To mark the day, a supplier of electric motors, pumps and motor gearboxes, Neutronic Technologies, has produced a report called ‘Women in Engineering: What can be done to fix the gender gap?’.
It examines the state of the industry at present, what the future has in store andwhat work is being done by women already working in engineering.
Although research has shown that people’s perceptions of the industry appear to be becoming more diverse, with a survey by Neutronic showing that 60% of people believe that engineering and manufacturing have become more attractive fields to women in the past 10 years, a great deal of work still needs to be done.
Lucy Ackland, a project manager at Renishaw in Stone, Staffordshire, who started her career through an apprenticeship, said she believed the first thing that needed to change was people’s outside perceptions of engineering: “The industry should make an effort to dismiss common misconceptions about engineering workplaces. Nowadays, engineering facilities are clean, modern and interesting places to work. However, many people still think of them as the dirty, unattractive manufacturing facilities from decades ago.”
Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, professor of enterprise and engineering education at the University of Sheffield, added more needed to be done to educate parents, and only then would youngsters feel inspired to take up engineering: “I think a lot has been done to encourage young girls to take up sciences at an early age. But by the time they are encouraged it’s too late.
“Mum and dad are the first influences of what we perceive to be a boy’s job or a girl’s job; what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a boy. Mum and dad tend to not know what an engineer or scientist is. What we need to do is train mum and dad, so that they can train the little ones.”
