an evening for women in engineering

AN EVENING FOR WOMEN IN ENGINEERING
1
AN EVENING FOR
WOMEN IN ENGINEERING
To support National Women in Engineering day, Amec Foster Wheeler
hosted an event for men and women within the industry. The evening
celebrated the achievements of women in engineering, and provided
an opportunity for forthright roundtable discussions to consider the
specific challenge, faced by women in engineering and how they can
be addressed.
The evening was attended by over 180 people from 25 companies and
institutions, including:
Companies and Institutions
Amec Foster Wheeler
Jacobs
IMechE
StraDia Coaching
IET
FlexEJ
AWE
NATEP
Vodafone
ICE
ECITB
Fluor
IChemE
ATKINS
GE Power Water / Management
Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions Limited
BG Group
Cisco Systems
Eight2O
EA
Fiscal Technologies
WES
HR Wallingford
McFarlane Telfer
Mott MacDonald
MWH Global
Network Rail
SAS International
2
Hosts & Guest Speakers
Amec Foster Wheeler’s Lesley Birse, HR Director for
Northern Europe & CIS, and Nicola Mason, Strategic
Advisor for Northern Europe & CIS, hosted the event,
and provided a clear direction and consistency of
thought to the evening.
Dr Helen Meese, Head of Engineering in Society,
IMechE, gave a compelling and humorous speech of
her experiences, and discussed ways that
the
engineering sector can transform to accommodate
careers for women. Helen believes that we must do
more to publicise engineering, by reaching out to
girls at a primary level.
Cassie Kolyda, Founder and CEO of StraDia
Coaching, advocated a different approach by
suggesting that women must be flexible and adapt
to succeed in their environment. Cassie taught us
that confidence is key and that we must challenge
stereotypes.
To close the evening Catriona Schmolke, Vice
President of Jacobs, gave an entertaining and truly
inspiring speech, where she passionately discussed
challenges that women face in the work place and
shared
her
personal
experiences.
Catriona
emphasised that a supportive working environment
has helped her to excel in her career whilst being a
mother to her 3 children. Her advice was to know
and to refine your skill-set, to build your own
confidence and to be ‘self aware, not self critical’
and to ‘care for your colleagues’.
3
Discussion
To identify challenges and discuss solutions, the evening
entailed an ice breaker and discussion session, where
guests were encouraged to share their thoughts on
topical issues. These groups were led by the following
Discussion Champions:
Company
Amec Foster
Wheeler
Jacobs
Name
Position
Emma Johnson
Process Engineer
Margaret Deighan
Learning & Development Manager
Penny Armitage
Chief Engineer
Tamara Holmgren
Project Manager
Tebogo Msi
Legal Counsel
Catriona Schmolke
Dawn Thompson
Vice President
Regional Director of Performance & Quality
Management
Account Manager
Lorraine Kemp
Account Manager
Carron Freeney
Project Manager
Helen Kilbride
Process Director/President of GROW UK
Dana Berceanu
Head of Enterprise Mobility Product Development
Lara Wainwright
HR Business Partner, Group Technology
Sylvia Stevenson
Vodafone Way Ambassador
Joanna Robinson
Director
Elizabeth Orchard
Chartered Civil Engineer
Alana Collis
Technical Policy Manager
Dr Pamela Farries
National Technology Manager
Jack Gritt
ECITB
Fluor
Vodafone
FlexEJ
ICE
IChemE
NATEP (WES)
We were absolutely thrilled by the enthusiasm
displayed by the attendees (approx. 180), who
passionately debated their views and kindly shared
their personal experiences. The discussion topics
were prompted by 5 Icebreaker cards, which
provided the spark to the debate. To conclude,
several Discussion Champions presented their
groups findings in an open forum discussion.
4
Ice Breakers Conclusions
Does the Glass Ceiling exist?
→ Glass Ceiling The idea that a woman can have equal
accomplishments to her male counterpart but she does
not realise equal achievements because of her gender.
→ Existence? The ceiling reflects the low numbers of
women in the industry.
→ Glass Mezzanines Mid-term barriers created by career
breaks for children and the resultant part-time hours.
→ Old boys’ Network This is disappearing and the financial
benefits of having a gender mix in both Engineering and
the board room have been realised.
What can be done to encourage and enable women to
achieve their career goals?
→ Positive Action vs Positive Discrimination
→ Always ensure a focus on talent not
gender.
→ Find a mentor that you identify with.
→ Build and work on your confidence.
