Chairholders
Profile
Eve Langelier
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Université de Sherbrooke
Chair title
NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering (Quebec)
Chair program
Chairs for Women in Science and Engineering Program
Role
Chairholder since 2015
Summary
The overall goal of the program of the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering (Quebec) is to increase women’s participation in science and engineering. This program has three main components: providing the opportunity for girls to make objective choices about science and engineering, providing tools for women who have chosen science and engineering, and sensitizing decision-makers to the issues that these women face.
1. Providing the opportunity to choose objectively
The Chair wants to give girls the opportunity to objectively consider science and engineering as fields in which they can study and work. To choose science or engineering, many girls must overcome a number of obstacles, such as stereotypes, lack of self-confidence, misgivings about the competitive aspects of science and engineering, and lack of knowledge about the jobs available in these fields. To eliminate these obstacles, the Chair plans to carry out activities that will demystify science and engineering and make their social importance more tangible. The Chair will also introduce girls to women who are role models working in these fields.
2. Providing tools for women who have chosen science and engineering
Both at university and in the labour market, we see the “leaky pipe” phenomenon: women leaving science and engineering. To staunch this leak, it is essential to give women tools that can help them to overcome the challenges they face, especially as regards reconciling work and family and the impact of gender diversity. The Chair will hold activities through which women can develop useful skills for entering and advancing in the science and engineering professions.
3. Sensitizing decision-makers to the issues that women in science and engineering face
In professional settings, managers and employers can have a significant impact on women’s retention and advancement. The Chair will strive to sensitize and train decision-makers with regard to the stereotypes, unconscious biases and discrimination associated with gender, as well as to the benefits of diversity.
Better inclusion of women in science and engineering will:
- make women more independent, by giving them access to well-paid jobs in science and engineering;
- create science and engineering work environments in which men and women respect, complement and balance each other;
- enable women to participate more fully in making decisions to meet the challenges of global industrial competitiveness, the climate and environmental crisis and population aging;
- make organizations more creative by providing a greater variety of perspectives;
- increase the quality and performance of businesses by increasing women’s representation in senior management.
The Chairholder, Dr. Eve Langelier, is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke since 2004. She specializes in human biomechanics and the mechanobiology of soft connective tissue. She is especially interested in preventing and curing tendon injuries and in designing adapted sports equipment. Ever since she joined the faculty as a professor, she has played an active role in organizing a variety of activities for the promotion, retention and professional development of women in science and engineering. She has helped to create a toolkit for teaching the technological design approach used by engineers. She has run several coaching activities for female and male students at the Université de Sherbrooke. She has worked on the organizing committee for the Sherbrooke edition of Les filles et les sciences, un duo électrisant!, a one-day event held annually in four Quebec cities to encourage teenage girls to consider careers in science. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Association de la francophonie à propos des femmes en sciences, technologies, ingénierie et mathématiques (or francophone association for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Partners
- Fondation de l’Université de Sherbrooke
- Faculté de génie de l’Université de Sherbrooke
- Aéroports de Montréal
- GE Aviation Bromont
- Varitron Granby
- Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies
- Secrétariat à la condition féminine
- TM4
Contact information
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Université de Sherbrooke
2500, boul. de l’Université
Sherbrooke, Québec
J1K 2R1
Tel.: 819-821-8000, ext. 62998
Fax: 819-821-7163
Email: eve.langelier@usherbrooke.ca
