How should you (the professor) distribute the few women engineering students among the project teams?

Discussion1
How should you (the professor) distribute the few women engineering students among the project teams?
As “Women and ethnic minorities are now in all levels of the organizational hierarchy and no longer primarily work only in certain types of jobs.” (Levi, 2014, p.242) The students in the engineering class should know that diversity is getting important now. In order to let the students know that women’s abilities are as good as men’s, the number of women students will be evenly distributed in every team. And some warm -up game and orientation will be needed. As team members get to know each other, individuals will find similarities from each other and feel close to the team, increasing the feeling of safety and interactions.
Are there actions you could take to provide support for the women students in the class?
1. Give each team some tasks that only women can make the most contribution. By doing so, men in the team will have to listen to the different perspectives from women because the whole team will not benefit if the inputs of the minority in the team are neglected. After this exercise, women in the team will get more power in the team and this experience will make them willing to contribute and participate more.
2. Create a safe environment by setting group meetings.“Sharing individual perspectives and developing acclimate that values cultural difference can encourage this type of collaborative environment” (Levi, 2014, p.255) It can be hold in two ways. First, I will be the facilitator and meet each team and ask them questions like “How are you liking your team?” or “Share some experience with us working in your team.” The second one is to let teams choose their leaders, it’s fine if they don’t need one. Each team member should say something about the team such as his or her experiences or takeaways, if there are conflicts needed to be dealt with, then it is the best time to do it.
How do you handle complaints from women students about team relations?
Set a meeting for women students who have complaints about their teams. Let each of them share her experiences and talk about the reasons why she has such complaints. The exchanges of different voices from different team will refresh their minds and they will list the problems that they all face on the board and find the solutions together. It is possible that after hearing some complaints from other teams, some women will consider the problems in their team not that serious, and even feel glad that their teams are better than others’.

Discussion2
How should you (the professor) distribute the few women engineering students among the project teams?
“Last year I received several complaints from women students about feeling bullied and unsupported in their teams. These students were the only women in their design teams” (Levi, 2014, p.257). Based on the report, I should notice the “in-group” and “out-group” prejudices (Levi, 2014, p.246). Prejudice is an unjustified negative attitude toward a group and its members (Levi, 2014, p.246). In other words, the gender discrimination leads female students to become out-group members.
In order to reduce the first impression error and help male students to understand the diversity can add value to the team, I prefer to assign female students as group leaders for each group first (Levi, 2014, p.247). Then, if all male students cannot treat female students in a proper manner, I will ask all group members to vote a male leader to lead the team. If female leader can nominate a male leader as her assistant, the male one can be rewarded. If the new voted male leader does a good job, he will be rewarded also. While if he does a bad job, he will be punished to be the male leader for completing some projects only female engineers are good at it.
The female leaders, for the beginning of leading each group, will increase the cohesion of the group and help male students to avoid “impression error” (Levi, 2014, p.274). Although the distribution is unfair to male students at the beginning, I (the professor) still have a very flexible principle to guarantee the competencies of group leaders without gender discriminations.
Are there actions you could take to provide support for the women students in the class?
“The challenge of diversity is to get the benefits of functional diversity and differences in perspectives, while managing the communication and conflict problems created by diverse people working together” (Levi, 2014, p.251). With these in mind, female and male students meet some communicative barriers in this case. I should support female student through eliminating the communicative barriers and reducing benefit conflicts. Male and female student usually be raised with different methods, thus they use different perspectives to observe the issue. Female students are seeking protections from the group, while male students are too aggressive for pursuing the final goal. These various perspectives also lead to the functional changes for male and female leaders in the same group.
Thus, one group should have a female leader to guarantee the group to be more cohesive like a family. Male members are hard to build relationships with other male members, thus female members can discover these conflicts among male members then report these issues to professor. If female members’ report unfair and insecure feelings to professor, professor should assign one male member to protect the victim. Professor also can participate the group activities to support the female student and encourage other male members to understand the diversity can add value for the group. If these methods are useless, professor can ask female members to work together and compete with male groups to test which group is the last one. If female group are winner, professor needs to help male groups to accept female leaders for social justices. If female group are loser, professor needs to ask for other male groups to assist female groups to build a powerful leading team.
How do you handle complaints from women students about team relations?
First of all, I should understand these complaints from female students. Based on difference of perspectives, I will not only let’s female student to realize how to protect them in some proper ways, but also need to teach female students to consider these issues from male students’ perspectives. For instance, female students may have some beneficial conflicts with male students, thus female student need to know some popular communicative methods to negotiate with male students, such as having party with male students, playing ping pong with male members and watching movies with male students.
Secondly, I will help female students and male students to be a good listener for each other. For instance, female students can help male students to complete their personal goals and take part of burden from male students for final goals. Male students need to be familiar with complaints and worries of female students then comfort female students in a rational way. For instance, male students can be a gentle man to ask for casual meeting to discuss working issues and explain some alternatives to redeem their mistake.
In the conclusion, the most effective and efficient way to handle complaints is holding a game event to help female and male students to understand the diversity are valuable in group works.
Discussion3
How should you (the professor) distribute the few women engineering students among the project teams?
By supporting collaboration among the men and women in the team (Levi, 2014). This entails supporting each other in all aspects of the project. The men in the team should be discouraged from bullying the women and give them a chance to participate in the project as well. The act of men being supportive to the women would enhance a positive mind in the women who would be more encouraged to participate in the project team. The women should also be encouraged to participate and involve themselves in the group. Encouraging them through counselling and indulging role models would change the attitudes of these women towards participating in these project teams. Encouraging an open form of communication among the team members would ensure that the women share issues affecting them with the leader, and the issues addressed to encourage their continued participation (Levi, 2014). Initiating a form of cooperation between the men and women students would ensure that both sides have an equal chance to participate in the group projects.
Are there actions you could take to provide support for the women students in the class?
Encouraging a commitment culture in the teams. These would entail reducing the levels of hierarchy in their management (Levi, 2014).Having a few hierarchy would, therefore, encourage the women to communicate easily with their leader. It would also give them more confidence to refer to a few leaders rather than go through a long chain of leaders. Training the whole team that comprises the women would encourage a common perspective among all the team members. Constant motivation accompanied with direction to the women would also act as a form of support to the few women students. Encouraging the women to report any cases of bullying on them by the male students would act as a great form of support since the women would feel protected and it would encourage them to undertake their roles effectively (Levi, 2014).
Providing the women an equal chance as the men in the class would also be a form of support for the women. Having a chance to participate would encourage these women to show their best skills and knowledge that would contribute to the general development and growth of the team. Participation would also give them an opportunity to discover their talents that would also initiate more spirit development in them and active participation with confidence (Levi, 2014).
How do you handle complaints from women students about team relations?
Encouraging cross-functional teams that would entail gathering knowledge on the root of the problem. As the professor, I would be able to get information about the complaints presented, and it would aid in coming up with a solution. If a complaint presented is similar among the women students, I would involve counsellors and professionals who would brainstorm ideas on how to solve the complaints. However, if a complaint is, for instance, with one woman, it would require the intervention with the particular student.
Moderating variables can also be encouraged in diversification to find a solution to the complaints presented. This would entail having a time together with the women students and listening to their proposals on solutions of their complaints. The meeting would also provide the professor with an opportunity to gather more complaints from the women students. The complaints gathered together with the proposed solutions from the women students would also lead to the implementation of some of the proposals to avoid future complaints from being presented (Levi, 2014).