• Question: Whats your opinion on sexual inequality and bias stereo-typically involved in engineering and how it can be overcome?

    Asked by u10skitcho to Amanda, Ben, Dan, Gary, Samer on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Gary Boorman

      Gary Boorman answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      It is not just in engineering – it is in many professions (law, medicine, finance, management, construction…) ! Historically the jobs and institutions were always run by men for men. But how to overcome it? Society is changing so that men and women are being seen as equal (but changing very slowly in some cases) – pressure needs to come from both men and women to ensure true equality.

    • Photo: Amanda Lewin

      Amanda Lewin answered on 23 Jun 2013:

      Things have improved remarkably over the last 30 years in terms of gender inequality in the workplace. The majority of women working in engineering love their jobs and will progress well within their chosen field. What we need to do now is promote engineering more to girls so they realise that its not all about getting mucky messing around with tools!

    • Photo: Ben Drumm

      Ben Drumm answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      I think these days the inequality is rooted in the fact that society perceives certain jobs as being for men and other as being for women (for example, I bet if you asked five 8 year old kids to draw an Engineer they would all draw men). Growing up with these stereotypes will inevitably cause people to drift towards certain professions, and I think this is a big part of the reason for the gender imbalance. Only Amanda can really comment here, but I don’t believe there are any tangible barriers between women and careers in engineering (except for the as mentioned stereotype that most Engineers are men).

      To overcome a societal perception such as this takes time, but having more well known female engineers and scientists (i.e. a female Brian Cox etc.) would be a good start. Things like TV and newspapers making more of an effort to portray gender balances in engineering workplaces would help too…

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