FOCUS ON DIVERSITY important in high-risk environments,” said Bruce Price.
Katherine Critchley added:“ When I first joined industry, diversity was considered a women’ s problem, but nowadays it is about including everybody. When WES held its centenary in 2019, we set the goal of 30 % at 2030 but we’ re only at 16 % today, which is still a long way off. We need to look at ways to bring women back into engineering as many take career breaks in their 30s and 40s to look after their families. We can’ t just label one gender as having that responsibility. To overcome that, we want to get closer to parity with 30 % of women in engineering. If they can’ t bring their skills up to date after a career break or raising a family, we lose them forever.”
Katy Deacon confirmed that changing circumstances have a big impact on career paths and that proactive inclusion is vital:“ We need to make sure that we’ re creating an environment where anybody can keep working because our lived experience can contribute to the work we’ re doing. It’ s about using the skills and knowledge to build better for everyone.”
Isabel Coman agreed:“ We need to really think about what’ s inclusive. It’ s often seen as an effort to do something extra and make an exception for individuals. We need to focus on creating the right physical space and environment to enable all people to be at their best and connect to wider networks.”
How to create a culture of diversity?
So how can organisations create a culture of diversity?
“ It’ s important that everybody in the organisation can see people like them as role models. Then they can see how they can make impactful decisions, do meaningful work and deliver great results. And it must be an inclusive environment where people can speak up and be themselves,” commented Bruce Price.
“ Allyship is so important, and you must make it a deliberate thing. It’ s easy to get lost with unconscious bias. Rather than going with good intentions, you must go out of your way and create time to sponsor talent and be vocal. It’ s how you spend your time as a leader and create a space for sponsorship,” he added.
Katy Deacon agreed:“ If you can see yourself
Image: Shutterstock. com. represented, you can see yourself in that position. So, for other wheelchair users, it’ s important to see videos and photos of me so that they can see themselves doing the same things.”
Katherine agreed that recognition starts with visibility:“ The Top 50 Women in Engineering Awards( WE50) is great for visibility, we also run wider WES awards programmes that include awards for men as allies. We also raise awareness of women throughout their careers in different industries through our‘ She’ s An Engineer’ campaign. That’ s important as engineering is vast, ranging from chocolatemaking machines to tanks, and we’ ve got to show the public what an engineer looks like as there are a lot of misconceptions.”
How can emerging technology help?
Jane Sutton moved the focus of the conversation to technology:“ What about emerging technologies including AI and digital technologies? How can this help with diversity and removing barriers? Is it going to add new risks?” she asked.
“ The way that technology has developed has changed how engineers learn and collaborate. One engineer cannot solve every problem; you need a team and new technologies like artificial intelligence( AI) will allow people to do things quicker and be more efficient and detailed,” emphasised Katy Deacon.
“ The IET has published a disability in engineering and technology report that found that people with disability are often overlooked but they are best-informed in terms of how to be inclusive. We’ re now creating toolkits for employers, HR teams and individuals with disabilities. The aim is to support the industry and build inclusivity.”
Isabel Coman highlighted that technology presents opportunity and risk:“ From an inclusion point of view, TfL needs people who can move faster and change their thinking quicker. Technology will put more emphasis on needing diversity as we will need people to constantly scan the horizon for issues and challenge the rest of the team. We have a lot of people marketing AI solutions to us, but I think it’ s most important to create communities that understand our objectives and how to apply technology intelligently,” she highlighted.
Bruce Price added:“ At their core, engineers are problem solvers who use data and scientific principles to assess trade-offs and risks and make good decisions. That doesn’ t change, but what is changing is faster access to more data and less manual work. So emerging technology will be hugely transformational but I’ m not going to predict where we’ ll be in ten years because it’ s moving so fast. We’ re looking for engineers who are inquisitive and want to solve problems. If we’ re ordering a compressor package, engineers
Image: Shutterstock. com. can use AI to obtain the standards, compare the reliability and make recommendations. It equips the engineers with new skills— but they have to learn fast.”.
However, Katherine Critchley cautioned against putting too much trust in technology:“ You’ ve got to watch for drift in the data and be able to interpret the data; engineers need good technical skills and the ability to work as a team. Looking back to the start of my career, we had designers at drawing boards. Today, they’ re using computers. AI is just a tool to help them do it faster, be more competitive and move products out faster.”
Jane Sutton concluded:“ Engineering intelligence is not defined just by technology but how people, systems and decisionmaking work together in practice. By setting the theme of engineering intelligence, INWED 2026 is part of a bigger effort to help engineering professionals deliver better outcomes for diversity.” n
www
. inwed. org. uk
www. wes. org. uk /
WES and INWED
The Women’ s Engineering Society( WES) was formed in 1919 and plays a vital role in promoting gender equality in the field, while inspiring young women to pursue careers in engineering. In 2014, it founded the‘ National Women In Engineering’ day as a platform to showcase the successes and achievements of female engineers. In 2017, the day received UNESCO patronage with its continued growth— officially becoming an internationally recognised day( INWED). Despite the progress made, engineering remains a male-dominated industry, with only 16.5 % of engineers in the UK being female. INWED aims to provide a platform for female engineers, playing a crucial role in encouraging young women to pursue engineering.
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