Thinking about engineers I’ve known who were taken under the wing of influential mentors who consistently handed them opportunities, support, and recognition. They rode the glass escalator while the rest of us scraped by, pinching pennies and relying on Medicaid. Some were hired straight out of their PhDs by their home departments as tenure-track faculty or postdocs after failing on the job market. Others launched businesses using university networks for credibility. Many landed high-paying, six-figure engineering jobs. These were all men I knew. The women with PhDs in engineering? Stay-at-home moms, adjuncts, or in nonprofit and non-engineering roles, trailing spouses. I know only one who’s had a successful engineering career so far (we’re in our mid-30s). Another secured a spousal faculty hire after struggling on the job market. That’s how advancement often works: networks, connections, being ushered along. These people worked hard, but they weren’t clearly stronger than their pee...