Kate’s route to her role as Commissioning Manager started with her love for Lego as a child. Her fascination with building things (after taking them apart), coupled with a keen interest in environmental matters, led her to pursue a science-based degree followed by a Master’s in environmental studies. 
 

Justine is an engineer for ISS, working as part of the team supporting schools in the City of London. Having started her career in hospitality, she decided to retrain as an engineer.
 

Name: Titi Oliyide
Job Title: Senior Process Safety Engineer
Location:  Manchester/London

When did you realise that a career in engineering was right for you? Was there a particular moment in your life?

I became interested in engineering from a young age. As a child, I always asked a lot of questions about why things worked the way they did. One of the things I found fascinating was the cooking process of converting raw ingredients into delicious food.

My fascination and curiosity were encouraged by my very supportive parents and siblings. In school, I also thoroughly enjoyed the logical lessons in maths and physics. Based on my interests and discussions with family and friends, I decided to study chemical engineering at university.
 
What does an average day look like for you?

No two days are the same! I get involved in a range of activities such as leading hazard identification workshops with a team of engineers from different disciplines, brainstorming potential solutions to mitigate/eliminate hazardous scenarios with my colleagues, or analysing engineering documents to carry out risk assessments or design reviews for safety.

I work in a company that is developing a pioneering electrolyser technology, so there are different challenges to solve on a daily basis! As a safety engineer, it is also important that I have a good overview of the engineering process/system, so I can identify what could go wrong and put measures in place to eliminate/reduce the risk of hazardous scenarios.

Some days, I get invitations to speak to the younger generation to consider STEM careers – I thoroughly enjoy the opportunities to share my excitement about engineering and my engineering career so far.
 
How did you get into this career? What qualifications did you get?

I studied to obtain a Bachelor’s degree at University of Lagos, Nigeria in Chemical Engineering. Afterwards, I moved to the UK to complete my Master’s degree in advanced chemical engineering (Process Systems specialisation) from Imperial College London.

My journey into process safety engineering began at my first role after my master’s degree, where I worked on safety, risk and reliability assessments for oil and gas facilities. I’ve also achieved professional registration as a Chartered Engineer in September 2022.
 
Did you face any challenges with your career decision as a woman engineer?

One of the challenges is the misconception is that women are not suited for some (or any!) areas of engineering. This is mainly due to the depiction of engineering in the media. Usually, the first thing that comes to mind when we think of engineering is hard hats and greasy overalls.

While this is part of engineering, other engineering areas exist. This is why I am passionate about demystifying the engineering profession. Engineering is generally about solving societal challenges. As women make up roughly half of the human population, we should be adequately represented in the solutions to these challenges.
 
What advice would you give to young girls considering a career in engineering?

Boldly explore new opportunities and challenge the status quo. Engineering is a great way to contribute to solving global challenges working with other skilled people in the industry. Despite the prevailing stereotypes, there is no one way an engineer should look like. Seize every opportunity to contribute your unique skills to solving challenges we face in the world today.
 
Do you have any standout memories/funny/interesting stories from your career as an engineer?

I have quite a few! However, the one that stands out would be the opportunity to ride in a helicopter to an offshore oil and gas facility in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This was my first opportunity to see, in real life, various equipment which I had only previously encountered in drawings or videos. 

Louise Beale is Technical Director in the Land Quality and Remediation Team at SLR Consulting Limited. A role model for women in engineering, Louise shares her story, from wandering the Shropshire hills exploring old mines, to championing women in leadership.

The Inspiration for Becoming an Engineer

Louise grew up on a farm in the countryside, so always liked working outdoors. Her favourite subject at school was geography and she’d hoped to follow that subject through to university but didn’t get the A-Levels she wanted. Instead, she chose to study Geology and Geography.

“I absolutely loved my degree. Being around the sort of people who were motivated by the same things I was”, she said.

“I got a job after my degree at an environmental consultancy, and I spent all summer wandering around the hills of Shropshire looking for old mine entrances. And I thought this is this is what I want to do.”

Heading Back to University

Encouraged by colleagues during her summer consultancy job, Louise returned to university to complete a Masters in Geochemistry.

