Speaking ahead of International Women in Engineering Day (Inwed) today (23 June), the skills and inclusion experts pointed to the growing number of women in Stem after the pandemic, which spurred the adoption of flexible working.
A recent report by Wise (Women into Science and Engineering), Stem After Covid-19, found the portion of women in the UK Stem workforce increased from 23.6% in December 2019 to 27% in September 2022. That growth coincided with heightened visibility of engineering and science careers, and sustained demand for Stem roles. In engineering and technology specifically, recent EngineeringUK figures showed that women make up 17% of the workforce, up from 10.5% in 2010.
Flexible working and other accommodations have helped women feel more “valued” in the workforce, IMechE skills policy lead Lydia Amarquaye-Booker told Professional Engineering. Women often assume more responsibility for childcare, which can make regular hours and in-person work more challenging. Some leave the profession in their 30s or 40s and never return to the workforce.
“We are now seeing trends where businesses want people back in offices more and are beginning to mandate a number of days in the office,” said Holley Reece-Barkell, chair of IMechE’s Culture and Inclusion Committee. This could have a “considerable” impact on women in engineering and related professions, she added.
Employers should consider the benefits of maintaining flexible policies on workforce diversity and overall productivity, Amarquaye-Booker said: “We still need to reflect the different needs of the workforce. Where it has created a positive change in women choosing to stay within engineering, I think it‘s important that we continue those.”
With a stubborn skills gap posing a challenge for employers, Amarquaye-Booker highlighted the wider threat posed by a return to traditional working patterns, such as a minimum of four or five days in the office per week.
“Some of these factors are not just about women, but actually increasing the workforce generally,” she said. “Thinking about needs, thinking about people with disabilities; everyone will benefit if some of these things are kept in. Whether it‘s the flexible hours and whether it‘s working remotely, all of these things can only be positive for an overall workforce, not just women.”
Everyone needs to play a part in maintaining progress for women in engineering, the IMechE experts said, with open conversations needed to help address the systematic and societal issue.
“I know quite a few people who‘ve been engineers, myself included in this, and they‘ve come out of core engineering to try to fix this problem,” Amarquaye-Booker said. Wider involvement helps ensure that women are not the “only flag bearers” for progress, she added.
IMechE initiatives include sponsoring female engineers to take part in the Stemazing programme. The non-profit organisation supports women in Stem to enhance their public engagement skills, supporting them to promote engineering as a career in primary school workshops.
The institution is also a partner of SheCanEngineer, a charity working to close the gender gap by showcasing the accomplishments of female engineers, and helping them to be positive role models. “You can‘t be what you can‘t see,” Amarquaye-Booker said.
Role models can include women who have returned from maternity leave and continued to work their way up in an organisation. “It‘s important to have that messaging as well, making sure that women can continue to aspire to hold high positions as well,” Amarquaye-Booker said.
The theme for Inwed 2026 is Engineering Intelligence, aimed at showcasing the “expertise, creativity and leadership women bring to engineering every day”. The slogan also offers a contrast to the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) at a time when the human workforce is less inclusive and diverse than it could be.
“We need to utilise 100% of the workforce in order to be able to get the right level of intelligence and safety – into our designs, into our equipment – to make sure that we get the right things coming out of engineering processes,” Dr Katherine Critchley, president of Inwed founder the Women’s Engineering Society, told Professional Engineering. Results from AI should not be “trusted blindly”, she added, with core engineering skills and good data still needed to ensure good results.
AI is “brilliant” said IMechE diversity and inclusion officer Kristina Korsaks, but deployment has not yet been “mastered”: “If the input is poor, then the output is poor as well.
“Sometimes organisations rush too quickly to optimise and improve efficiency, only to realise later that technology cannot replace human judgement. Engineering is ultimately about solving problems for people, and that requires emotional intelligence, empathy, creativity and diverse perspectives. AI is a powerful tool, but it should enhance human intelligence, not replace it.”
As with design and safety issues, female engineers bring perspectives and considerations that might otherwise be missed. AI does not solve that problem, so a diversity of perspectives is still needed.
Three IMechE members were recognised in WES’ Top 50 Women in Engineering Awards, announced today to coincide with Inwed. Read more here.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.