Arguably, engineering is still a field that makes most people think of one dominated by male workers. This is not surprising when the number of women going into the profession is still relatively low compared to their male counterparts. However, women are still following the engineer career path and enjoying successful careers, whilst inadvertently helping to change the face of engineering to become a much more unisex occupation.
Just become an engineer
Back in January of this year Emma Watson had the perfect response to a fan who asked her for advice on Twitter about becoming an engineer. The fan asked what she could do to change her father’s view that engineering is a man’s profession, and the response she got was simply to “become an engineer”. This is an attitude that many women are adopting and what used to be an incredibly male dominated industry is actually shifting towards becoming much more gender balanced.
Everyone looks like an engineer
A recent internet hashtag, #ilooklikeanengineer, was created by a successful engineer in response to the sexist attitude that ‘attractive’ women do not look like engineers. This may highlight that there is still a sexist attitude, but it also demonstrates that there are many women around the world who are working very effectively as engineers and that there is no stereotypical ‘woman engineer’. What was created out of a negative response is actually doing a lot of work to address the inaccurate notion that engineering is still a man’s job.
There may still be fewer women than men taking the engineering route but the fact that there are now women working in all engineering sectors shows that the industry to definitely moving forward. With more women achieving success and promoting up the engineering career ladder it is also paving the way for more women to consider engineering as a valid career option.
Aggreko is leading the way
Fortunately, there are also companies that are committed to redressing the gender imbalance within the industry; Aggreko is one such company. After having no female employees on the board in 2010 the company has recognised this as being an issue and has addressed the gender imbalance.
The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) has praised the work Aggreko has done to improve the representation of women and has included its current 30% female board as one of the top 10 most improved boards for gender diversity.
There are obviously great steps being taken to combat the stereotype that only men become engineers and the fact that companies such as Aggreko are actively seeking to increase the representation of women shows positive moves forward. The Twitter hashtag also shows that women from all walks of life are choosing to follow their dreams and become engineers. However, the fact that the #ilooklikeanengineer hashtag was adopted to shows that there is still a way to go before women are treated as complete equals in the profession.
Image by expertinfantry, used under Creative Commons licence.