“My Masters gave me another year of experience, another year being out in the field and lots of opportunities to learn. I think a Masters demonstrates your credentials, that you can write reports, and you can do the analytical processes. I definitely think it is worthwhile.”

Straight after obtaining her Masters, Louise attended a Careers Fair and landed a job at an environmental consultancy. This started her on a career path working in contaminated land assessment that she’s followed for nearly 30 years.

Unearthing New Skills and Passions

Working in contaminated land assessment involves collaborating with clients who have a piece of land or a site they want to buy or develop.

“You start by knowing nothing about that piece of dirty derelict land. It’s really grotty, but you do the investigations, you research its history, you look at the potential for contamination, you take samples, and you analyse the data.

“And ultimately, you determine what the problems are and what needs to be done to bring it back to being a safe and beneficial space.

“I really love that process and the feeling that I’m helping to improve the environment”.

Early Inspiration

Louise was lucky enough to start her career in a supportive environment where everyone “mucked in together”.

During her second job, following a move to London in 1998, she continued to find role models and someone whom she refers to as “my best boss ever”.

“He had an excellent attitude and was all about doing the right thing, doing it well, and enjoying your work while you did it. He really motivated and encouraged us to be one big team. I think everything I know about leading and managing people, l learned from him.”

“And I was working with a lot of female engineers who were my grade and level of experience. Our team was 50/50 male to female split and we just kept growing as a team because it was such a great place to work.”

Breaking Glass Ceilings

When Louise’s manager and mentor left his role, she decided to apply for it in a job share arrangement with a female engineer colleague. She’d had children by that point and had returned to work three days a week.

“There were a lot of us working part-time and the company made it happen around us. It was still very possible to do the site work and the office work around our working hours.”

Louise and her job share partner were offered the role, which was the first time the company had appointed a job share to lead a team.

“It worked brilliantly. We complemented each other so well – we were better than the sum of our parts. I’m a lot better in the mornings, she was better in the evenings. I’m more ‘big picture’, while she had a lot more attention to detail.”

Louise believes that having a family means you learn to work differently. In her experience, before you have children, you focus on whatever hours it takes to get the job done. Whereas afterwards, you have to leave at a certain point in the day, so you become much more efficient.

A New Direction

Louise’s career changed when her company was acquired by another. At nearly 20 years into her career, she thought she was on an ongoing trajectory where she’d be moving up the ladder and taking on more and more senior positions.

“I think that was the first realisation I had that it wasn't as straightforward as that,” she said.

“I was applying for a promotion, along with a couple of male colleagues. When they got it and I didn't, I was told it was because I didn't have enough hours in the office. So I was encouraged to increase my days.

“Not long after that I moved on from that company to the company I am at now.”

Managing Menopause

It was around this time Louise became perimenopausal.

"I cannot believe the impact that it has had on my life in the last two years.”
Louise experienced around 10-12 different symptoms but attributed each to something else in her life. A stressful project, not stretching properly after a run. But poor sleep, anxiety, not being able to multi-task anymore, and aches and pains in her body were taking a toll.

“I got to the point where I lost quite a lot of confidence in myself. I remember I was going into a meeting with a lot of my peers who were all male. And I was scared about saying something stupid. I thought they could all see through me and think that I didn't actually know how to do my job anymore.”

A colleague suggested she speak to another woman in the company who was having similar experiences. Following her advice, Louise decided to speak to a few of her male colleagues about how she was feeling. It was amazing, and she suddenly felt she had permission to be open about it.

Overcoming a Career Plateau

Louise acknowledges there is a correlation between the lack of women in leadership roles and menopause, which she has observed from her own experiences.

“I just thought, do I want to do a role and take on extra stress and responsibility? Or do I just reduce my hours, do my job and go home again?” she said.

“I was at the point where I was seriously considering asking for a reduction in hours and accepting this was a this was as good as it was going to get.”

It was only through talking to other people that Louise realised she could get help and there was support available. She believes a lot has changed for the better over the last few years, with more people being open on social media about the impact of menopause.

