November/December 2017

Communities: Industry
GE Ad Taps Into Girl Power

General Electric sees the future in a young girl named Molly who has an abundance of ingenuity.

In one of the company’s latest commercials, Molly puts her problem-solving skills to work on making life a little bit easier for a kid. She invents a slew of devices that take out the trash, deliver Girl Scout cookies to customers in her front yard, mow the lawn, and turn the pages of a text book. Eventually, we see Molly all grown up, impressing an older coworker at GE with her mastery of robotics. (Watch the ad at www.youtube.com/watch?v=sucKTktHYA8.)

Putting women at the forefront of engineering and science through advertising is becoming a popular trend for many companies. Microsoft put important historical female inventors in the spotlight with an advertisement that aired on International Women’s Day.

The GE ad featuring Molly was one of many that the company has promoted in the hopes of reaching a goal of putting 20,000 women in technical roles by 2020.

Creating female-focused advertising might help inspire the next generation of women to go into engineering. According to the Society of Women Engineers, although 20% of engineering school graduates are women, women make up only 11% of practicing engineers.