When i went to university i think it was about 1 in 10 but that was a few years ago now!!!!! In my current job i am the only qualified female engineer with two other male engineers but my team as a whole is pretty evenly split between men and women.
Just to jump in on this question – it can depend on the job & discipline but the average is 11% women in engineering – so 11 women for every 89 men, very similar to Helen’s experience. WES (women in engineering) gives the stats for different disciplines; 29% of chemical engineering graduates were female compared to 17% civil engineering, 14% electronic engineering, and 9% mechanical engineering.
It also depends on the job, I have worked in construction & comissioning and there where 3 women engineers in a company that employed 200+ engineers, where as I now work in maintenance and operations and there are 3 women and 15 men in the engineering team, so more in line with national stats.
I’m one female out of 8 in our company. I work for alot of clients, particularly those in the metal fabrication industry who don’t have any women work for their companies at all, not even in the office. As a result, they don’t even have women’s toilets on site. So when I’m contracted to work on these sites, I have to use men’s toilets to wash up and change out of my overalls with someone stood outside to stop anyone entering whilst I’m in there. I have no objection to having to use men’s toilets, just as long as they’re are clean. 🙂
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Ruth commented on :
Just to jump in on this question – it can depend on the job & discipline but the average is 11% women in engineering – so 11 women for every 89 men, very similar to Helen’s experience. WES (women in engineering) gives the stats for different disciplines; 29% of chemical engineering graduates were female compared to 17% civil engineering, 14% electronic engineering, and 9% mechanical engineering.
It also depends on the job, I have worked in construction & comissioning and there where 3 women engineers in a company that employed 200+ engineers, where as I now work in maintenance and operations and there are 3 women and 15 men in the engineering team, so more in line with national stats.
Louise commented on :
I’m one female out of 8 in our company. I work for alot of clients, particularly those in the metal fabrication industry who don’t have any women work for their companies at all, not even in the office. As a result, they don’t even have women’s toilets on site. So when I’m contracted to work on these sites, I have to use men’s toilets to wash up and change out of my overalls with someone stood outside to stop anyone entering whilst I’m in there. I have no objection to having to use men’s toilets, just as long as they’re are clean. 🙂