Female engineers in the UK are still facing unacceptable
behaviour and unequal treatment in the workplace, according to a
new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
The study, ‘Stay or go? The experience of female
engineers in early career’ found that 63% of the women in
engineering surveyed experienced unacceptable behaviour or
comments, which is as much as three times more than women in
financial or medical professions. According to the findings, 40%
of female engineers said they were not treated equally and 60%
said it was easier for men to progress in their
careers.
The report reveals that the problem of unequal
treatment is an issue even early on in training, with almost half
of female engineers experiencing differential treatment at some
stage before graduation either as a student or while on work
experience and 75% being aware of being treated differently by
the end of the first year at work.
Peter Finegold, Head of Education and Skills at the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers and one of the Lead Authors
of the report, said:
“The findings of this report show that there is an
urgent need for a culture change in engineering companies as well
as in academia
“The UK is facing an engineering skills shortfall and
we need to find ways to attract and retain women in this sector.
It is unacceptable that after completing an engineering degree
just under half of women decide to leave the profession. There is
also the need to make the sector more attractive for parents, as
currently two thirds of women leave their engineering careers
after taking maternity leave.
“The Institution’s recommendations include that
engineering employers, institutions and the academic community
work together to create quality marks and sign up to charters to
address all aspects of equality and diversity. Employers and
education providers have a duty of care to provide an atmosphere
where women are able to thrive.”
Silvia Boschetto, Fellow of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers and one of the contributors to the report,
said:
“It isn’t good enough that two thirds of female
engineers working in industry feel the need to adapt their
personalities and ‘toughen up’ in order to get by.
“As part of our study, we heard of incidents of male
colleagues saying things, such as, ‘what would you know about
this, you’re a woman,’ or ‘I can’t criticise her work because
she’ll just cry.’ The study also revealed numerous incidents at
meetings where male colleagues would assume that a woman must
have an administrative role rather than being a professional with
technical expertise.
“Women are often placed in an impossible position of
either being accused of lacking a sense of humour or pretending
they were not offended. It is time for employers and education
providers to ensure this stops.”
The report makes five key
recommendations:
1. The engineering community should devise and
promote the adoption of agreed quality benchmarks for retaining
female engineers in early-to-mid career — building on existing
best practice, such as the RICS Inclusive Employer Quality Mark.
Employers must promote a message that no employee should feel a
need to ‘toughen up’ to be successful in their
career.
2. The engineering community needs to identify and
emulate how the most-effective companies address career
‘flashpoints’, such as return to work after maternity leave,
through implementing strategies that work both for female
employees and the employer.
3. Employers should consult all employees annually,
and in confidence, on their views about the fairness of staff
recognition, reward, professional support and work social
activity – and, where necessary, implement changes to bring about
improvement.
4. The academic engineering community should carry
out a UK-wide study to characterise the experience of being a
university engineering undergraduate. All Higher Education
institutions should be encouraged to participate in the Athena
SWAN charter which addresses all aspects of equality and
diversity.
5. Careers education should be properly resourced to
reflect its vital role in contributing to a successful Industrial
Strategy. A quality national careers programme in schools would
both encourage more women to pursue engineering and contribute to
the reduction of attrition in early career.
The study is based on a survey of 500 women in the
first ten years of their career in engineering, medicine and
finance. The research was commissioned by the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers and carried out by ICM Unlimited in
2016.
