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I always enjoyed taking things apart. I loved my Lego set, and I was generally just interested in how things worked. My parents were very traditional in their thinking and I was offered two choices by my mother – one was medical, and the other was engineering.
I trained as a mechanical engineer and then further with a PhD in physics. There were five women out of 170 students at university, and I believe only two of us are still engineers. There is a terrible shift once women become parents – they tend to shift into more flexible, child-friendly jobs and move away from engineering.
My first job was in the oil and gas industry as a specification engineer, and within nine months I became quality manager of that company. From there I joined an industrial vacuum company – a large American corporation – and I felt extremely on my own as a female engineer in a very high position.
After much discrimination and harassment at that company I decided to start up my own engineering business. I had no choice but to go out on my own in order to survive as an engineer and a young mother.
My company does vacuum pumps and air blower systems, including service and maintenance, which is a very specialised area. I have five staff and contractors. The products are imported from Holland or Italy and we specify them into systems locally, and we have a service and a maintenance department in three locations in the UK so we can offer more local support to our customers. We are expanding our sales team, and hopefully that will pave the way for more staff.
I’d never planned to be my own boss, but in the end I had to leave. The only funding I had was a grant for start-ups that the council gave me. That was about £750, so I bought myself a computer. We still don’t have any loans – we’re growing organically, which is difficult, but I felt that I didn’t want to put ourselves under any financial commitments and hardships.
I feel there is still a prejudice against young mothers in a male-orientated industry, and it has to be addressed. I try to be flexible – my colleagues include a single mother or fathers with young children, and we work around our families. We ensure that we have the flexibility and in that way we can offer our business the best focus.
The times have changed since I was going through my difficulties 10 years ago in terms of industry regulation and culture. There is a lot more support out there for female engineers whether it’s through mentoring or just general support.
With the diversity and equality laws coming into force I think it’s harder to push a female engineer out of the industry. But while there is a strong focus on addressing equality and diversity in large companies, small firms can still be very old school.
There are not many female engineers in my industry sector, if any. I think I may be the only one – but I’m very passionate about being an engineer.
I thrive on the fact that I’m not a stereotypical engineering company director. I stand out from the crowd, and it gives me that extra strength.
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.