This International Women’s Day (IWD), JN are recognising and celebrating the achievements of women in engineering. We love getting together for events like yesterday’s Engineers Australia IWD convention or today’s Creative Women’s Circle lunch to recognise the realities of women in our field. 

Women in engineering have been making significant contributions for centuries, but we believe there’s still a long way to go in promoting parity of gender representation and equality in the industry.

Female representation in engineering

There’s a long way to go when it comes to female representation in engineering. Despite increases in the number of women studying engineering, the profession is still male-dominated. Although women comprise 48% of Australia’s workforce, they hold only 13% of engineering jobs. This is in contrast to other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) fields where gender representation is more balanced.

Last year, Engineers Australia (EA) released a report on Women in Engineering, revealing that the most significant reason young women do not pursue engineering is a lack of knowledge regarding the field and what engineers do. In the EA study, out of 1,400 people surveyed, 90 percent of female participants in non-engineering fields did not deem it a viable career path. Their findings showed some obstacles to the profession include the conception of engineering as too male-orientated or “boring”, and that young girls were not being encouraged to excel in STEM-related topics from as early as primary school, compared to their male peers.

This study gives insight into how we can address the gender representation issue. Jane MacMaster, the Chief Engineer at Engineers Australia, believes the recent discoveries should prompt action to counterbalance the gender disparity and to promote a new generation of female engineers. Ms MacMaster concluded that early intervention and education must form part of that action, having discovered that over 90% of girls had already chosen their field of study before the end of Year 11.

Jane MacMaster said that sparking interest in engineering among young minds requires reaching four groups: schoolchildren, parents, teachers and career advisors. Unless the latter three understand the career options available, they are unlikely to raise them with girls.

JN believes in promoting a diverse workforce. Beyond the equal-opportunity case, diversity also boosts productivity and innovation, both of which benefit from a wider range of perspectives.

As indicated by the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador, Lisa Harvey-Smith, drawing female talent to engineering is essential in satisfying the skills shortages facing the engineering industry, at a time when current estimates call for at least an extra 100,000 engineers Australia-wide to cover proposed projects out to 2030.

JN believes that more should be done to communicate the advantages of engineering to inspire more women to pursue the profession, and moreover, to create and preserve an industry culture that ensures that they remain.

What other issues should we be addressing?

In addition to unequal gender representation in the industry, women engineers have historically faced a range of challenges such as gender pay gap, industry recognition and lack of support from their peers. These problems have traditionally made it difficult for women to thrive in many professions, but the continued and glaring under-representation in engineering specifically has the effect of persisting the myth that engineering is a “male-orientated” profession.

Women engineers also contend with inequality of pay. In 2021, the gap between women’s and men’s pay in STEM industries was $36,000, or 24%, according to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, making it the third highest industry for gender pay gap from the 13 grouped industries assessed by the Department.

At JN, we love what we do, and we’re proud to be engineers, but we’re not proud of the way the above statistics reflect on the broader industry. We believe that merit is merit; effort is effort. We believe that assessment of remuneration should be based on specific duties and responsibilities of each position, ongoing KPIs and adjustment to broader economic considerations, and blind to any form of bias. We understand that sometimes these biases are unconscious. Therefore, we encourage our broader industry to embrace tools such as pay equity audits, to identify any discrepancies in roles of equal nature and performance.

We want to address the important issue of workplace culture. Active discrimination and harassment within a workplace are never to be tolerated, under any circumstance. But it doesn’t just stop there. Women who are excluded from teams, projects, activities and career progression opportunities due to gender bias (whether conscious or unconsciously done), may feel that it reflects on their own abilities. The EA study found that 1 in 3 female engineers felt they needed to act like “one of the boys” to fit in. All team members need to feel comfortable and included in the workplace, and supported in facing any challenges, so it is alarming that a larger number of women reported feeling unsupported at work. The EA study found 2 in 3 surveyed women who left the engineering profession did so because they experienced lack of career progression, gender discrimination, bullying or sexual harassment. In contrast, only a small proportion left because the work wasn’t a match for their skills and interests. This means that women don’t typically leave because of the work; they leave because of the workplace – issues that limit their opportunities and adversely impact their daily working experience. JN believes the wider engineering industry has a responsibility to invest in understanding the unique challenges women engineers face and continue to support more women entering the profession by providing a supportive network in which to discuss any challenges.

Lastly, we want to identify the comparative lack of recognition for the work of female engineers. Even though women have been making significant contributions to the engineering industry for centuries, they are still often overlooked, and their achievements are not given the same recognition as their male counterparts. We believe that any staff member who excels at their job should be both internally recognised and, where possible, considered for industry awards that reflect their excellence. (In recent news, we’re proud to tell you that Neasha Jeffery, a JN Associate Structural Engineer, is a contender for the Champions of Change – Female Leadership award at the upcoming Consult Australia Awards for Excellence in late March. Go Neasha – we are all behind you!)

The above issues can make it difficult for women to thrive in their engineering careers and can have a negative impact on the entire engineering profession, which would benefit overall from the inclusion of a wider brain pool of human talent and skill.

How JN supports gender diversity in engineering

At JN, we believe everyone should have the opportunity to pursue a career in engineering without facing discrimination. We are proud to raise our voice on these issues, and our commitment to a workplace where everyone is valued equally and encouraged to reach their full potential is unwavering. We have implemented a range of initiatives to ensure women feel supported, valued and satisfied in their work.

First, we are dedicated to creating a safe and supportive working environment for all our employees. We have implemented a range of policies and procedures aimed at creating an environment where everyone is respected and treated equally, with a zero-tolerance policy towards discriminatory behaviour and an immediate escalation process for bullying and harassment.

We are also committed to providing our employees with opportunities for career development. We provide our team members with ongoing access to training and development and regular feedback sessions to ensure that they can reach their full potential.

We encourage our team members to become involved in supportive female mentorships and networks to be able to discuss any issues they may be facing. We also acknowledge the work-life balance stressors, that are historically reported as greater for women in the workforce (including a greater sense of dual responsibility and time-pressure), with sensitive policies towards leave and flexible working arrangements, and a management culture that encourages our team members to feel comfortable in discussing their needs.

These initiatives have been effective in creating a more inclusive and supportive working environment at JN that continues to support the talented women in our team.

This International Women’s Day, we celebrate the amazing contributions of women engineers while recognising the efforts of the women in our team at JN. Read their stories here.