Women in Engineering

For the fifth year running, members and supporters of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) will be posting photos of #WESLottieTour at work during Tomorrow’s Engineers Week (November 2020) to show the huge range of careers available in engineering.

According to the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), women only make up 12.37% of all engineers in the UK. Considering that a higher number of girls than boys achieve a grade A*-C in all STEM A-Levels except chemistry, there is a clear disjunction when these young girls begin their careers. The engineering industry is often considered stereotypically masculine, and this outdated image may be off-putting to many women who would otherwise thrive in an engineering role. 

WISE, the campaign for greater gender balance in science, technology and engineering (STEM), is urging employers to implement returner and retraining schemes to speed up progress towards closing the gender gap in STEM, and in particular in technology and digital roles. There are now over one million women working in core STEM roles, however, in technology women represent just 16% of the IT profession.

Leading entrepreneur Baroness Michelle Mone, of Mayfair OBE has announced that she will be hosting a two-day, five-star no nonsense business retreat in April 2020, giving a small and select group of businesspeople the opportunity to get personal insights and advice that will supercharge their careers.

This coming April, the eighth consecutive Engineer Powerwoman award will be presented by Deutsche Messe. The award is worth €5,000 and will go to a woman whose outstanding commitment, ideas and/or technical prowess have made a major contribution to advancing her employer’s organisation. Nominations are being accepted from companies and organisations based in Germany and abroad, with only one nominee allowed per company. The deadline for applications is 11th February 2020.

You can’t always plan for everything, because more often than not life is what happens when you’re making other plans, as John Lennon said. That certainly was the case for Dr Catherine Ramsdale, VP of Device Engineering at PragmatIC as she explained she didn’t always know what she wanted to do, and as much as she has achieved in her career, it is down to natural evolution in the industry.

As the engineering industry becomes more diverse and equal, and we see an increasing number of women within the industry, it is a great sight to see and leads me to believe that all the hard work is paying off for women. However, when you then take a look at the statistics of diversity within leadership roles in the industry this isn’t as positive. So although we have reached some level of progress, and can see the number of women in engineering on the rise, why are these women not passing through to leadership roles - is there something deterring them?

WISE, the campaign for greater gender balance in STEM, says women are shaping our future with their technological, scientific and engineering discoveries and inventions. However, the organisation highlights that more needs to be done to ensure that more women do not miss out on these opportunities. The comments came as WISE announced its 2019 annual Award winners at a glittering event in London last night.

It’s no secret that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are industries primarily dominated by men. The ratio of women earning jobs in these fields are extremely low compared to men. Statistics from 2017 show that women made up only 23% of the STEM workforce. Although this is low, this is 105,470 higher than the number in 2016.

Mandy Lester of Atkins has been selected as the winner of the Karen Burt Memorial Award during the centenary year of the Women's Engineering Society (WES). Mandy was nominated by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) for the Award which is presented in recognition of the best newly chartered woman engineer. Now in its 21st year, this prestigious title recognises the candidate's excellence and potential in the practice of engineering. It highlights the importance of having Chartered status; as well as offering recognition to contributions made by the candidate to the promotion of the engineering profession.