‘Just 9%’ Of UK Engineering Workforce Is Female

It seems that there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in order to encourage women to take up a career in the engineering industry here in the UK. Figures from The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) shows that just nine per cent of the sector’s workforce is female at the moment, so the question must be begged – what can be done to enact change?

Dawn Elson, group engineering director at Merlin Entertainments (which is taking part in an IET conference addressing this particular issue), explained that the problem with diversity in the sector has been going on for decades – and, in fact, there has only been a two per cent increase in the number of women working in the industry in the last 20 years.

“We need to seriously address this challenge now, so this event is hugely important to: help us champion female engineering role models; better translate engineering careers to girls and the families who influence their career choice; and to understand how to enable qualified female engineers who have left the profession to return to it,” she said.

The conference has been dubbed #9percentisnotenough, held to mark International Women in Engineering Day (June 23rd). The campaign itself was launched in October last year to draw attention to just how few women there are in the sector. Although this year’s event has come to a close, it’d be worth keeping an eye out for similar ones so you can help make changes within your own company as well.

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