on staff too.

I was considering this very topic while at a rodeo Saturday night. It was in a very large and very white arena. Thousands of folks all there to have a good time and all in the same cultural group. The next weekend was booked to be a rap concert in the same place and I expect the racial makeup to flip-flop.

I know about a few women in the field but not many. At the risk of sounding sexist, men and women are built differently, a fact I have been aware of since about age 13. Field surveying can be very physically challenging. Women don't compete with men in most sports venues because MOST of the time, notice the emphasis there, men have better upper body strength and stamina. There are plenty of exceptions from both sexes.

Two babies are laying in a crib together and the first baby says to the other, "I know how to tell the difference between a boy and a girl" He ducks his head under the covers and comes back up in a minute and says, "You are a girl and I'm a boy". The baby girl asks him how he knows and he says, "Because you are wearing pink socks and I'm wearing blue ones".

When I took the Texas exam there were several females in the room as well as one that was obviously Asian. I have not run into many African Americans but have met many Hispanic crew chiefs.

I might have to revise my count, I always considered hispanic co-workers as just another surveyor, no different than me. So make it slightly over two handfuls then.

When I took the Ga exam in 2012 there were 7 people on the surveying side of the room taking the RLS along with what looked to be 300 engineers on the other side. Of those seven 3 of them were black. But I have never met a black surveyor outside of that exam.

I am simply STATING a fact.

D'Oh. I hate when I do that.