Paperwork

One of the unique challenges that women in engineering get to face (or rather one set of them) is that people just aren't used to things that women often do but men rarely do. Like changing their last name. It's not that there isn't a system in place for this, but when using it you tend to get the feeling that no one expects you to do so.

I recently got married, and I submitted my change of name papers to the university. There's an easy way to do this (one form), but it just feels really awkward, like I'm standing out more than I already do, when I have to tell my prof that "oh, by the way, the university is going to start referring to me by a different name". My mother had similiar problems. She got married after she had started her paperwork to become a professional engineer. She called up, and asked about if it was possible to get her stamp in a different name. The response was that "no, it's impossible. Oh, unless your name legally changed". There is a procedure - it's just that everyone forgets it.

However, I must say, that having what is almost a private washroom in the building where I have my new office, makes up for a lot.