• Question: Are you ever discriminated because of your sex/race/religeon?

    Asked by Joe on 13 Dec 2014.
    • Photo: Peter Green

      Peter Green answered on 13 Dec 2014:

      I am very pleased to say that I have never been discriminated against because of my sex, race or religion. I grew up in a multicultural community in Birmingham, and this really helped you see past such things. You see people for what they are, and not the categories in which they fit.

      I fear that there is still a perception that Engineering is not necessarily for women, and so we have work to do to show just how wrong this is. Danielle is a great role model for young women, and demonstrates that in Engineering gender is not an issue to achieving great things and inspiring others.

    • Photo: Andy Hearn

      Andy Hearn answered on 13 Dec 2014:

      Not personally, not really. I guess those who might have poor attitudes towards ‘different’ others are now retired (hooray) – they were afraid of change, instead of thinking “Diversity = Better Teams!”

    • Photo: Ben Pirt

      Ben Pirt answered on 15 Dec 2014:

      It saddens me how much discrimination there is, but I’m fortunate to be able to answer that I haven’t ever been discriminated against as far as I’m aware.

    • Photo: Mina Panahi

      Mina Panahi answered on 28 Dec 2014:

      I’m very happy to say that I have never been discriminated against because of my sex, race or religion.

    • Photo: Paul Murcutt

      Paul Murcutt answered on 30 Dec 2014:

      I’ve never seen any discrimination based on race or religion, however I would be lying to say I’d never seen the casual sexism that exists in some of the ‘Old boys’. Nothing too serious, but just stupid little jokes.

      It is mostly a function of the fact that many of these guys haven’t worked with women, as Engineering has been male dominated for so long, and it dissipates quite quickly. That doesn’t excuse it however.

      Now however there is enough young blood in the field to quash this sort of thing straight away.

    • Photo: Fiona Dickinson

      Fiona Dickinson answered on 5 Jan 2015:

      Never discriminated in terms of getting a job or the like, but I have certaintly been treated differently because I’m a woman. I would like to say this is rare though, it only ever happened at one place I worked and was by an academic near retirement who lived in a slightly different world, and although I was being treated differently I can certainly see how (from his perspective) he thought he was doing a nice thing.

      This one bad experience should not alter the fact at I have been working in universities for all of my adult life an this is the only negative experience I have had, institutions are working hard to ensure the workplace is a fair and equitable environment and I do not think it likely I shall ever experience a similar situation.

    • Photo: Mousumi Roy

      Mousumi Roy answered on 28 Jan 2015:

      I am a female Hindu engineer from India, and I am happy to say I have never felt discriminated against in the UK.

Comments