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You have to get the mothers onside, says Nick Baveystock, if more women are to become engineers. Studies show the main influence on a child’s choice of career is their primary caregiver, says the Institution of Civil Engineers director-general.

“Almost always it’s mum. Engineers can go into schools to win children over but if mothers are not convinced, it won’t work.”

This was not a problem for April Shackley, whose mother had been a civil engineer and encouraged her to study the subject at university. Good at maths and physics, and wondering what career to pursue, she saw this as a sensible idea.

At university she switched to architectural engineering and then worked as a structural engineer, before joining Whitby Wood as a senior engineer.

“The great thing about our job is seeing your work in reality and realising you’re contributing to society,” says Ms Shackley, who leads a team of three and designs the structural elements on building projects.

She chooses materials, calculates sizing, and works with architects to construct a building. This dynamic can be testing but she enjoys it. “There’s a thing between architects and engineers — both think the other one is always wrong. I was interested in architecture so I like working with them,” she says.

Engineering remains a male-dominated field, particularly in the UK. It has the lowest percentage of female engineers in Europe, with women occupying 12 per cent of engineering jobs.

Search “engineer” images online and you will see pictures of people in yellow jackets and hard hats on construction sites. However, says Mr Baveystock: “You don’t spend your entire life in a pair of wellington boots watching concrete being poured in the rain. The reality is most people are sitting in offices or travelling the world solving problems.

“This is about making the world a better place,” he says, pointing to the increasing focus on sustainability.

Ms Shackley visits schools to talk about engineering and has worked with a charity, Scale Rule, which aims to involve more children from low-income backgrounds. “Most children know what an architect is but they don’t know what an engineer is,” she says.

12%Percentage of engineering jobs held by women in the UK. The country has the lowest percentage of female engineers in Europe

Mr Baveystock says companies should work with teachers to create lesson plans that focus on problem-solving. Showing children how they can apply learning to real jobs is important, he adds.

Hilary Leevers, chief executive of EngineeringUK, a lobby group, says the introduction of mandatory gender pay gap reporting for big employers spurred companies to review their efforts to attract and retain women. “All of a sudden we stopped having to make the case — all that energy can now be put into making a difference.”

Perhaps frustratingly for a profession that prizes problem-solving, there is not a single, easy solution.

“We don’t really know how to crack it. There has been good local success but nothing that looks scalable,” says Ms Leevers, who is studying how other countries have redressed gender imbalances, including in the Middle East, where some countries report a steady increase in the proportion of female engineering students.

Chloé Clair, chief technical officer at Vinci Construction and the first woman to join the company’s executive committee, was encouraged into engineering as a student in her native France.

“I was lucky that I was good at maths and the French system pushes you into engineering,” says Ms Clair. Now she loves it: “I learn every day, I have freedom and the scope is so large.”

Ms Clair has held several operational roles internationally, including in San Francisco, Miami, Cyprus and Thailand. There were cultural differences to adapt to — the US, for example, being “always super-professional, just a little too much, a bit cold”.

While she sometimes felt too young, she never felt being a woman was a problem, aside from one time negotiating prices in the Caribbean.

The problems for women come later, says Ms Clair. “In my company the number of women managers is the same as 10 years ago. It has not changed. It’s inclusive but the right actions are not taken.”

In their own words: advice to young women in engineering

Chloé Clair
“Never stay in process roles, even if you like it. You have to be on the field. If not you will stay in functional roles”

Hilary Leevers
“You will be in a minority, most likely. Some thrive in this environment but if you don’t, build a network around you, either outside or inside the organisation. Don’t underestimate how powerful that can be”

April Shackley
“Don’t be worried about not knowing everything and ask for help when you need it. It took me a long time to enjoy my job. I had no confidence, and I now see younger girls who are exactly the same”

Companies should appoint more women as leaders, she says, because they then influence decisions that affect female colleagues throughout the organisation.

Women returning from maternity leave, she suggests, should be given a bonus that is more than only pro rata. It is already hard enough for returning mothers, she argues — offering a significant raise demonstrates how happy the company is to have them back.

“If you don’t have women at the top then they just don’t have a clue — they think maternity leave is a form of holiday, that when we come back everything is open, red carpet, no problem.”

