Honorary Fellowship

Mehmood Birdi:
If you think about it; how does an archaic, elitist and snobbish engineering institution, run mostly by middle aged (and older) middle (and upper middle) class men, attract young females, into getting interested in STEM and joining the institution? Well, they could find a global superstar, who's interested in science and technology, and has a huge fanbase of young female admirers. Give him an honorary fellowship, then he can freely (at no cost) advertise science and technology and the institution as.....being cool! A bit like sticking an advertisment on a walking billboard. By the way, the honarary fellowship list does look like an all male club. Proves my point. They could have given it to a global female superstar instead. An example of hypecrisy at its finest.

This is demonstrably not true.

• In 2017, two men and two women became honorary fellows.
• In 2016, one man and one woman became honorary fellows.
• In 2015, two men and one woman became honorary fellows.

You can of course go further back as see a male-dominated list, but that doesn't tell anything about the direction that the IET is heading in.

In addition, it is also not true that the IET is "run" by men. You can see trustees here: https://www.theiet.org/about/people/trustees/. I'm quite sure that there's a few of them who wouldn't thank you for referring to them as middle aged either.

Within the staff team, the directors of membership, international marketing and governance & policy are women. I walk around Michael Faraday House every day and I see men and women of all ages in all positions. 

 

Mehmood Birdi:
If you think about it; how does an archaic, elitist and snobbish engineering institution, run mostly by middle aged (and older) middle (and upper middle) class men, attract young females, into getting interested in STEM and joining the institution? Well, they could find a global superstar, who's interested in science and technology, and has a huge fanbase of young female admirers. Give him an honorary fellowship, then he can freely (at no cost) advertise science and technology and the institution as.....being cool! A bit like sticking an advertisment on a walking billboard. By the way, the honarary fellowship list does look like an all male club. Proves my point. They could have given it to a global female superstar instead. An example of hypecrisy at its finest.

This is demonstrably not true.

• In 2017, two men and two women became honorary fellows.
• In 2016, one man and one woman became honorary fellows.
• In 2015, two men and one woman became honorary fellows.

You can of course go further back as see a male-dominated list, but that doesn't tell anything about the direction that the IET is heading in.

In addition, it is also not true that the IET is "run" by men. You can see trustees here: https://www.theiet.org/about/people/trustees/. I'm quite sure that there's a few of them who wouldn't thank you for referring to them as middle aged either.

Within the staff team, the directors of membership, international marketing and governance & policy are women. I walk around Michael Faraday House every day and I see men and women of all ages in all positions.