The establishment of an annual Women in Engineering Day (which takes place tomorrow, Friday, June 23) is intended to celebrate women who have careers in engineering. In particular, this celebration is aimed at giving women engineers a profile so that girls can see the amazing careers in engineering and technical roles that are available for them.
The need for such elevation of women’s role in engineering is acute because, at eight per cent, the proportion of women in UK professional engineering roles is the lowest in Europe.
This is not just a reflection of historical attitudes, as the proportion of girls on engineering degree courses is currently only around
14 per cent. Disengagement from engineering as a career option appears to accelerate at the end of girls’ school careers, with take-up for the GCSEs particularly associated with engineering careers (maths and physics) being broadly even between the sexes. By A level, however, the proportion of physics students that are female is only 22 per cent while for further maths the figure is 28 per cent.
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