Engineering needs more women - now we really have to "Make It Happen"

11 March 2015

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Just a few days before International Women’s Day I was struck by the incredibly high ratio of men lining up for the trade and industry dinner at the Mansion House. I’m afraid the low number of women in attendance that evening very much reflects our industry.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was ‘Make It Happen’ and if Twitter is anything to go by this call to action was a popular one. The Day is a global celebration of the achievements of women that also calls for greater gender equality.

"As many girls as boys attend The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair, which takes place at the NEC, Birmingham this week (11-14 March) and there is no sense that one gender is more or less engaged than the other."

The gender imbalance in the engineering industry continues to be a cause for concern and our most recent research into attitudes towards engineering suggests that the perception that engineering careers are only suitable for men is even prevalent amongst teachers of STEM subjects.

That needs to change, so what will it take tomake it happen? We know that engaging careers outreach is the firm foundation for that change. More needs to be done to ensure schools have the up-to-date knowledge and resources to give sound careers information and advice to the young people who look to them for advice.

We know that where they participate in employer-lead activities young people have a more positive view of the opportunities available in engineering and the impact of these outreach activities is even greater with girls. We need to stamp out the idea that these subjects and the careers they lead to are just for boys. We need more women in our industry and as such need more girls to continue with physics and maths.

In the energy sector there is a concerted campaign to address the considerably lower than average number of women in leadership roles, with recommendations and actions for CEOs, HR departments, aspiring women and senior managers. The POWERful women report highlights actions for both departments and individuals and while they look to address a specific challenge within energy they are by no means exclusive to that industry. No doubt there is much that we could learn from the energy sector and what they are doing to address the gender imbalance at that level.

In It’s different for girls (2012) the Institute of Physics showed that almost half of state-funded, co-educational schools had no girls at all studying A level physics. However, a girl is four times more likely to take physics A level if she attends a single sex, independent school than a mixed state school. This highlights the effect of the school environment on subject choices - in physics, as in most subjects, girls generally outperform boys, so academic ability is not a factor. It is my view that we need to normalise the idea of women in engineering, so that girls, whatever school they are at, consider it entirely normal to pursue studies and careers in STEM subjects.

"We’re hearing many politicians talking about engineering at the moment. It’s fantastic that engineering, as well as parts of education that are important to its future such as apprenticeships and careers education, are so high on the political agenda."

As many girls as boys attend The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair, which takes place at the NEC, Birmingham this week (11-14 March) and there is no sense that one gender is more or less engaged than the other. What is also clear is that the young visitors to The Fair are surprised and excited by what they see and hear about how what they are learning in the classroom translates into the world of work.

They are eager to learn and interested to talk to the young professionals who share their experience of science, engineering, technology and maths in the work place. Many of those who are staffing the stands or volunteering to talk about careers in STEM have come through the apprenticeship route, which given The Big Bang Fair straddles both National Apprenticeship Week and British Science Week, is a great opportunity to highlight the various routes into the industry.

We’re hearing many politicians talking about engineering at the moment. It’s fantastic that engineering, as well as parts of education that are important to its future such as apprenticeships and careers education, are so high on the political agenda. We need to keep that momentum going and make sure that politicians continue to champion engineering, not just over the next couple of months but for the rest of the year and beyond.

The Whitehall Government has established a new careers and enterprise company for schools, whose stated aim is to transform the provision of careers education and advice for young people and inspire them about the opportunities offered by the world of work. The company will be led by CapGemini’s Christine Hodgson and have as its Vice Chair National Grid CEO Steve Holliday. It is great to see that Steve is involved as he is a champion for addressing the challenges our industry faces in terms of appealing to and attracting the best young talent.

Part of addressing that challenge is emphasising that the world of engineering is a great place to work and getting that message out to young people in their early years at secondary school. This is when they are likely to form long lasting opinions about the subjects they enjoy and the careers they are interested in pursuing. Employers have a massive role to play in this and as a community we must work together so that we really can make it happen.

Paul Jackson is the chief executive of EngineeringUK