Engineering news
Online images still reinforce the stereotype of engineering as a male profession
Online images still reinforce the stereotype of engineering as a male profession, leading to girls being put off of careers in the industry, says study from EngineeringUK.
The study, released to mark the start of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2015 (2-6 November), has found a host of organisations, including universities, media outlets and search engines are all guilty of reinforcing engineering stereotypes through their choice of images online.
The analysis of engineering-related imagery from across more than 70 popular websites found that four in ten (42%) ‘people pictures’ online related to engineering depict women. Stock image sites and search engines were found to be the worst culprits, majorly lagging behind other sites on gender balance. Image searches for the term “engineer’ found just 26% of search engine results featured women and 25% of stock images contained female engineers (compared to 85% and 81% of images featuring men).
The study revealed among all sites surveyed that universities are the best at portraying gender balance in the sector, with 53% of images including a woman and 80% including a male.
However, this does not reflect the majority of image found online, with one fifth of images still found to feature the stereotypical hard hat. Engineering UK said this strengthened out-dated opinions that engineering is only about “men in hard hats working on building sites as opposed to the full range of careers available to young people today”.
Supporting research conducted by market research firm Bilendi on behalf of EngineeringUK among 11-16 year olds has also revealed just how influential online imagery can be. Almost a third (29%) of the 500 young people surveyed believe images used to represent engineering are not relevant to them, with 28% of girls saying they are too male orientated.
Almost one in ten (7%) girls went so far as to say that images they’ve seen online have put them off a career in engineering.
Chief executive of EngineeringUK Paul Jackson said: “If a picture is worth a thousand words, it is extremely worrying that cyber sexism is rife when it comes to the depiction of engineers on websites used by young people.
“In the next decade employers will need 1.82m people with engineering skills, meaning we need to double the number of apprentices and graduates entering the industry. We cannot afford to lose would-be engineers by carelessly reinforcing stereotypes and not showing the full scope of exciting careers available.
“As part of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2015 we are calling on all organisations to look carefully at how they represent engineering and stop using these out-dated, gender stereotypical pictures.
“We need to inspire, not discourage, young people to consider engineering as their future career.”
The research also demonstrated that engineering companies and industry bodies are better than average at demonstrating a gender mix in the workplace.
Jane Simpson, chief engineer at Network Rail, commented: “Our engineers wear hard hats and orange hi-vis to be safe when they are on track or on site, but they also wear business dress because they are designers, electronic specialists or project managers where they are office-based. We are working hard on our website and in careers materials to show both sides of the role to reflect this reality and promote the varied role of an engineer.
She added: ““We know role models are crucial to show girls and women what’s possible and so more and more, we’re showcasing the women in our business and the work they do, so others can see people like them are working successfully in engineering.”
Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2015, now in its third year, aims to inspire young people, their parents and teachers through a host of activities based around the theme ‘Mission Inspiration’. This will include a schedule of hands-on activities and interactive events and activities run by employers and engineers. Two young vloggers appointed especially for the Week will also share exclusive YouTube content including interviews with inspiring young engineers.