ACE conference: Engineering needs more women - and soon - says IoD leader

Lady Barbara Judge, director general of the Institute of Directors, made a passionate case today for the need for more women in the engineering sector.

Speaking at the ACE Annual Conference in Westminster, she said that she was proud to be speaking as the first woman to chair the ACE’s advisory group. “Women are clearly underrepresented in parliament, in the boardroom and in engineering,” she said.

“We need to get women into this important profession because if we don’t we are going to run into a lot of trouble. We have a skills shortage. The age profile in engineering is high – an average of 54 years of age in the industry. Only 6% of UK students are applying to study engineering and technology. We need to fill that gap. We will not be able to replace engineers fast enough unless we attract women,” said Judge.

Judge said that women were 35% more likely to go to university than men, yet in engineering, women are outnumbered five to one. "Women are just 7% of the professional engineering sector – but it’s 15% in Europe. In UK we have the lowest number of women in the engineering profession,” she said. 

“Government and the industry has a role to play in attracting more young people into the profession and it's good that government is making more effort in this area but we have to hold their feet to the fire. The £3bn being earmarked by the Treasury for apprenticeships must be spent wisely," Judge said.

It wasn't just in relation to women where the industry needed to do more said Judge. “We also need to look at how we get more young people into the industry. We need more diverse people too. We all have a responsibility to encourage more people into engineering. We need to make engineering the profession of choice. How do we get people out of university into engineering? Starting salary is an issue and we need to address this," said Judge.

Fundamentally, said Judge, there was a need to raise the profile and standing of engineers in society in the UK. The industry has been discussion the issue of profile and reputation for years yet no one gets how how important the issue is, she said.

“Raising the prestige of the profession and the pay of the profession is crucial. If they can do it in Europe – and they have – then we can certainly do it here,” she claimed.