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General Motors Engineers

General Motors CEO joins the #ILookLikeAnEngineer movement

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By Tony Connelly, Sports Marketing Reporter

August 6, 2015 | 2 min read

Engineer and CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, has weighed in on a social media gender equality movement that has gone viral.

Barra, named in Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women, tweeted her support for the #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag which began circulating following a slew of negative and sexist comments over an ad featuring a female engineer.

Barra tweeted her 15,000 plus followers saying that General Motors has a “diverse array of talented engineers around the world and I'm honored to lead them”.

The 53 year old studied electrical engineering at General Motors Institute – now named Kettering University – where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree. She started working for General Motors at the age of 18 as a co-op student in 1980 and went on to hold a variety of engineering positions.

Isis Wenger, a developer at San Francisco-based OneLogin, was the driving force behind the movement which came as a response to sexist comments over a prominent ad in the city’s transport system, BART.

The #ILookLikeAnEngineer hastag has now been used by over 36,000 women and continues to gain momentum.

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