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Where is the IET going?

Raymond Cragg
The IET on Twitter is mostly about women in engineering and it appears we also have or have had an Executive member who represents the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE-UK). Since when did we get away and direct our selves at subsections of the organization? There is no minorities that I am aware of in the IET at least not because of bias in any way shape of form. The same goes for women in engineering, no one is biased against them. Low numbers are because they dont want to be in engineering..

Where is the IET heading? It does not seem to be going in a place most of the member wold probably want or is it?
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    Andy Millar:

    ...

    It's really interesting to read about what happened during and after World War 2 to get a perspective view of this attitude that "they're not doing it because they don't want to" - a large number of women who were very competently and enjoyably carrying out engineering roles found themselves sacked because "the men needed the jobs". Sorry, why did they need the jobs more? "Because they're men." Errr...that's a reason?  

    ...

    Andy




    Andy,

    The main reason was that the men had gone off to war with the promise that when they returned they could have their old jobs back. (That is not to say that "Because they're men" was not a factor with a number of employers.) However employers definitely missed a trick as with all the rebuilding that was needed after six years of war (and the fact that not everyone did return) there was the opportunity for work for a substantially increased workforce, so if it had been managed better there could have been a massive growth in engineering with a much more diverse workforce.

    That said, I think it is a mistake to apply current attitudes in judging situations in the past where there was a very different outlook and attitude to life. We should accept what happened, be glad we are more enlightened, and try to fix the injustices/prejudices that we can still see.

    Alasdair

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  • 0

    Andy Millar:

    ...

    It's really interesting to read about what happened during and after World War 2 to get a perspective view of this attitude that "they're not doing it because they don't want to" - a large number of women who were very competently and enjoyably carrying out engineering roles found themselves sacked because "the men needed the jobs". Sorry, why did they need the jobs more? "Because they're men." Errr...that's a reason?  

    ...

    Andy




    Andy,

    The main reason was that the men had gone off to war with the promise that when they returned they could have their old jobs back. (That is not to say that "Because they're men" was not a factor with a number of employers.) However employers definitely missed a trick as with all the rebuilding that was needed after six years of war (and the fact that not everyone did return) there was the opportunity for work for a substantially increased workforce, so if it had been managed better there could have been a massive growth in engineering with a much more diverse workforce.

    That said, I think it is a mistake to apply current attitudes in judging situations in the past where there was a very different outlook and attitude to life. We should accept what happened, be glad we are more enlightened, and try to fix the injustices/prejudices that we can still see.

    Alasdair

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