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There seems to be a fuss to drive women into science in the EU lately. Specifically into STEM careers. For me, it was fairly easy, I've been a tinkerer ever since I can recall: I love gadgets, widgets and thingies. The driving force in the EU is to make STEM careers more appealing by imparting seminars and workshops at schools. It helps, of course, but I think that the problem -if there's one- starts earlier. When Lego decides to release a pink line for girls to build pet beauty parlors and cupcake bakeries or "computer scientist" Barbie needs help to reboot a system, there's not much you can do 8-10 years later! I grew up playing with primary-colored bricks and watching Beauty and the Beast and Mulan rather than Bratz or Monster High, so I never thought that studying engineering was such a big issue. I must admit I'm a bit worried when I see what industry tries to sell my nieces as "girl toys" but, fortunately, there are still some nice examples of female-engineers in entertainment out there. Here goes my list in no particular order:
Princess Bubblegum
Bonnibel Bubblegum, one of the lead characters in Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, covers basically every STEM discipline, although if we take into account the results of half her experiments, she is most likely an engineer. It's even worse when she messes with bioengineering, so there is that :D
Winry Rockbell
One of the best characters from Fullmetal Alchemist. She is fascinated by any and all types of machines, tools. Specializing in mechanical repair, specifically prostheses called automail, Winry services Ed's replacement arm and leg.
Asami Sato
The other female member of Team Avatar (Legend of Korra). Asami is a practical thinker and a capable engineer, able to repair and construct vehicles with limited resources, such as when she improvised a makeshift sand-sailer using materials from a destroyed airship. Current leader of Future Industries, planning to bring the company back to the peak of economic dominance and restore its reputation.
Fio Piccolo
Fio Piccolo is the young aircraft engineer that designs Porco Rosso's new aircraft in the Ghibli Studio film. As she runs out of time for testing, she alters the plane for her to fit and modify the design on the fly. Duh. Talk about tight schedules in engineering.
Dr Vivian Frances Porter
A robotics engineer (yay!) in (Disney) Kim Possible, Vivian is not taken seriously in robo-combats because of her looks, so she actually builds herself a robot-boyfriend as a surrogate to enter (and rock) the competition.
Audrey Ramirez
Mechanics engineer Audrey Ramirez joins Milo in his search for Atlantis in the (wonderful) Disney movie. One could say she is the poster girl for working under pressure in the film (under the ocean pressure, at the very least). Originally skilled in automobile production and assembly lines, she basically handles all the vehicles in the movie, submarine included
Felicity Smoak
Technically not a cartoon (although she could well be), Computer Scientist Felicity, from Arrow, is the role model for geeks. She's good at anything involving computers and data mining, as well as an excellent hacker. Plus she is the funniest character in the series by far.
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