Tomorrow is International Women in Engineering Day which
is an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of women in
engineering and focuses attention on the amazing career opportunities available
to girls and women in this exciting industry. This year, as well as celebrating the sixth INWED, the UK is
also celebrating 100 years of the Women's
Engineering Society (WES).
The Women's Engineering Society is a charity and
a professional network of women engineers, scientists and technologists
offering inspiration, support and professional development.
Working in
partnership, they support and inspire women to achieve as engineers, scientists
and as leaders; encourage the education of engineering; and support companies
with gender diversity and inclusion.
The state of the industry
The UK has the lowest percentage of female engineers
in Europe. As it stands, this figure isn’t set to rise any time soon. It’s
estimated that less than eight per cent of engineering and manufacturing
apprentices are female. The UK requires to significantly increase its number of
engineers. The STEM skills shortage is costing businesses £1.5bn in recruitment
every year. For the engineering sector to reduce its skills shortage, it needs
to employ around 186,000 recruits each year until 2024.
Engineers are the creative problem solvers, mathematicians
and physicists; full of new ideas and the know-how to implement them, creating
new or improved solutions to everyday problems. While statistics from
the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) found that 64 per cent of
employers highlighted a shortage of engineers in the UK as a threat to their
business, just 9 per cent of the UK engineering workforce is female. Hence,
attracting, retaining and promoting women into engineering is not only
essential to increase diversity but also vital for the future sustainability of
the engineering and high-tech industry.
Importantly, utilising the talents of women and rewarding their contribution across sectors and occupations in the workforce will benefit the UK economy as a whole. In fact, it has been estimated that if the country’s gender gap were to be closed, this could potentially generate an additional £150 billion to gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025.
Some technology companies are already taking the lead and have
publicised gender
diversity targets include Xerox, SAP, Schneider Electric and BAE Systems.
We must not forget that women inventors, scientists, and
engineers have discovered countless revolutionary and life-changing inventions
that have caused unprecedented breakthroughs in the history of the engineering world.
Laura Preston,
Redline’s Principal Consultant looks at how women have inspired the world of
technology and engineering.
Heating Systems
There were systems for distributing heat around the home
back in Roman times, but a forgotten African American woman came up with the
system that bears most similarity to modern central heating systems. Almost
nothing is known about Alice Parker, bar the patent she was granted in 1919
which describes a technically complex and intricate gas-powered heating system
for the home.
Rocket Science
Yvonne Madelaine Claeys Brill was a Canadian-born
American aerospace engineer rocket scientist who pioneered the electrothermal
hydrazine thruster. She invented the propulsion system that keeps communication
satellites from falling out of orbit. During her lifetime, Yvonne C. Brill
contributed to the propulsion systems of TIROS, the first weather satellite;
Nova, a series of rocket designs that were used in American moon missions;
Explorer 32, the first upper-atmosphere satellite; and the Mars Observer, which
in 1992 almost entered a Mars orbit before losing communication with Earth.
Computer Software
After joining the US Navy during the Second World War, Rear
Admiral Grace Hopper was assigned to work on a new computer, called the Mark 1.
It wasn't long before she was at the forefront of computer programming in the
1950s. She was behind
the compiler, which could translate instructions into code that computers
can read, making programming quicker and ultimately revolutionising how
computers worked. Hopper also helped popularise the term "debugging"
that we still use when developing computers programmes today. "Amazing
Grace", as she was known, continued working with computers until she
retired from the navy as its oldest serving officer, aged 79.
Computer Programming
In the mid-1800s Ada Lovelace worked with Charles Babbage to
translate the functions of his ‘Analytical Engine’.
Sound cryptic? Many people still think so, as Lovelace’s work described how the
analytical engine worked using algorithms to generate Bernoulli numbers.
Without Lovelace’s work almost 180 years ago, apps and websites of today wouldn’t
work.
WiFi
WiFi has quite literally changed the way the world works in
the last few years. However, without big screen Hollywood actress, and
co-creator of a spread-spectrum radio during World War 1, Hedy Lamarr, this
wouldn’t be a possibility. The spread-spectrum radio was designed to accurately
guide torpedoes via an un-jammable radio signal. Today’s WiFi uses direct
spread spectrum transmission in the 2.4GHz band.
Medical Electronics
Sadef Monajemi has created software that, with the use of
artificial intelligence, can help medical professionals to predict
strokes in at-risk patients without having to spend vast amounts of
money on extensive tests and investigations. It’s still early days, but the
project is already seeing substantial backing from investors.
With the engineering industry facing an on-going skills
shortage, the need to find new ways to attract and retain female talent within
the sector is of increasing importance. “To inspire the future, we should
reflect on the past," says Laura. McKinsey's report ‘Delivering
through diversity’ - a lack of role models is often cited as a reason why
women shy away from a career in the engineering and high-tech industry.
However, the reality is that our engineering heroines are often unsung. The
report also states that many companies struggle to increase the representation
of diverse talent and create truly inclusive organisational cultures to profit
from diversity.
Promoting an inclusive policy and achieving gender balance
is not just the right thing to do, it’s good for business. There is clear
evidence that companies with women in their workforce from engineering and
technical jobs, to engineering
management jobs, outperform their competition.
Laura comments: "If your business is seeking to improve
gender equality then download the full REC report The role of good recruitmentin gender diversity. The report is a how-to guide on embracing best practice
and promoting gender equality in the workplace."
HR professionals and recruiters are in a unique position to
help eradicate the gender gap in employment. Good recruitment is the foundation
upon which fair and gender-balanced organisations are built.
To find out more about high tech and electronics jobs, contact Laura Preston on
01582 878823 or email LPreston@RedlineGroup.com