Engineering’s stuck in a gender crisis – we need to fix it

Scientist Dr Troy Coyle is chief executive of the NZ Heavy Engineering Research Association – Hera.

OPINION: Some years ago I had a workplace experience that crystallises the people problem at the heart of the engineering industry in Aotearoa New Zealand and other countries.

As I sat at the boardroom table, ready to present a project with substantial business potential, I joked that there were more people named David in the room (three) than women (just me).

No-one laughed.

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I was later advised that I cause offence by the stance I take on gender equality and the way I call it out – by refusing to soften the blow.

I point out examples of inequality in our industry not to shame anyone, but to move the dial in favour of balance, because any industry where either gender dominates is poorer for it.

At present, over 40% of highly skilled women who enter engineering are likely to leave the industry, an alarming statistic at the best of times but especially in a skills shortage environment where every engineer is worth their weight in gold.

Those women who remain in engineering account for just 16% of the industry’s workforce, in no small part because of entrenched culture problems.

A 2016 longitudinal study of 700 engineering students across four colleges over nearly a decade (their four-year degree and five years afterwards) was published in the Harvard Business Review.

A key finding was that female students usually performed as well as or better than male students at university but “the hegemonic masculine culture of engineering itself” was “a reason for leaving” the field.

The experience started at university, where in team settings women would be assigned gender-stereotypical roles.

This extended into internships, the study found: “This second round of gender stereotyping in the workplace, coupled with unchallenging projects, blatant sexual harassment, and greater isolation from supportive networks, leads many female students to revisit their ambitions.”

A workforce comprising 84% men affords privilege to the dominant group and is maintained unless that group makes a serious, comprehensive effort to change it and correct imbalances. That fact may be confronting, but it is not immutable or irreversible.

Based on the many studies of women’s experiences in engineering and why they leave the industry, here are the practical things leaders can do to help women maintain their love for the industry and make engineering a better and more inclusive place for all.

What industry leaders can do

Undertake an equal pay review of your company, along with a review on gendered language and approaches in all your documentation and people recruitment and development practices.

Organise unconscious bias training for your staff. Hold yourself (no matter your gender) and others to account in how you uphold or challenge existing industry or organisational power structures that limit or exclude any demographic.

If you are in a position of privilege, reflect on that. (Unconscious bias training is an excellent way to understand how privilege operates in the workplace.) You can’t change how this has benefitted you to date, but you can use it to change the system. Think about the proactive ways that women can be given support and how you can bring to life their suggestions for how to change how your organisation looks in the future.

Take the time to observe performance and provide detailed, personalised and constructive feedback.

Facilitate supportive relationships within immediate work units.

Be an advocate and open your eyes. Look at how things are different for your female colleagues and how this should be addressed. Think about how your workplace culture can extrinsically build confidence within women versus assuming that it is something built intrinsically within the woman.

Give women the opportunity to step up into stretch projects. Give them the opportunity to lead, make new connections and challenge their own limiting beliefs. Think about how you can break down the “hegemonic masculine culture of engineering” and support the women who are imagining something different for the future.

Be open to the discussion. Support your female colleagues before they burn out, get labelled as a trouble-maker, or simply leave the profession in frustration. Be the one who calls out unfair treatment. Don’t make the woman do it. Every time she has to raise it, she will become a little bit more disillusioned and a little bit more ostracised. Be a feminist and own your privilege.

Ask! Ask for ideas about what you can do better as an employer and a leader. Ask for the three things that would make the organisation a better place for any woman to work.

Once those are in place, ask for more. Ask (an anonymised forum may be a safer space for this) for specific examples of where women have felt unsupported, excluded, harassed, isolated, subject to stereotyping, or treated as less than their male counterparts in any way – and then ask what can and should be done to prevent those experiences being had ever again in your organisation.

Finally, put ego aside. It is very easy for people in power to feel they are being personally criticised or attacked when power structures are questioned and work is being done to dismantle them. Remember that these structures are entrenched and are much bigger and older than any one of us – if you have benefitted from them and never considered the downsides, it is not an indictment on you or your character.

As Maya Angelou said: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”