One of the greatest issues facing women who have the talent, ambition and skills to be top engineers is that they simply don’t believe they can be. According to EngineeringUK, only 60 per cent of girls aged between 11 and 14 think they could become an engineer if they wanted to, compared to 72 per cent of boys. This drops to 53 per cent in the 16-19 age range, where only a quarter of girls say they would ever consider a career in engineering.
There are similar issues for all under-represented groups in the sector. If people don’t have the advice, support and role models they need to encourage them into engineering, they are less likely to consider it a viable option. And while these are in part societal issues, there is more the sector can do to make itself accessible to all.
Mentoring, in our experience, is one of the most beneficial ways of opening up the profession, and is something that all engineers should be engaging in. While we both participate...