→ Advice tailored to your position.
→ Gaining the right experience is essential.
→ We should remember, not all women feel
like a minority in their office.
5
Ice Breakers Conclusions
Do woman still see engineering as a “male
domain”?
→ Yes, Overwhelmingly, women view engineering as a male
dominated profession
→ Sexism is still prevalent on many worksites
→ Male & Female Roles Men and women gravitate towards
certain functions. There was a view that the top jobs are
carried out by men. The view was explored; women only hold
around 6% of engineering’s top jobs.
→ Leadership is based on emotional intelligence and selfawareness, therefore anyone can achieve a leadership
position if they have the ability and gain the right experience,
men and women alike.
→ Progress The situation is improving and many organisations
are investing in diversity and inclusion schemes. It is a journey,
we must be driving and encouraging diversity.
→ Aim The hope is that ‘people are treated as people’ and feel
free to progress in the area that suits their skills.
6
Ice Breakers Conclusions
Does equality in the workplace begin in the
home?
→ Importance
of
Partnership
A supportive equal
partnership enables co-parenting and flows to impact in
the workplace. i.e. shared parental leave.
→ Gender Bend There needs to be a balance of
responsibilities and traditional roles should be challenged.
→ Family Pressure Women often face pressure and should
not feel guilty for returning to work.
→ Women Work Harder Some women still feel under
pressure to work harder than their partner to balance
career and motherhood, challenge responsibilities for
shared parenting.
→ Gender Discrimination at Home Today this is less of a
driving force. Parents frequently show teamwork by
sharing household duties. However some of these duties
still get split up along conventional lines.
7
Ice Breakers Conclusions
How can we nurture pools of high-potential
female talent and other diverse minorities into the
Engineering profession? Should quotas and
positive discrimination be used to promote
career growth?
→ Self-Confidence Installing confidence in women to know
that they can work successfully next to men is one of our
biggest challenges.
→ Boardroom Targets Although these are essential, they
do not promote change itself. Change needs to start at a
primary school level, companies need to influence choice
of STEM subjects and inspire boys and girls into
Engineering.
→ Younger Management Improves equality as younger
people tend to be more accepting of new attitudes.
→ Spain More women are joining the workforce and being
promoted since the introduction of positive discrimination.
→ India Government offices employ 30% of their workforce
from the lower caste. A more diverse mix is contributing
successfully to the running of the government, which has
extended to the private sector.
8
Ice Breakers Conclusions
At ‘A level’ in the UK close to 50% of students
taking science and maths are female. However
just 9% of the UK Engineering workforce are
female. What would make you go into and
remain in the engineering industry?
→ Role Models We should publicise female success in the
industry.
→ Direct Link Show that A-Levels in science & maths can
→
→
→
→
translate to a rewarding career in engineering.
Strong Relationships Developing links between the
education system and industry need to be established.
Creative Element Emphasis that engineering is at the
forefront of innovation and change. It should be
promoted by creating excitement about the subject.
Parents & Teachers Parental involvement and teacher
awareness of engineering is key & we should try to
influence children from an early age.
Culture can influence how girls feel about their roles.
For female retention
engineering we need:
in
the
→ Positive action to develop female
talent internally.
→ Strong support from management
for child related leave for parents.
→ Ease of access to informal
help/support, e.g. through a
professional engineering network.
9
Male Feedback
The event facilitated a rare phenomenon in
engineering – women heavily outnumbered
their male counterparts. So we asked some
of our male guests what attracted them to
the evening.
→ The encouragement of more women into male
dominated roles is a worthy cause to fulfil our current and
future talent needs.
→ To understand how women feel in professional
environments.
→ A desire to broaden professional networks.
→ To encourage women in engineering and business in
general to create greater diversity of thought in decisionmaking and problem solving.
10
Legacy
From the drawing board the
team saw this event as an
opportunity
to
create
a
Professional
Network
for
Reading with a lasting legacy!
The event highlighted the
significant number of women
working for a wide range of
companies located in the
region across all engineering
disciplines.
The further collaboration of this
diverse group should be
effective in supporting the
development of women in
engineering.
The team have set up a
legacy committee that will
organise future events and
opportunities
for
the
network.
To sign up to the
Professional Network,
contact
NWED@amecfw.com
We would like to thank
everyone who attended the
event. The enthusiasm and
good feeling of all involved
helped to make the evening a
wonderful
celebration
of
Women in Engineering.
NWED Evening Event Team
Amec Foster Wheeler