There are few female faces in engineering lecture theatres at universities, on many a factory floor and in the boardrooms of FTSE-listed manufacturers. The government has been talking about the importance of diversity and equality for years. Although the message appears to have sunk in, the industry has made slow progress.
The percentage of female engineers in the UK is still only around 7% or 8%. The UK fares the worst of all European countries in this respect. Those with the best equality statistics are Portugal, where 40% of engineers are female, and Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus, where women make up roughly 30% of the engineering workforce.
The situation in the UK has improved – the number of women working in engineering has doubled over the past 20 years. But research by the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC) suggests that at this rate of change a 50:50 gender split in science, engineering and technology professions is out of reach within the 21st century.
More than 35 years after the government passed the Sex Discrimination Act, the sector that accounts for one fifth of the country’s economy has much work to do.
Annette Williams, director of the UKRC, explains: “Engineering is one of the last professions to become open to women.” Women have broken into other traditionally male-dominated sectors such as law, medicine and veterinary science, and these fields have become more attractive to women. “I think there is something particular about engineering – it’s got a particular culture and association. It has been the toughest for women to get into in any numbers and feel that they have full acceptance.”
She goes on: “Employers need to know that they are getting the best possible talent available. If women are turning away from these careers for reasons that are not to do with capability or competence then employers are missing out.”
Research shows that diverse groups perform better. Having a range of different backgrounds to draw on fosters innovative thinking, as diverse people look at problems differently and can offer more variety of solutions.
A recent report published by Engineering UK looking into why the country has the lowest proportion of female engineers in Europe found that girls are effectively ruling themselves out of a degree in engineering by the age of 14 with the subjects they choose to study at school. Even those who take an academic interest in maths and sciences turn their backs on working in related professions.
At best 24% of female science, engineering or technology graduates end up working in these fields long term, at worst just 8%, according to the report. The fact that these women are working below their level of qualification, or are unemployed or inactive, is estimated to cost the economy £2 billion, says the UKRC.
But the tide is starting to turn. An ageing workforce has put companies under pressure to look at all available talent and the industry has begun to take diversity more seriously. “The sector has moved now to realise that the culture of the engineering professions has been designed by men for men, and women who come to work in them often turn a blind eye to quite considerable barriers and an accumulation of disadvantages over a career,” says Williams.
These barriers include workplace culture, the difficulties of returning to work after having a family, and glass ceilings.
To address these issues, many of the big companies now employ diversity managers to help shape business strategy to include diversity. One such company is BAE Systems, which has had a dedicated diversity post for almost two years.
Donna Halkyard, who holds this job – head of diversity and inclusion – explains: “The company recognised the opportunity to take a slightly more strategic approach right across the business, to really help use diversity and inclusion to drive performance.”
The company’s executive committee has made diversity and inclusion a priority and created specific objectives on the issue.
Halkyard works to create strategic plans on diversity that are implemented across the business. Working closely with the executive committee she has developed a tool called the diversity and inclusion maturity matrix. This maps out diversity and inclusion across five levels, from basic legal compliance right up to full integration where diversity is an integral part of the business. BAE’s businesses can use this to keep a check on how they are doing and set targets.
Commenting on this top-down approach to diversity, Halkyard says: “Leaders very much set the tone and culture of an organisation.” Employees look to leadership for signs of what is important to the business and that drives the level of importance and activity that is invested in projects, she explains. This shift in importance is the single biggest change she has witnessed over the past couple of years.
But she says the top-down approach can only go so far and it needs to be combined with grassroots initiatives if long-term engagement with diversity is to be achieved. As well as working at the upper echelons of the organisation, she supports BAE’s businesses at a local level, helping them to design and implement action plans to meet diversity objectives. Activities at this level include women’s networks and forums, some of which have been around for many years.
The next steps for BAE will see an increased focus on diversity within the senior levels of the business, which has been partly driven by the government agenda of getting women on boards, says Halkyard. Although the company already counts 25% of its board members as women, more work needs to be done to grow female leaders for the future, she adds.
But, despite BAE’s work on the issue, the company was unable to put a figure on the proportion of female engineers in its workforce. Many companies with a track record of gender initiatives approached to give comment on diversity for this article refused to participate. With no official regulation or compulsion to act on diversity, even the changing tide is likely to progress slowly.
Earlier this year another branch of applied science, medicine, took a daring move to speed up gender equality. In late July, the government’s chief medical officer wrote to the Medical Schools Council to say that medical schools have five years to attain a required standard in gender equality among staff. If the schools do not reach the target their biomedical research centres will no longer be eligible for specific pots of funding from the National Institute for Health Research.
This is the first time that major funding has been explicitly linked to gender equality and the stakes are high. In total, the institute funded research to the tune of £992 million in 2010-11.
Applying similar pressure to university engineering departments would be a “bold move” says the UKRC’s Williams. “Once women are more visible in the department and are getting up the academic career ladder in higher proportions there will be a knock-on effect,” she explains.
But doing something like this in engineering raises questions over where the initiative could stem from, as the sector has no government post equivalent to the chief medical officer. Options include research councils which provide the funding, or professional institutions that accredit university courses.
The IMechE says that the main driving force behind its recent focus on the gender issue is the lack of qualified engineers in general. Women with engineering potential provide an “untapped resource” that can plug the skills gap, says the IMechE. “The engineering industry can no longer afford to exclude over 51% of the population.”
Last year saw the creation of the institution’s first equality and diversity programme, which aims to highlight the importance of the issue to industry and raise awareness among members. Over the past year the percentage of female members of the institution rose by almost 1% to reach 6%.
But the government has recently changed tack on diversity and equality in science, engineering and technology, slashing the UKRC’s budget by 80% and tasking the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society to lead on the issue. Williams says: “We are at a watershed.”
The only girl in the class
Michaela Clarke was the only girl in her physics classes at school and went on one of the first outreach trips for young women interested in careers in science and engineering organised by the Women into Science, Engineering and Construction campaign. Inspired by the visit, she went on to study mathematics at university, where again she was the only female. She now works as a project engineering manager at Selex Galileo in a team of 20 with three other women.
At times being the only woman has worked to her advantage. She says: “I have done quite well because I’ve been able to employ a lot of soft skills like team nurturing – things that some of my male colleagues wouldn’t have done so well at.” Having the experience of being the odd one out for most of her life has helped her cope with problems that have arisen during her career, such as being excluded from the old boys’ network, she adds.
“The biggest problem is finding a way of recognising and encouraging a specialism,” says Clarke. Girls go into engineering because they want to become engineers – they are heading out to become specialists.
But it is harder to progress careers if they are not willing to try other roles, she adds. Supporting women who wish to specialise would help.
Reflecting on whether things have changed for women in engineering, she says she sees around the same number of female faces starting out in the profession today as she did when her career began in 1997. But as she has progressed up the career ladder she’s not noticed her female peers drop away.