The Women in Engineering Society is a charity and a professional network of women engineers, scientists and technologists offering inspiration, support and professional development. A FISITA Strategic Partner and organiser of the International Women in Engineering Day (INWED).
INWED is an international awareness campaign which raises the profile of women in engineering and focuses attention on the amazing career opportunities available to women and girls in this exciting industry.
We caught up with WES CEO, Elizabeth Donnelly about the activities that WES and INWED offer for women in engineering, the challenges facing them and what the wider engineering community can do to help.
Please can you outline your current roles and responsibilities?
I am the Chief Executive Officer of the Women’s Engineering Society. I am responsible for implementing the Board of Trustees’ strategy and decisions. I also manage WES’ overall operations and resources, act as the main point of communication between the Trustees and the team and I am the public face of the company.
What activities, services and initiatives does WES and INWED offer?
The Women’s Engineering Society delivers professional development support that includes mentoring, webinars, access to jobs and voluntary roles and networking opportunities; all of which are specifically targeted at women in engineering who want to progress in their careers. We do this though our WES platform, with a multi-tier subscription model that reflect your career stage, or through employers & educational institutions who subscribe on behalf of their people. We also campaign on key issues related to gender diversity in arenas with government, regulators, and institutions.
Now in its eighth year, International Women in Engineering Day, on 23 June, is the only day in the calendar that celebrates women in engineering and allied professions around the world. It is coordinated from the UK by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), which founded the event in 2014. INWED is the world’s biggest initiative of its kind, with a potential global reach of over 100 million people on social media. It consists of talks, tours and debates; competitions, virtual site visits, videos and campaigns, all under the #INWED banner and organised by people around the world – from Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, to Nepal, Nigeria, Ecuador, USA and Australia, among many other countries.
"The Women’s Engineering Society delivers professional development support that includes mentoring, webinars, access to jobs and voluntary roles and networking opportunities; all of which are specifically targeted at women in engineering who want to progress in their careers".
What are the key industry trends pertinent to women in engineering?
Latest figures show that just under 13% of the UK engineering workforce is female. INWED gives women engineers around the world a profile when they are still hugely under-represented in their professions.
Government recommendations for FTSE 350 companies to have 33% women’s representation on their boards by 2020 and the same representation for FTSE 100 companies’ Executive Committees and direct reports have seen these targets largely met.
The requirements for all companies with more than 250 employees to report their gender pay gap has been 100% fulfilled.
"We also know that the percentage of women engineers in engineering companies is less than 10%, while 18% of engineers in non-engineering companies are women. We believe this is because non-engineering companies are less likely to be male-dominated".
These measures have led to an increase in women’s representation. Data from Royal Academy of Engineering survey of 25 companies employing just under 42,000 engineers, shows the gender pay gap in engineering is 10.8% overall compared to 16.2% for the UK nation, mostly due to over-representation of men in senior and higher paid roles. For engineers at the same career level, in the same role, with the same employer, in the same location and of the same age, the gender pay gap is only 1%. Where companies have transparent pay structures, the gap is even smaller.
We also know that the percentage of women engineers in engineering companies is less than 10%, while 18% of engineers in non-engineering companies are women. We believe this is because non-engineering companies are less likely to be male-dominated.
Despite activity encouraging women to choose engineering as a career over many years there has not been a large change. Why do you think this is? What are reasonable goals and when could they be achieved? What is WES doing differently to impact positive change?
The answer to getting more women into engineering is to have more women in engineering. Stereotypical attitudes to which jobs are more suitable to men or women start early in life, before school age and are hard to shift. Engineering is not represented in mainstream media, so children don’t see engineers on TV or read about them in books in the same way as they see adults being doctors or lawyers. Therefore, what engineers do is not as clear as other professions. The biggest influence on a child’s future career is their parents, and many children do what their parents do and don’t have exposure to engineering as a career.
There is also a stereotype that engineering is all about dirty, oily jobs on large outdoor sites wearing hard hats, whereas most engineering happens at a desk.
"The answer to getting more women into engineering is to have more women in engineering. Stereotypical attitudes to which jobs are more suitable to men or women start early in life, before school age and are hard to shift."
The data is also quite far behind. The most reliable data we have was published in 2019 using figures from 2017. Once updated measures are taken we hope to see a jump in numbers.
The Royal Academy of Engineering has launched a Google image project where we hope more images of engineers will include women, people from underrepresented ethnicities and other groups, and not so many pictures of PPE.
At WES we continue to push INWED as a way of showcasing brilliant women engineers and other conferences and projects throughout the year.
What can the wider automotive engineering community do to help?
There is a great deal that can be done to help. Many vehicles are designed with a default male driver in mind, so that everything from steering wheels to pedal positions and footrests are built around the way men drive. For example, I drive an automatic and there is a footrest on the left side for my left foot. However, it is quite extended for my legs, even taking into account my driving position nearer the pedals, and women prefer to drive with their feet closer to the seat.
The steering wheel doesn’t have a comfortable grip at the 10 to 2 or quarter to 3 positions. The quarter to 3 tends to be solid wheel where the airbag is placed, and at 10 to 2 my arms are often fully extended – the wheel is often further away than is comfortable to cater for men’s longer arms.
"There is a great deal that can be done to help. Many vehicles are designed with a default male driver in mind, so that everything from steering wheels to pedal positions and footrests are built around the way men drive".
Vehicles are also advertised with men as the decision makers, yet we know that women have a great deal of say in the purchase of a vehicle. A man may be more interested in torque or horsepower, whereas a woman may be more interested in safety features.
We need to see more images of women as drivers, buyers and engineers.
Recruiting websites need to include more women, so that women feel represented – not very many people want to be the trailblazer or the role model. Job ads can be worded to include more words like collaboration, co-operation and creativity because we know that women won’t apply for ads that include a lot of male-coded words. WES offers a gender ad decoder on its website to check for this.
We also know that women won’t apply for a role if they don’t fit the role 100%. Feedback suggests that they don’t want to waste their time applying for a role they’re not suitable for, whereas men will apply for and get roles where they don’t have all the skills – companies are missing out on great talent as a result. WES recommends that “essential criteria” are limited to things that really are essential, rather than a wishlist. We also recommend that job ads encourage more women to apply by saying, if you fit more than three criteria, we want to hear from you.
Sign up as a WES Partner to reap the benefit of our advice and support and to meet other WES partners and share best practice.
Actively seek out women engineers who are about to graduate; create an apprenticeship programme and ensure that you hire young women as well as young men because they creativity that women bring will save your company time, money and energy.
What questions would you like to ask the FISITA Members?
Do you need persuading that having female engineers will enhance your business?
What’s keeping you from hiring more women?
What do you see as barriers to women entering the automotive profession and how would you remove them?
If you are a leader in your organisation and you are actively recruiting women engineers, how can you be sure that hiring managers are also following your vision?