Her company has embraced this trend and started initiatives such as menopause awareness training for all staff, and management training for supervisors.

“It’s changing and I would love that to be our legacy. People come to our stage in their careers and don’t even have this blip. They recognise early what it is, that there is support in place and not have to think it’s the end of their careers.”

“And what a win that would be — all of these women 20 or 30 years into their careers, staying in the business and moving into a leadership role. With all of that empathy and awareness.”

What’s Next for Louise?

After starting HRT, Louise got her confidence back and applied for the Deputy Chair of the Specialist in Land Condition (SiLC) Professional and Technical Panel. She got it!
“SiLC has been around for more than 20 years, but it's historically championed by a lot of senior men in our industry. So when I joined, the current incumbent and I decided we wanted to work hard to increase diversity within SiLC.

“We now have an EDI subcommittee who look at ways to improve diversity within our network, increase membership and demonstrate more value of being a SiLC.”

Interested to learn more about opportunities for female Engineers in the UK? Contact our teamof specialists at Alexander Associates and we’ll connect you with the industry’s best engineering roles. For more inspiring stories on women in engineering, read our articles https://www.alexander-assoc.co.uk/women-in-engineering.

Danny Clarke is the Commercial Director of the National Federation of Builders (NFB) and he speaks with our very own Ruth Parker about how to inspire change and the importance of Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity (EDI or ED&I) in the workplace and, specifically, in the construction industry.

Danny is a Diversity Champion within the construction industry and his knowledge is insightful and unique.

What Does It Mean to Be a Diversity Champion?

To be a champion means more than just ambassadorship; it means that you walk the walk and talk the talk because it is a mindset and integral to you as a person. It means that you provide a safe space: someone that others can trust to talk with about any concerns. Above all, a champion makes sure that people:

·        Have a voice
·        Have the space and confidence to speak
·        Know they don’t need permission to speak
·        Feel valued
·        In the room are listening
·        Are being heard.

Read on for a thought-provoking discussion about EDI in construction and the workplace.

Three Concentrated Areas of Diversity

Danny concentrates on three areas of diversity:
·        Women in Construction and Engineering
·        What diversity looks like
·        The different facts of diversity

In Danny’s experience, organisations and job seekers often think recruiters are motivated to present a candidate because of their personal demographics or characteristics.

“In my view, this is a misconception. In actuality, a candidate is recruited for their skills, experience, and knowledge and who happens to also have diverse characteristics. In other words, it’s the competency as well as the characteristics combined that make the diverse candidate who thinks differently to achieve the same goals.
Thinking differently about diversity is the only way we are going to generate innovation and promote creativity”

What Made You Realise That We Need Diversity in Construction?

“When it has always been men as the norm, it can sometimes be a leap to think, we need diversity here.”

When Danny started at NFB, he set up a women in construction networking group, and soon uncovered some harrowing stories from females in the wider industry. Some of the things women deal with in construction are harrowing, but they don’t often get the opportunity to speak up within their organisations. Within a networking group we create that opportunity, and only when we hear their stories, can we create the possibility for change.

When Does Talking Need to Stop and Action Need to Start?

There are too many group forums, working groups and subcommittees who are just talking. Danny shares the analogy of the bandwagon and ‘International Women’s Day’, which consists of

“Let’s do a social post, pull out the token female who works in the organisation again for her annual outing, and put a poster on the wall so we can say look how good we’re doing. We’re doing great things.”

The most important thing he noticed was there is so much talk and inaction. Now is the time for action.

The Construction Industry Is in Crisis

We are going through a massive skill shortage, and Brexit has also had an an impact – the number of engineers and others leaving the industry for care and parental responsibilities (both male and female) is astronomical. So encouraging the industry to review and revise how we look at and do things is crucial.
The amount of workers leaving the industry are more than those entering it. We need to recruit an additional 45,000 people into the industry every year for the next 5 years so we can grow. You wouldn’t be wrong to say that withouth changes to recruitment and retention construction is going to continue to be a challenging industry.

What can we do to create change?

