With only 7% of the UK engineering workforce women, the UK having Europe’s lowest percentage of female engineering professionals (at under 10%), just 3-4% of engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships female, and (according to the National Apprenticeship Service and Unionlearn), ‘gender stereotyping dissuading young women from pursing careers in traditionally male industries’.
It is clear considerably more needs to be done to increase the number of female engineers.
As part of a drive to encourage more women to consider engineering careers, the Women’s Engineering Society will this month – on 23 June – stage ‘National Women in Engineering Day 2014’, ‘to celebrate the work that women do in engineering, and to showcase the great engineering careers available for girls’.
Dawn Bonfield, the WES’s executive vice-president, a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the WES, and Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, said: “We are appealing to a wide range of groups and individuals, including the Professional Engineering Institutes (PEIs), and individual engineers, to support the day, via activities, events, and simply spreading the word. The day’s goal is to support diversity in engineering and allied careers, and we are asking all those in the engineering community to do something positive to reflect this, whether it be organising an event, or a visit, issuing a press release, launching a competition, writing a ‘blog’, taking to a group of students, or just ‘tweeting’ their support.”
Among the initiatives that Dawn Bonfield suggested PEIs might pursue were:
• Advertise the day to members, and encourage them to organise their own events.
• Undertake a review of women members, and ‘roadmap’ activities accordingly.
• Set up a Women’s Membership Group or Committee, and appoint a Diversity and Inclusion Officer, or sign the Diversity Concordat (if not already signatories).
• Organise a Women’s Networking or Mentoring Event on the day.
• Arrange a ‘prestige lecture’ given by a woman engineer.
• Make details of women members available to schools seeking speakers.
To help those keen to stage events on 23 June, the WES can supply a resource pack by post (email: info@wes.org.uk). The Society is particularly keen to hear from individuals or groups organising activities, to help publicise them.
The WES will also be staging a one-day conference on 23 June, entitled ‘Women in Engineering: the Challenge’, at London’s Institute of Mechanical Engineers, with the keynote speech to be given by Jenny Willott MP, Minister for Women and Equality. Other speakers will include Frances Saunders CB FREng, president of the Institute of Physics; Nina Skorupska, CEO of the Renewable Energy Association; Barry Brooks, president of the IET; Dr Carol Marsh, WES president; Dervilla Mitchell, director at Arup, and Pat Morton, director of Women in SET at the Centre for Science Education at Sheffield Hallam University.
For full details, visit: www.nwed.org.uk/ wes-conference.html
