Every time I get asked about my job, people say: “Oh, not too many women do that, do they?”, which sometimes gets tiring. I’ve attended events with my husband as my guest and people assume I’m his plus one because “surely the man must be the engineer?”.
The engineering sector has, however, made huge advances in becoming a better place for women to work in recent years.
Flexible working is becoming much more commonplace in the industry as a whole, and female role models in senior positions are more visible. Unconscious bias training and mentorships are also helping but there’s still a huge gap in the supply of talent in the industry, with many engineers approaching retirement and a lack of pipeline to replace them. Women must be part of the solution to that problem.
Progress is slowly being made and companies are starting to target women graduates to improve diversity by recruiting from other degree disciplines, such as data science, geography and physics. This brings about diversity of thought and a range of different academic backgrounds.
Retaining women should also be a focus through returners’ schemes, coaching, flexible working and addressing the gender pay gap so that women are not penalised for taking time off to care for children.
But one of the key target areas in bridging the gap needs to be the parents. Gender stereotypes are ingrained from such a young age and this perpetuates into the way children view their career options, even from primary school. So educating parents and helping them to understand that engineering isn’t just a job for the boys is incredibly important.
Targeted school programmes definitely have a part to play too, such as the incredible work of the army of Stem ambassadors in working with children to highlight career opportunities.
Here at the Met Police, I’m one of two property engineers – so that makes our team 50% female! There are women engineers in other departments, and there is an active women-in-engineering network. Looking at the Met as a whole, it is the most diverse place I have ever worked.
I was delighted to become a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers last year, just a few weeks before my daughter was born. At 10 weeks old, she accompanied me to the presentation ceremony.
I became a trustee of the institute when my daughter was four months and she has, quite simply, attended everything with me. I have breastfed her in trustee and council meetings on numerous occasions. I just decided I was going to get on with it – I didn’t ask for anyone’s permission.
I really hope I am normalising motherhood in the workplace for others who want to do that. I have now gone back to work full time while my husband has three months’ shared parental leave. After that I will drop down to a four-day work week – partly to give me time to study for my Executive MBA which I am pursuing at the University of Cambridge. Life is busy, suffice it to say.
If you are inquisitive, if you like solving society’s biggest challenges as part of a team, and if you want an interesting and varied career, I would definitely recommend civil engineering. Don’t be put off by preconceptions of what engineers do, it isn’t all hard hats and muddy boots – though it can be that too, if you want.
Emma Kent is the director of construction for Metropolitan Police. She was interviewed by Georgina Fuller
