For many years, the number of women in the engineering profession has remained stubbornly low. Now, engineers are coming together to encourage women to see the industry as one that offers a viable and compelling career pathway.
Today, Rita Henderson is Professor of Water Quality and Treatment in the University of New South Wales (UNSW) engineering department.
Her chemical engineering research into algal biotechnology and water quality and treatment is discussed at conferences around the world, she has edited esteemed journals in her field, and she is the leader of the influential Algae, Organic Matter and Micropollutants Lab.
But when she was younger?
“As a school student, I didn’t ever consider becoming an engineer,” she said.
It was while working for a consultancy after attaining an undergraduate degree in chemistry that she found she would need more technical skills to get involved in solving some of the environmental challenges her work involved.
She returned to study, focusing on process engineering and water treatment before earning a PhD in the same area.
Now UNSW Engineering’s Deputy Dean for Societal Impact and Translation, Henderson is an emerging leader in her field. Many women, however, share her experience of being dissuaded from engineering as a school student without ever finding a path into the discipline.
The research bears this out. According to an Engineers Australia report, “engineering has the lowest female representation of the STEM professions, with just 16 per cent of Australian engineering graduates and 13 per cent of the Australian engineering workforce female”.
One of the key reasons identified by the report: “Poor STEM engagement throughout schooling.”
“I think a big problem is that we don’t use engineering terminology enough in school curricula,” Henderson said.
“Science is obviously taught from a very young age; technology comes in; maths comes in; but actual engineering is not really integrated into the curriculum until much later. Engineering is not defined at school, so the exposure isn’t there.”
Taking the non-traditional route
When Henderson was growing up in Scotland, she only encountered engineering in very traditional domains. Her engineer father had worked on an oil rig and later in construction, and the other local engineers who weren’t in the oil and gas industry were employed at the nearby nuclear power plant.
Neither option appealed.
“Those were the job opportunities that were being talked about – not all the other amazing areas of engineering I could actually get involved in,” Henderson recalled.
“We need to change the perception that engineering is not a viable path for women. Engineering is absolutely a viable pathway for women, non-binary and gender-diverse people but most aren’t encouraged to pursue that path.
“There isn’t enough understanding of the breadth of opportunities in engineering or the ways in which engineering is about solving many of the world’s challenges. The creativity that’s involved in engineering could be showcased more widely.”
Developing the engineers of the future requires engaging the school students of today, which is why Henderson and her peers are working closely with high schools to develop curriculum-aligned engineering activities that build STEM skills and bring to life the kind of work an engineer does.
“If you’re not tackling maths confidence as early as primary school, students might have lost interest by the time they’re selecting subjects to study in year eight,” she said.
“If that interest has been lost, it’s very difficult to get it back. In the past, a lot of universities have focused on years 10, 11 and 12 for student recruitment. Now, we’re starting to move much earlier in our engagement activities.”
Talent needed
The skills shortages facing Australian industry is widely understood and encouraging more women to pursue careers in engineering and remain active in the profession is a crucial way of addressing this problem.
However, research shows that improved conditions for women, non-binary and gender-diverse people have other advantages too: more diverse workforces are more innovative, both in terms of the problems they identify and the solutions they devise for them.
Workplaces with more women tend to create a more respectful environment for all people, encompassing neurodiversity and greater cultural diversity.
“There’s been research that’s shown that having more women reduces staff turnover, as well as increasing talent attraction and generating better financial performance,” Henderson said.
“There’s a culture that comes with embracing a diverse workforce, and, in engineering, the most obvious sign of that is that women are present. As soon as you start to include more women, that’s generally indicative of a work environment that is more open to diversity.”
To amplify this message, Henderson wants to unite with other universities and organisations to boost the representation of women, non-binary and gender diverse people in the engineering profession. As part of this, UNSW Engineering is hosting Engineering the Future: Aligning Action; Accelerating Equity, a cross-institutional symposium focused on advancing gender equity and shaping a more inclusive future for engineering.
“Universities have the advantage of being able to convene big events such as this, so we’ve joined forces with six other universities in the area to have that conversation,” Henderson said.
“We’re inviting schoolteachers and industry representatives, as well as organisations like Champions of Change and Engineers Australia, so we can actually have the conversation around what we should be doing in partnership with them.”
That united effort is important to expanding the scope of the problem.
“Bringing more women into engineering is frequently perceived as a women’s problem, and therefore it is women that are often given the task of trying to solve the challenge, ” Henderson said.
“But it’s not going to be fixed if only women are trying to address the issue. We need this to widely be perceived as a societal challenge.
“We need to work together to encourage women, non binary and gender diverse people from school age and upwards to become engineers and build viable, inclusive, career pathways and appropriate work environments for when they enter the profession.”
To find out more about UNSW Engineering’s Engineering the Future: Aligning Action; Accelerating Equity symposium, visit the website.