We need to enable choice from as wide a talent pool as possible – that’s what recruitment agencies are trying to do, but too often get resistance to perfectly good candidates that don’t have the ‘look’, therefore they don’t ‘fit’.
Companies, with the help of organisations like NFB, can raise people’s voices, and provide mentoring, master classes, training programmes, networks and community groups that bring people together, to make people feel they are not on their own but are a part of something. This isn’t a concept just for women. It should be for everyone equally.

The whole point of inclusion is that you take everyone with you on the journey, so that you don’t have anyone feeling segregated. The more we do that, the more we are going to get the negative behaviours out of the industry.

Are You Concerned About Those Who Abuse ED&I as a TickBox Exercise?

Yes, there are those who have the conversation about ED&I and then don’t do anything with it, except to tick the box. They may want change but aren’t actually ready for the change.

I am often approached to discuss implementing an EDI programme for an organisation. However, when asked to explore what they want to get from it, they aren’t sure what that looks like for them. My advice is to know what you hope to achieve before trying to roll out an EDI programme, otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure.

He says the answer should include “Because it is the right thing to do. If it doesn’t include this, then they might be missing the point.”

It should never be a tickbox exercise to ‘keep up with the Jones’, a PR stunt, a poster on the wall or talk about ratios. These reasons drive the wrong behaviours, set the organisation up for failure and allow them to say “Well, we tried.”

If an organisation doesn’t have its heart and soul in an EDI programme, they should pause. If it’s not the right thing to do, then don’t do it at all, because it will set the industry’s initiative back even further.

The Good Work Being Achieved

There are groups, councils and panels doing something about EDI from a ‘women in construction’ perspective, not just talking about it. Danny sits on several of these groups where some have the overriding rhetoric, ‘there are not enough women in the industry.’

This sends out the wrong message that the women in the industry aren’t enough, or that the work they do isn’t enough. We have great women in engineering and construction.

But the right message to send out to women is we need more great women who are great at their jobs.

The Top 100 Awards

That is why NFB launched the 100 Most Influential Women in Construction Awards. Women were nominated for their skill sets, great behaviours, accomplishments, and more. These women provide inspiration for others to follow them on their journeys.

The Top 100 Legacy Programme

The Legacy Programme offers mentoring, masterclasses, monthly peer groups and fully funded ILM training. Last year, NFB ran a masterclass on Finding Your Voice in the room, physically and face-to-face, and online. The point is that you do not need permission to speak up.
 
Mentoring and Promoting EDI in Construction

People often ask Danny why men should be talking about EDI in the industry? His answer is “For the same reason women should be talking about it, it is important for the workforce. It isn’t enough for a they/them attitude – look at it as ‘us’ – what are we doing in the industry? How do we fix it?”

NFB offers mentoring and training for organisations and individuals to challenge their current mindsets and learn strategies for success and inclusion in the workplace.

Summary

Our team, at Alexander Associates, agree that ED&I is the only way to strengthen the workplace and to ensure a successful tomorrow. With the world in flux, we need to go forward with the right strategies to safeguard against instability in the global market and inspire change, and we do this because it is the right thing to do.

Check out our blog series #ShesAnEngineer and contact us today to speak with our specialists in recruitment consultancy in construction and engineering. We will share our core values and how we implement ED&I in our services for you.

Name: Kate Bullen
Job Title: Asset Commissioning Manager at Wessex Water

When did you realise that a career in engineering was right for you? Was there a particular moment in your life?

I was given my first Mecano set by my parents when I was 4, along with a Lego train set – both of which I still have. I have been taking things apart my whole life to find out how they work (much to my parents dismay in my earlier years), and I’ve always been fascinated by the how’s and why’s of life.


What does an average day look like for you?

After spending 20 years as an Engineer I now manage a team of 20 Engineers, Technicians and Graduates. A lot of my life now is spent on my laptop and in meetings, but everyday I am involved in technical discussions with either a member of my team, or someone in the wider business


How did you get into this career? 

