“This is a culture thing, not a company thing.”

She said there were no other women in engineering at her first company.

“My experience on the 50/50 team, as you could imagine, was just much better.”

Caitlin Kalinowski headshot

Caitlin Kalinowski

Basically, we need to be open to having people from different backgrounds that can do the job.

“When a kid shows an interest, encourage it and encourage them.”

In addition, she said another way to encourage equality is in the STEM jobs themselves.

technician guiding a young trainee in a workshop

Hinterhaus Productions / Getty Images

Caitlin Kalinowski

Caitlin Kalinowski