Tuesday, April 14, 2015

An Ethical Argument


When you think of civil engineering there can be various topics of ethical dilemmas that can occur but the most up and coming dilemma is female engineers coming into the field and how they are treated. Civil engineers have a code of ethics that they follow so ethical dilemmas are cut down drastically knowing they have rules set, but moral and stereotypical dilemmas still surface. 40 years ago it was very easy for people to make comments negatively towards a woman, because of how people would see women as being inferior to a man. I have always heard numerous situations where you hear a women being criticized when they come into a job field that is mainly dominated by men. This has been cut down extremely now that almost every job is getting more diverse with women and men working together.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers there are seven “Canons” or codes of ethics.
1.     Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties. 
2.     Engineers shall perform services only in areas of their competence. 
3.     Engineers shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner. 
4.     Engineers shall act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, and shall avoid conflicts of interest. 
5.     Engineers shall build their professional reputation on the merit of their services and shall not compete unfairly with others. 
6.     Engineers shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the engineering profession and shall act with zero tolerance for bribery, fraud, and corruption.
7.      Engineers shall continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall provide opportunities for the professional development of those engineers under their supervision. 

Now there are two sides to this dilemma and the most talked about is when women come into a job field that is mostly dominated by men and somehow become subject to comments or being treated poorly just because they are in fact a women. This ethical dilemma has been around since women and men started working together and women weren’t supposed to work, that was only a man’s job. Since those ages things have gotten better but still in every job field there is a dilemma and in civil engineering the dilemma is at its highest point. This is all because engineers are becoming more diverse and more women are becoming engineers. That can be scary to some males knowing they will be fighting for a job against a female. Now this is also a dilemma when males and females have these roles in the work place.

The side I agree with on this dilemma is the side that female and males can both be apart of a field like civil engineering and can flourish working together.  In almost everyone’s mind this is the way they think about it but when they are put into that situation that’s when they act unethical and wrong. Having men and women work together based on their knowledge and experience, rather then judging on their sex, will help any field of work succeed, especially the field of civil engineering.

Cites:


No comments:

Post a Comment