• Question: do you find your job is full of men and there are less women. would you promote girls getting into engineering?

    Asked by ellen to Sophie, Ana, Alejandra on 7 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Sophie Cox

      Sophie Cox answered on 7 Mar 2017:

      Hi Ellen,

      Thanks for your question. I think this is a really interesting subject. Thinking back to when I was an engineering student at university I’d estimate that out of 300 students on my course about 50 – 60 were female. At the moment the department I’m in, Chemical Engineering, employs roughly 50 lecturers/professors and there are about 10 females. So in my experience there are usually less female engineers than male but that certainly hasn’t stopped me!

      I’d encourage anyone who is interested in applying science/maths to solve real world problems to consider getting involved in engineering. It would be great to have more females in engineering and hopefully over time, together, we can improve these statistics. I would say that although there are less females in engineering I’ve never felt like there have been fewer opportunities open to me because I’m female. So hopefully that’s encouraging for you to hear if you’re interesting in pursuing engineering at any point?

    • Photo: Ana Gallego

      Ana Gallego answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Hi Ellen!

      Yes. My job is full of men and only a few women. Part of the reason for doing this apart from all the STEM activities that I participate in, my mission in life is to get more girls into Science and Engineering because there are not enough.

      Sometimes engineering can look a bit daunting because traditionally this industry has been seen as very masculine. But don’t be fooled! I work with machines every day, and doesn’t matter if I get dirty or have to lift any weight. If you can’t lift it on your own, ask for help and don’t be embarrassed! Women can do the same jobs as men can, even if something requires a lot of physical strength… there is no need to have muscles, there are machines to help do certain tasks!

      Nothing should stop you from doing what you really like.

      Engineering is great and you can achieve great things, doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from 🙂

    • Photo: Alejandra Aranceta

      Alejandra Aranceta answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Hi Ellen,

      Yes, currently Engineering is packed with men! So we need more girls to join our team!!! Did you know that currently, only 9% of the engineering workforce is female, and only 6% of registered engineers and technicians (i.e. CEng, IEng, EngTech) are women? CRAZY! isn’t it? But this shouldn’t put you off trying engineering, it is a very exciting world!

Comments