General Motors CEO joins the #ILookLikeAnEngineer movement
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”.
.@GM has a diverse array of talented engineers around the world and I'm honored to lead them. #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/sDSBiiJYtd
— Mary Barra (@mtbarra) August 5, 2015
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.