Changing the perceptions of male colleagues is important, but she also points to lack of confidence as a barrier.

Ms Shackley admits to sometimes feeling her opinion is not always valued and warns that less-confident engineers can be pressed into agreeing to something they think is wrong.

Contractors might be fixing reinforcements with concrete, for example, and on-site engineers must step in if something looks incorrect. “The concrete’s there, they want to pour it, and they don’t want to lose money.”

Women aspiring to leadership jobs should prioritise operational roles, says Ms Clair. “I can be confident and assertive because I’ve been on site and I know the problems.”

Retaining women also needs to be a priority for the sector, she says.

“Companies are bending over backwards to recruit women,” agrees Mr Baveystock, but they need to do more to ensure returning women have an easier route back into the workplace.

He says best practice from other industries can be transferred to engineering, such as flexible working, and a more family-friendly approach to business meetings. “Don’t say that in order to be successful you have to be floating around between 7 and 9 o’clock at night because it isn’t true.”

Ms Shackley says she has seen too many women have children and then “give up on their careers.” One of these was her own mother, who after having three children did not return to her job as a civil engineer and became a teacher instead.

It was a decision that Ms Shackley says is tinged with regret. Her mother had been the only woman on her course at university and one of a very few in the office.

“When I passed my chartership this year she said she was really proud. She wished she hadn’t given it all up.”

100 influential women in engineering

The policies, practices and strategies of the engineering sector affect every area of daily life and those of families, friends and colleagues.

Yet women are strangely absent from the sector — whether in the boardroom or on site. As businesses and organisations try to redress this, we publish a list that highlights the ways in which women are influencing the present and future roles of female engineering colleagues.

The list is presented in alphabetical order, except for the top 10, who were selected and then ranked by a judging panel. The criteria for inclusion and ranking included influence within an organisation or team, respect within the field and leadership. The list was compiled by research partner Inclusive Boards, an executive search group that helps organisations diversify their workforces.

The judges were: Patrick Clarke, UK Power Networks; Samuel Kasumu, Inclusive Boards; Katie Petrou, Inclusive Boards; Harriet Arnold, Financial Times

