Opinion

Promoting diversity in the engineering profession

Dame Ann Dowling Royal Academy of Engineering

Much has been done over the last three decades to increase diversity in engineering, but there is still a major issue in the profession, says Dame Ann Dowling.

In the UK, only 7% of professional engineers are women, the lowest proportion in the EU. Only 17% of engineering undergraduates, 8% of engineering professors and 4% of engineering apprentices are female. In addition, while 25% of UK domiciled engineering graduates are from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds, just 6% of engineering professionals are from those backgrounds and only 4% of engineering apprentices.

As President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a woman who has enjoyed a fulfilling career in engineering, I believe that everyone should be afforded the opportunity to build a career in a creative, rich and rewarding profession. We know that an additional 1.8million engineers are required by 2020 and that 39% of UK engineering employers are planning to expand and recruit. To meet the need for an adequate skills pipeline, it is critical we continue to address the enduring poor representation of women, BME and other groups in the professional engineering workforce. 

"The prevailing diversity challenge is due, at least in part, to issues in our culture and social systems"

Our Academy Diversity Programme, which has been funded and supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills since 2011, aims to increase and mainstream all aspects of diversity across the profession.  The Academy Diversity Programme is encompassing other diversity characteristics as well as gender and ethnicity: age, social mobility, disability and LGBT – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender - people.

We undertake a number of activities to facilitate this: supporting stakeholder networks, encouraging collaboration, piloting new approaches and stimulating debate to challenge the status quo. 

Professional engineering institutions (PEIs) are one of our key engagement partners - 30 of our 35 PEIs have now signed-up to our Engineering Diversity Concordat designed to stimulate collaborative working on diversity and inclusion; and we have over 40 engineering organisations taking action on diversity and inclusion through our Diversity Leadership Group (DLG). Supporting both PEIs and employers to increase retention of women, BME people and other underrepresented groups in the profession is a dominant focus, exemplified by our Returners Project commenced with Women’s Engineering Society (WES) this year.

"Leading by example in recruitment, sponsorship and engagement should be a primary goal for organisations. The Academy is supporting the industry-led Ten Steps campaign"

Given the low transition rates from engineering education into employment outlined above, inspiring the next generation of engineers is a vitally important undertaking. Our team works with EngineeringUK through Tomorrow’s Engineers on a schools programme and our recently-launched Engineering Engagement Programme aims to attract undergraduates from diverse backgrounds into engineering employment.

Leading by example in recruitment, sponsorship and engagement should be a primary goal for organisations. The Academy is supporting the industry-led Ten Steps campaign, which is a concerted campaign for industry action. We strive to apply these principles internally: although only 5% of the Academy’s fellowship are female, we are working hard to improve this through the work of our proactive membership committee; and most of our female Fellows were elected in the last seven years.

The prevailing diversity challenge is due, at least in part, to issues in our culture and social systems: for example, early elimination of career options through school subject selection and unequal parental leave. As wider initiatives work to counter these issues, I believe that our diversity programme and projects like it will have a positive impact over time. There are more career options in the industry than ever before and many exciting new fields that should attract talent from all groups across society.

Dame Ann Dowling is president of the Royal Academy of Engineering