Engineering a more equal future for women

According to recent data from EngineeringUK, in 2023 women made up 15.7% of the current engineering and technology workforce, which, when viewed in context, has connotations both positive and negative. While it’s a figure that’s up from 10.5% in 2010, it has in fact seen a decline on 2022 (16.5%). This year-on-year fall is being attributed to the loss of 66,000 women in the 35 to 64 age bracket, suggesting that retention is a major pain point in the industry. These numbers are troubling for many reasons – they show that encouraging women to take up engineering as a career is still a challenge, and that women are not being sufficiently empowered to remain in the engineering profession long-term. And as a result, they are not reaching the upper echelons of the industry.

Perhaps most importantly, this data presents us with an unassailable truth, and one we can’t ignore: 84.3% of our built environment is still being designed by men only. If we can’t increase diversity in the engineering sector, we will not have the combination of unique perspectives necessary to create effective solutions to the complex and important challenges we’ll be facing in the future.

At a glance: how to even out the gender balance in engineering

• Improve careers education for young people
• Profile and champion the work of female engineers
• Introduce mentoring and networking schemes
• Implement a more structured approach to promotions

Diversity of representation is particularly crucial in positions of power in engineering, where decisions have the potential to shape the future of the profession. Bringing gender balance to boardrooms, workshops and field sites will be essential to moving the dial and creating a world where women can contribute freely to the future of our built world. However, according to a recent poll conducted by Hays, almost half (45%) of engineering professionals don’t think their workplace is taking any action to create a more equal gender balance. What needs to change if we’re to not only increase the uptake of women into engineering, but ensure they stay in the profession long term?

1. Improve careers education for young people

According to our poll, 36% consider the improvement of careers education to be the number one way to get more women into engineering. Encouraging the uptake of engineering careers amongst young women is clearly a moral imperative, but a strategic one too. If we are to fill the projected 173,000 new engineering roles anticipated by 2030, attracting and engaging upcoming entrants to the workforce is an urgent priority.

Instilling knowledge of engineering career pathways at an early stage is also crucial to painting an accurate picture of what the profession entails. For too many, the word ‘engineer’ conjures up images of hard hats, high-vis jackets, building sites and complex equations. The other important sides to it – the research, the project management, and the creative ideation – are often overlooked. Depicting engineering in a more holistic light has the potential to vastly broaden its appeal, making it easier for employers to attract and engage talent from a diverse variety of backgrounds.

2. Profile and champion the work of female engineers

Many engineers find themselves involved with projects that are at the vanguard of what we as a society are technically, intellectually and creatively capable of doing. They build smart cities, design greener and more sustainable futures and maintain historical spaces. Profiling the engineers – and particularly female engineers – working on these major projects can help women aspiring into these roles visualise themselves accomplishing similar things and making a difference in the industry.

21% believe profiling female engineers to be the most effective way of encouraging women into the profession, which also ties into the significance of improved careers education. Bringing female engineers into classrooms to discuss the work they do not only embeds engineering as an inclusive profession from a young age, but also helps to generate interest and awareness around it as a career.

3. Introduce mentoring and networking schemes

According to our poll, over a third (35%) deem mentoring schemes to be the number one way of facilitating better career progression for female engineers. A good mentor can help women develop their leadership and management abilities, provide interview support, and focus specifically on the skills needed in order to progress. These schemes can be particularly crucial at organisations that lack transparent progression structures, providing coaching on unwritten expectations and advocation for their advancement.

Providing access to a diverse range of networking groups is another way to foster supportive communities for female engineers across various disciplines. The fact that we’re seeing a drop off in engineers aged 35+ suggests an issue with long-term retention, potentially due to working patterns and location demands that are not compatible with personal commitments, for example caring responsibilities. Internal networks can provide female engineering professionals with a forum for sharing resources, best practices and ideas for meeting these challenges.

4. Implement a more structured approach to promotions

What is perhaps the most important thing about implementing better structure when it comes to promotions is that it improves the perception of fairness, which is essential to maintaining morale. If the engineering sector is to retain female professionals long term, it’s essential that they feel empowered to progress their careers, and know that the ability to do so is entirely within their own hands.

Nearly a third (31%) feel that more structured and standardised promotions are key to helping women progress in engineering, and there are a number of steps organisations can take to help make the process fairer and more equitable. Providing opportunities to have those initial conversations, being transparent about timelines, clearly laying out the criteria needed in order to advance, scheduling regular updates, and arriving at decisions via consensus from a committee are ways organisations can hold themselves accountable and eliminate bias and ambiguity from the process.

These strategies for improving the recruitment and retention of women in engineering, while not quick fixes, can in combination establish a more equal gender balance, which in time will also help to diversify leadership teams.

If you’re looking to build a more gender-balanced workforce and secure the diverse and skilled engineering professionals capable of enacting real change within your organisation, submit an enquiry with us today.