Engineering news
Entrepreneurship represents a possible method of women smashing the glass ceiling in the engineering industry but many are put off from starting their own businesses, an IMechE expert has said.
Speaking in advance of her presentation at the forthcoming British Entrepreneurship Summit later this month, Dr Helen Meese, head of engineering in society at the institution, said that only 11% of Stem-related businesses were owned by women, compared to 33% of non-Stem companies. Meese said it was time women considered entrepreneurship as a means of “being able to start your own business and manage your own time”, in a world where some large firms were unsupportive of women juggling the demands of work and family life.
Meese told PE: “The barriers women have to overcome include fear of failure and wanting to stay in a safe zone. Of course, family plays a major role: including the perceived issue of struggling to get back into work.” She said working life was more flexible than ever, but that men could be more confident when striking out on their own as entrepreneurs. “Women tend to be more risk-averse,” Meese said.
In the engineering industry, only 7% of the workforce is female – the lowest figure in the European Union. Meese will present an address called Engineering Entrepreneurial Success: From Ada to Bellingham – A look at the continuing barriers to women’s success in Stem and how they will be overcome at the summit. She said: “Ada Lovelace was really one of the first entrepreneurs. She managed to take on authority, and challenge herself and society, facing all those issues of failure and rejection, to become our first computer programmer. Bellingham is a more modern day example of the same thing.”
She added that companies were having to take account of the fact that more men as well as women were going to be taking leave to bring up families. Unconscious bias against women attaining the best positions in industry was a factor. “Women are not immune to criticising other women. We have to be aware of that. It is not a matter of positively discriminating, but giving men and women equal opportunities to lead in business.
“That will help women to break out and become entrepreneurs themselves. It is going to take time. We still have a long way to go.”
Lee Hopley, chief economist at manufacturers' organisation the EEF, will also debate the role of the engineering entrepreneur at the summit.
For more information on the event, please click here