What qualifications did you get? I have A levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and went on to Leeds University to study Environmental Chemistry. I became interested in water, and so chose to go to Birmingham University to complete a Masters in Water Resources. During that time I became fascinated by sewage treatment, and all the physical, chemical and biological processes involved. From there I was very lucky to be offered a position as a process engineer with Bechtel Water, who were working for United Utilities (or North West Water as they were at the time).


Did you face any challenges with your career decision as a woman engineer?

I faced a huge amount of discrimination as a female working on construction sites on sewage works, but never over my choice of careers.


What advice would you give to young girls considering a career in engineering?

I believe the most important point is to not consider your gender when deciding what career you would like to go into. If Engineering fascinates you, and it’s a career you would like to pursue, then just go for it. Everyone brings their own perspective to the job they do, and it’s only by having a broad range of people in a team that the team can be complete.


Do you have any standout memories/funny/interesting stories from your career as an engineer?

As a young graduate I managed to get a whole construction site to stop working as I walked across it – women were rarely seen on sites in the mid ‘90’s. I also remember the time that someone can into the site cabins and asked for the site manager as he needed an induction. I said that I could do it and he looked very unsure, so I passed him onto the site manager, who promptly bought him back into my office so I could do the induction. He did apologise! 

As a senior leader within SLR Consulting, Louise has enjoyed a successful career in a highly technical field and is now a champion of women in the workplace, in both early-stage career, and later in life when other challenges present themselves! 

 

Pamela is Key Account Portfolio Director for ISS Technical Services and oversees a broad range of services supplied mainly to the UK banking sector. After starting her career as an apprentice, she proved herself ‘on the tools’ working predominantly in a male-dominated environment as a hands-on engineer. 

 

Kat Parsons is the Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging UK and Ireland at ISS Facility Services, a position earned after a successful, and hard-won engineering career.

But perhaps, more specifically, from the experiences and lessons she collected while travelling this path. One not unfamiliar to many female engineers. In this blog, we learn more about what she has overcome to get to where she is today as a woman in engineering.
 

What Was the Spark that Lit Kat’s Engineering Bug?

When Kat began looking at her university study options, she tried to find something that sparked her academic interests while being connected to her desire to have an active career. 

“As I was having a flick through the prospectus, I saw an image of a consultant taking water samples. I was like, that’s me!”

She enrolled at Lancaster University to study Environmental Science: a nice mix of all her interests. 

During her studies, Kat did a couple of work placements to gain some experience. She used this time to refine the vision she held for her career, or as she put it, apply a “temperature check”. On a 6-week placement with an Environmental Consultancy, Kat thought, “I really see myself here – hard hats, overalls on. This is what I want to do.”
 

The Work Begins

After graduating, much of Kat’s work focussed on flood risk. But when her role started to touch on work with contaminated land, she got excited. At this point, Kat joined a bigger firm and moved into Project Management in land contamination. "I was in the field, five days a week. I realised that this was the work I really enjoyed, that ‘logistical, last minute, quick we need someone’ work.” 

What became apparent was that she was more valuable in the office, working on the backend of site management, so she embarked on a route that would see her attempt to ascend the company ladder, one that she had to work hard to climb!
 

Challenges of the Climb

Kat managed to move from her graduate status to a more senior position quickly, citing her logistics and project management skills as having supported her progression.
Over the course of 10 years, Kat reached what she describes as a plateau, trapped in middle management with no clear sign that she would get to where she wanted to despite demonstrating her worth over and over. 
 

Goals and Visible Role Models?

When considering goals and role models, Kat acknowledges that “It was quite tricky. Female engineers already in the business were very technical, but I was more of an all-rounder. It almost felt like my skill set was holding me back because I wasn’t ticking the technical box. Men with fewer skills would always get promoted ahead of me, which was quite frustrating.”
 

Coping With Gender Inequality

Kat admits that she opted to get tough to match the nature of the male-dominated sector, reflecting that she went to great lengths to demonstrate her capabilities above and beyond what was expected of others. Kat realised she would need to move on to find the promotion she deserved. 
 

Fighting for Equal Pay

When we raised the topic of equal pay, Kat faced this issue a lot.“Whispers of what people were being paid versus what I was being paid. That was always pretty tough.”
To ensure she’s being equally paid for her skillset, it’s one of the first things she looks into—an unfortunate reality for women in engineering and a product of being a victim of pay inequality.  

