GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Attending the University of Michigan in the early '80s was disappointing for Jane Gietzen, a student who was good at math and was earning her industrial engineering degree.
"I had professors who outright would say to me that women don't belong in engineering, 'they aren't cut out for it,'" Gietzen said.
That wasn't the message she heard growing up.
"I was raised by a father who told me I could be anything I wanted to be," said Gietzen, who is now director of informational services at Spectrum Health.
Fast forward 30 years, and that sexist message continues to be leveled at women.
Earlier this month, a San Francisco software engineer inspired a viral online campaign when she faced an unexpected backlash after appearing in an ad as part of her company's recruiting campaign. Several men questioned whether Isis Wenger even worked in the industry, according to TechCrunch, which covered the story.
Her response was a photo holding a sign with the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer -- it inspired female tech workers around the world to do the same.
Now, that message is being used as a campaign to highlight female engineers and other tech workers in Grand Rapids, and the rest of Michigan.
A photo shoot earlier this month of 19 female tech workers with a message of empowerment was organized with tech companies OST, Atomic Object, CQL, C/D/H, Mutually Human and The Right Place.
The Grand Rapids-based economic development organization sees the importance of increasing the talent pool in the growing tech center, says Megan Sall, The Right Place's business development manager.
The campaign, dubbed #ilooklikeanengineergr, is an opportunity to show the strength and diversity of the tech industry in West Michigan and statewide, said Michael Lomonaco, director of marketing and communications for Open Systems Technologies, or OST.
"We are on the cusp of finding ourselves competing with firms in Silicon Valley," said Lomonaco, referring to the Northern California region considered the epicenter of the tech industry.
"This is an awesome way to get the conversation started," said Mark Lardieri, president of CQL, a Grand Rapids web development company that counts West Elm Workspace, Wolverine Worldwide, Haworth and Herman Miller among its clients.
Lardieri volunteers with a Calvin College effort to encourage students there to consider degrees in engineering fields, and is part of an effort to get girls as young as middle schoolers excited about software coding.
Ruth Holtrop is a graduate of Calvin, who was hired last year by OST, as an app developer.
She remembers being among only a handful of women at Calvin, a Grand Rapids Christian Reformed liberal arts college, studying computer science, after switching from engineering.
A math whiz who had a top score on her AP calculus test, Holtrop is hesitant to share that accomplishment because she is worried it will send the wrong message to girls considering following in her career steps.
"I don't want anybody to feel they don't belong in this field because of their grades in math," said Holtrop. "Computer science is all about learning. As long as you have a passion, this field is for you. Technology changes so fast there are always new things to learn."
Gietzen says she is troubled by news reports about the exodus of women from the field. They are fed up with a a hostile and unwelcoming environment for women, according to a Los Angeles Times story.
Her IT department at Spectrum Health has 800 permanent employees and about 200 contract workers. More than one-third of department employees are women, and they account for 40 percent of the leadership positions.
When she started at Spectrum Health in 1999, the department had about 100 workers.
The growth reflects not only Spectrum Health's expansion, but also the increasing demand for IT across all departments, which has outpaced Spectrum's overall growth.
In her role, Gietzen also is tasked with talent development.
As a mother of two teen girls, she likes the empowering message behind #ILookLikeAnEngineer.
Aubrey Baker was surprised that a woman in her field was called out for not belonging.
Still, Baker, 25, who writes software code at CQL, notes that when she was hired by the Grand Rapids firm in December, she was the only female web developer. Now, there are three.
Her interest in computers developed between middle school and high school. She was the person in her house who took care of the routers and fixed the computers when there were issues.
While a freshman at Reeths-Puffer High School in Muskegon, she took a networking class.
After graduating early with college credits, she finished her general education requirements at Muskegon Community College before transferring to Michigan Tech. She was familiar with the Upper Peninsula college after attending two weeklong summer programs there in high school.
After earning her undergraduate degree, she headed to Virginia Tech for a master's degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering.
There are a lot of perks to her career, including flexible hours and the ability to work remotely. Her work environment includes a foosball and ping pong tables for stress relief when employees need a break from solving a problem.
"Coding is like learning to think through a problem and translate it to a set of rules," said Baker, adding it takes problem-solving skills but not necessarily top math skills.
"I wouldn't say if someone doesn't like math they should be scared away," said Baker, who is a member of the Michigan Council of Women in Technology.
Baker is now working to give middle and high school girls the same opportunity she had to learn about the tech industry. There are two upcoming events she is encouraging girls to attend.
She is helping to organize a BitCamp at CQL on Saturday, Sept. 26. It's a free, day-long opportunity for seventh- and eighth-grade girls to learn what it's like to be a software developer. They'll learn about coding and have an opportunity to create their own website, as well as meet some female role models in the industry. Find more information at bitcamp.softwaregr.org. Registration is limited, and there are 13 spots remaining.
The other event is Girls Who Code, a free semester-long program where sixth- to 12th-grade girls learn how to code and write their own software. The group meets one night per week for two hours, for the duration of the semester at Calvin College. The program has expanded to two levels.
"Last spring, we had a great response and all of the Level One girls wanted to continue on and learn more," Baker said. "We're excited to see how this year goes running the two levels. It is exciting to be able to become this involved in helping girls learn about programming."
Shandra Martinez covers business for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.