Blog: addressing gender diversity challenges in engineering and technology

There is a plethora of research making the business case that a diverse workforce leads to greater revenue and profitability. McKinsey and Company’s Diversity Matters Even More report shows that companies with the greatest gender, ethnic and cultural diversity are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability. Companies that have more than 30 percent of women executives in employment are significantly more likely to financially outperform those with 30 percent or fewer female executives. 

The engineering and technology sector would particularly benefit from improving its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). First, we have a huge, historic, diversity challenge, especially when it comes to including more women, leaving great scope for improvement. Furthermore, this sector has the fastest growth, and is already experiencing impactful workforce shortages, only set to increase especially as the new Government pledges for us to become a clean energy superpower. We must ensure that the breadth of the population is attracted and welcomed to the sector.

Despite the compelling productivity, workforce need and, of course, social justice cases for change, there has been unsettling evidence that EDI efforts are slipping.

Our recent analyses revealed the percentage of women working in engineering and technology roles declined in the past year from 16.5% to 15.7%, compared to 56.1% in the rest of the UK workforce. The finding is consistent with registration data published by the Engineering Council which shows the average age of women leaving the profession is 43, in contrast to 60 for men. It’s important to understand what’s happening here. It seems that we are recruiting well, with an increase in 16 to 34 year old women entering engineering and technology. The issue is retention – with a particular decline in experienced women aged 33-44 - a sad loss to the sector. (We’ll looking at other demographic groups in the coming months.)

What might be affecting the retention of women in engineering and technology? It may be that economic, political and social pressures are resulting in organisations deprioritising their EDI strategies and efforts.

I, like many, was shocked to hear that the government-supported, industry led membership group, Tech Talent Charter, is closing. They are making this decision as a call to action: ‘Progress in D&I is slowing and too many companies are “quiet quitting” D&I by cutting funding, staffing or diluting efforts... We intend our closure to be a rallying call and a catalyst for reflection and for renewed greater commitment by the sector’

Tech Talent Charter’s annual Diversity in Tech report, published earlier this year and based on data from more than 700 UK tech employers, reported ‘countless stories from D&I role-holders and advocates battling for support from senior leaders as their teams are decimated, their processes eliminated by mergers and acquisitions or being forced to step back from voluntary efforts due to changing business attitudes and overburdened desks’. 

It is important to note that we do not see a decline in the retention of women in the overall workforce data, it’s an issue in engineering and technology. We must strive to understand what is happening and why it is impacting retention more than recruitment. Certain aspects of the sector may create issues, such as, less remote working. Or it may be that the level of under-representation of women creates its own challenges. A recent article in The Scotsman highlighted the difficulties female engineers have encountered in their engineering careers, which included nothing less than overtly sexist attitudes.

But we don’t need to wait to act. There are great examples of organisations (Siemens, AtkinsRealis to name but a few)  that have transformed the representativeness of their workforce. Sustained commitment from corporate leaders can achieve much and fortunately there are organisations eager to help, such as WISE, WES, Equal Engineers and the Royal Academy of Engineering..

Truth be told, I am concerned that the same pressures that have led to a deprioritisation of EDI, have led to declining outreach to younger school children. We’ve seen several businesses cut their activities with younger ages. As employers increasingly struggle to recruit, they seem to be focussing on engaging students at ages closer to employment. But if we don’t also engage younger age groups, we are stacking up even bigger challenges for the future. Our recent evidence of a decline in 11–14-year olds’ interest in learning science since 2019, especially amongst girls, shows that we must work earlier to build the talent pool of the future.

If you’d like to join a community of more than 300 like-minded organisations committed to increasing the number and diversity of young people entering engineering and technology careers, please become a member of The Tomorrow’s Engineers Code. It’s free to join and can help strengthen your commitment and action to improving EDI.