Kat eventually moved and embarked on a different career path, feeling she got pushed to make the decision by the limitations of her Engineering career. “I reflected on my career and realised I wasn’t happy. I was very stressed, and my work-life balance was horrendous, so I decided to change industry completely and move into Facilities Management.”
 

Appealing Factors

Kat entered Facilities Management in a Health and Safety role. She knew nothing about the industry but found space she enjoyed. 

As part of this new role, Kat worked on some health-focused projects, including her acclaimed project on Menopause. “That got picked up and I was asked to be the Head of Diversity and Equality for the UK and Ireland. A position I originally said no to! I thought I couldn’t do that. This new role required empathy that I thought I didn’t have. With some self-reflection, I realised I had bucketloads of empathy. I knew I could make a real difference.” 
 

Dismantling an Ingrained Culture 

Discussing that much needs to be done to change how companies support their people, Kat notes, “It’s very much cultural. Working on construction sites, it was either men swearing their heads off or refusing to swear in front of me. Either way, I would do something to fit in.

It was difficult at the time, but I think it’s quite a skill to adapt how you talk to a group of people. Going onto a site, my whole demeanour would change. In the first few minutes, I knew I needed to say something to prove I wasn’t a feeble woman. Something to prove I deserved to be there.”
 

Has it Changed?

“I always remember the toilets being horrendous. A surveyor I talked to last week said she doesn't drink from when she gets up to the end of her shift so that she doesn’t have to use the facilities. Essentially, women’s basic needs are still not being met."

On the flip side of that, a company Kat worked for implemented a Menopause policy, which is new and fantastic for the business and the women who come after her. Women in senior positions leave the industry because they’re not getting the support they need to deal with the anxiety, stress, and depression associated with fluctuating hormones.

Honest Reflection

So, what does Kat think about the industry as a whole?

“Looking back on my career in Construction and Engineering, I remember the good bits. I absolutely loved it! I got to see parts of the country I never would’ve seen. I met thousands and thousands of people. I wouldn’t change it. Yes, it was hard, but I think that’s made me who I am today.”
 
Women are a force of nature in the engineering world, and if you want to find more opportunities here then speaking to the teamat Alexander Associates could be the best thing that you do for your career.

Emily Owen is a Hydrologist with an Environmental Consultancy. Her focus is flood risk assessment work and surface water drainage design, many of which support planning applications, whilst some involve retrofitting for insurance purposes. With an appetite for acquiring new talents and diversifying her skill set, she has been developing her water management portfolio. Recently, she moved into mine water management and water resource modelling.

“Water management is as it sounds – in terms of a site, water comes in and out. If you get it wrong, you get flooded or run out of water – particularly at sites with high water use. Mine sites need to look at water use in depth. A lot of the time, they're in water-poor regions but use a huge amount of water. Water use now feeds into the ESG journey. Mining is probably one of the earliest industries to adopt ESG from a functionality and future-forward perspective.”

This work started for Emily at the very technical end, doing things like water balance modelling and looking at how water moved through mining systems and processes. Now, Emily is moving into water security and more sustainable water use.
 

The Engineering Idea? 

Emily felt almost felt like engineering was not a choice, but where her studies and interests were always going to take her.

“Going into A-levels, I still loved physical Geography. I was getting frustrated by the end of A2 with Geography being a bit wishy-washy. I wanted to do the sciences behind it. I felt like I should be able to apply what I was doing in the other sciences to my Geography work. So I went and studied Science as an undergraduate. From there, the water element really interested me, so I did a Master’s in Hydrology and Water Resource Management within the Engineering department at Imperial. This brought me into the Engineering world and was probably the point that I realised that what I was doing was actually Engineering.”
 