Women influential in UK engineering: top 10 ranking
RANKING NAME TITLE COMPANY
1 Jane Atkinson Executive director, engineering and automation Bilfinger
2 Dawn Bonfield Founder and director Towards Vision
3 Bridget Rosewell Senior independent director Network Rail
4 Hayaatun Sillem Chief executive  Royal Academy of Engineering
5 Sarah Williamson Technical director Laing O'Rourke
6 Alison Atkinson Executive director, infrastructure projects delivery AWE
7 Katherine Bennett Senior vice-president Airbus
8 Rebecca DeNiro Managing director - Great Britain and Ireland Dyson
9 Roma Agrawal Structural engineer and associate director Aecom
10 Amanda Quadling Technical director M&I Materials
Women influential in UK engineering: 11-100 in alphabetical order
FIRST NAME SURNAME title COMPANY
Enass Abo-Hamed Chief executive officer H2GO Power
Fatumina Abukar Global business manage BAP Pharma
Yewande Akinola Innovation lead Laing O’Rourke
Pavlina Akritas Associate lighting designer Arup
Jennifer Allerton Non-executive director Aveva Group / Sandvik
Sofia Athanassiou Commercial director Connect Plus 
Gwénaëlle Avice-Huet Executive vice-president  Engie
Daniela Barone Soares Non-executive director Halma
Julia Barrett Chief sustainability officer Willmott Dixon
Kimberly Bartlett Senior lighting engineer WSP
Kirsty Bashforth Non-executive director Kier Group and Serco
Fritha Bevin-McCrimmon Project engineer Stantec
Kirsten Bolton Marketing director Willerby 
Inken Braunschmidt Chief innovation and digital officer Halma
Lynsey Breen Company secretary and managing director Advanced Powertek Utilities
Vanessa Burton Assistant engineer Mott MacDonald
Naomi Climer Vice-president for fellowship engagement Royal Academy of Engineering
Isabel Coman Project director, HS2 Skanska Costain Strabag
Naomi Connell Chief finance officer VolkerWessels UK
Allison Connick National director and head of health and safety Integral UK 
Laura Davies Vehicle integration design engineer Dyson Automotive
Jo Davis Group HR director Mitie
Isabel Dedring Global transport leader Arup
Margherita Della Valle Group chief financial officer Vodafone 
Elizabeth Donnelly Chief executive officer The Women's Engineering Society
Jenni Emery Global people leader Arup
Karen Farrell Group finance director Mick George
Lizzie Featherstone Business excellence manager Taylor Woodrow
Danielle Flynn Degree apprentice Jaguar Land Rover
Nike  Folayan Associate director/ Chairperson WSP/ AFBE 
Astrid Fontaine Member of the board for people, digitalisation and IT Bentley Motors
Kirsty Gill Chief people officer Arm 
Gillian Guy Non-executive director Southern Water 
Louise Hardy Non-executive director /Non-executive board member Severfield / Crest Nicholson
Jill Harrower-Steele Head of group legal / company secretary  Lagan Specialist Contracting
Suzanne Heywood Chairman CNH Industrial
Amber Hill Founder and chief executive officer R.grid
Eva Hinkers Chair, Europe region Arup
Alice Holleworth Site engineer/design co-ordinator JN Bentley
Anne-Marie Imafidon Chief executive officer Stemettes
Enrica Ippoliti Senior project engineer Johnson Matthey
Maria Katsourou Engineering programme manager Rolls-Royce
Jackie Kelly Group HR director Watkin Jones Group
Alison Littley Non-executive director Geoffrey Osborne
Hilary Leevers Chief executive EngineeringUK
Isabelle Maddock Group finance director James Cropper
Loraine Martins Director of diversity and inclusion Network Rail
Vinita Marwaha Madill Space engineer, founder Rocket Women
Maxine Mayhew Managing director, natural resources Costain
Alice Maynard Non-executive director Tube Lines
Ines Mazzilli Independent board member Saipem
Alice McCullagh Head of cities Dyson
Rosemary McGinness Chief people officer The Weir Group
Anne McMeel Non-executive board member Transport for London and Crossrail 
Wendy McWilliams Chief legal officer and group company secretary Willmott Dixon
Kristy Merson Manager, solution engineering Salesforce
Victoria Mitchell Vice-president, CE systems group Arm
Dervilla Mitchell Chair, UK Middle East and Africa Arup
Vanda Murray Non-executive director Redrow 
Johanna O'Driscoll Finance director Tarmac
Raffaella Ocone Professor of chemical engineering Heriot-Watt University
Jennifer Osbaldestin Managing director BAE Systems
Anna Patching Guarantee sound engineer NEP UK
Rhiannon Piasecki Finance director DeepOcean
Julie Pope Senior vice-president, human resources Dialog Semiconductor 
Kerry Porritt Group company secretary and legal adviser Keller Group
Emma Porter Managing director Story Contracting
Phillipa Recchia Group safety, health and environment director Severfield
Helena Rivers Regional director, head of asset management Aecom
Marion Sears Independent non-executive director Persimmon Homes 
Susanne Seitz Executive vice-president, head of Emea Landis+Gyr
Sakthy Selvakumaran Fellow in engineering / co-founder  Cambridge university / BKwai
Billie Sequeira Engineering technician  BAE Systems
Rachel Skinner Executive director WSP
Nichola Skinner Senior counsel and company secretary Bechtel
Eleanor Stride Professor of engineering science Oxford university
Annalisa Stupenengo President, powertrain CNH Industrial
Olivia Sweeney Ethical buyer, aroma chemicals Lush 
Meshi Taka Principal engineer / project manager Aecom
Marina Thomas Group company secretary Meggitt
Emma Taylor Chair Safety and Reliability Society
Andrea Thompson Managing director, Europe and international BAE Systems
Katy Toms Senior engineer WSP
Helen Townend Technical director for diversity and inclusion  Amey
Cathy Travers Managing director, UK and Europe Mott MacDonald
Grazia Vittadini Chief technology officer Airbus 
Jennifer Ward Group talent, culture and communications director Halma
Louise Williamson Managing director BAM FM
Rachel Whittaker Finance director Nexperia UK
Joanna Wood Group engineering director  BAE Systems
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