Women Represented in Study

“I went to Durham for my Undergraduate course, which was probably male-dominated because it sat inside that traditional field of study like Geology. I went on an exchange for my second year. When I returned, I was free to do what I wanted because I wasn’t enrolled in a traditional course. You definitely got changes in the gender mix depending on which modules you took. The more environmental courses tended to draw in more women. Maybe because they're newer, less rigid and are constantly evolving.”
During her Masters, Emily reflects that females and multinationals predominantly represented the group and affirms that her overall study experience was positive. She felt well supported by other aspiring female Engineers throughout her studies.
 

Female Role Models and Representation

When discussing the outward-facing persona of a business and what people – particularly women or those from a diverse group – want to see reflected back at them, Emily agrees it’s not a board or interviewing panel of white middle-class men.
Reflecting on her personal experience with female Engineers and access to senior women or mentors in the industry, Emily shares that shehad a lot of strong male managers, but they’ve always been very comfortable with telling her to seek advice and support from other women where possible so that’s helpful.

“As our company has grown, we have more women in the office, which has helped to bring in more women. Having these female contacts on the bad days and having someone you can talk to is important. Sometimes you don't know if it's a discrimination thing or just a life thing. When you're the only person who meets the female criteria, you don't know the difference. Sometimes you just want to call someone up to cross-check it.”
 

Personal Experiences with Discrimination

“I’ve definitely had moments when I thought I’ve been discriminated against, but I do’'t know that’s been a clear-cut case. Some personality traits that have naturally been encouraged in me have made it difficult to tell. I will always offer somebody a cup of tea or coffee when they arrive somewhere because that’s what I'vebeen brought up to do. But then I found that I was always being asked to make the cups of tea even when I had a male colleague of equal status sitting next to me.”

Was Speaking Up an Option?

“Sometimes I would speak up, but that often made it worse because it made people feel defensive. I reached a point where I spoke to someone in the office and told them how it made me feel. They intercepted the requests and offered to make the drinks.” 
Emily struggles to determine whether the issue was gender or personality based as it was clouded by the circumstance she had always offered in the past. Nonetheless, the request was always directed at her. 

“It's a difficult one because we had no admin support. The truth is that 90% of admin staff are women. So, when you’re the young female in a room, the assumption is that you’ll make the tea. It was something that when I was more junior would really get me going.”
 

What can Schools in the UK do Better to Encourage People into Engineering or Other Expansive Careers?

“Encourage students to go out and look for things they haven’t thought of. There's a lot of information out there. Almost every profession in the UK has an institution that goes with it. They would love to do more with young professionals and students, but the gap between them is quite difficult. They can’t force themselves into a school environment, so maybe the solution is encouraging the interested kids to speak to these groups.”
 

What’s the Biggest Misconception About Engineering? 

The practical misconception

“I think it’s what’s included in engineering. My preconceptions were people sat doing calculations and tapping away at a computer all day. But obviously, the job relates to so many other things. Particularly for graduates. A large proportion of it is site work where you’re out and about interacting with people. I don't think people realise this is a huge part of being an engineer.”

The gender misconception 

“Some of the worst discrimination I’ve faced was while collecting bore water samples. A farmer approached me and asked, “What do you think you're doing young lady?” That phrasing, while quite common, makes you feel like you are five years old with your hair in pigtails. I’m obviously collecting a water sample, doing my engineering role, but there’s this whole misconception that you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing because you’re a woman.”

When asked whether Emily felt this was a public misconception or if she felt the sentiment is echoed on site too, she shares, “I think you are treated differently some of the time. Partly because it’s a bit more unusual, and they don’t know how to interact with you. But I think some of it is a lack of provision for ladies coming to the site.”
Aside from less-than-ideal facilities, the provision of female-sized safety gear on site has also been an issue historically. According to Emily, this is getting much better. However, things often need to be made to order to accommodate the many variations of the female form.

There can often be a lag time of up to six weeks between placing an order and it arriving. These delays prevent female graduates from being able to get onto site as soon as they hit the workplace, limiting their real-world exposure in the initial stages of their careers. Ill-fitting gear makes it difficult to carry out your work comfortably but also lines you up to be the butt of someone’s joke. And whilst Emily acknowledges that humour and taking the mickey is effectively the love language on a site, it can also make the person on the receiving end feel a bit awkward, especially if this person is a young female graduate.
 
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