1. International Women’s Day (8 March): What #breakthebias means to NMITE
"International Women's Day is an important day when we remind ourselves of how far we've come in terms of gender equality and gender inclusion. It's a moment to celebrate each other, to celebrate women's achievements, to raise each other up. But unfortunately, it's also a day when we must reflect on all the obstacles we still have to overcome, and the gaps that we still need to bridge."
Elena Rodriguez-Falcon (Chief Executive Officer & President) Samantha Lewis, Director of HR, and Gary Wood, Academic Director (who is here to share a male perspective) at NMITE shared their thoughts on breaking the bias within the engineering industry. Read the full article here.
2. Female empowerment is the solution to a shortage of STEM workers
"What’s interesting, however, is that girls outrank boys when it comes to STEM subject performance. More girls achieved the highest grade bands in STEM than boys in 2021. It’s not an issue of skill but it could instead be that young women are deterred from pursuing careers in STEM, while young men are encouraged towards them."
While increasing the number of women in STEM is important for equality, it will also help the sector tackle a widening skills gap. Piston rings supplier FPE Seals discussed how to empower more women into STEM roles. Read the full article here.
3. Celebrating female manufacturing leaders: Make UK hosts afternoon tea for International Women’s Day
“Role models are incredibly important – I wouldn’t have considered engineering at all if it hadn’t been for my dad. I never had a female engineering role model, and I aspire to be that for other young girls, because there aren’t many people encouraging women into engineering. I want to show young people that it’s an exciting, creative career where you get to problem solve.”
To celebrate IWD on 8 March, Make UK hosted an afternoon tea for over 100 women. Local female leaders and current apprentices shared experiences, networked and celebrated their successes in the manufacturing industry, which remains a male-dominated sector. Read the full article here.
4. Breaking the bias: "The engineering industry must do more to encourage women into the field"
"It’s clear that businesses have to take strides to truly reap the benefits of diverse teams. With those operating in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields facing some of the greatest gender gaps, businesses in these sectors must work even harder to conquer gender imbalance."
This year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) follows the theme of “break the bias” – celebrating those who dare to challenge, and the women who could solve some of the greatest issues impacting our world. As a business invested in its people, Sandvik Coromant highlighted the experience of its President, Helen Blomqvist. Read the full article here.
5. Why are women in STEM needed in a post-pandemic, post-Brexit Britain?
"Innovation happens when we approach urgent challenges from every different point of view. Bringing women and underrepresented minorities into the field guarantees that we see the full range of solutions to the real problems that people face in the world."
According to 2019 figures from the UK Government, there are now just over a million women (1,019,400) in the STEM workforce. This translates to an increase of more than 350,000 women (24%) entering these areas of work. While this may be encouraging to hear, there is still a long way to go for gender equality in these male-dominated industries. Read the full article here.
6. British women in tech are struggling to ‘break the bias’, International Women’s Day survey reports
“We need to look at the systemic issues across the board, supporting women at just one level is not going to solve the problem. We need to be looking at solutions that start during women's school age and span across their lifetime. Educate in schools, create visible role models, provide access to skills programmes and generate more opportunities for funding. It can't be just one of these interventions it needs to be all of them."
Despite women tech giants, including Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki, being championed in the press, women are still facing barriers when it comes to entering and succeeding in the world of technology, new research from London Tech Week suggests. Read the full article here.
7. Female Jaguar Land Rover apprentice shares advice on entering male-dominated industry
"For any young girl thinking about manufacturing or engineering apprenticeships, I say just do it. Don’t be scared and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. I’ve definitely proved myself since starting and it’s really changed my mindset towards the industry – it really is welcoming, and you can learn so much."
Based in Rugby, Hannah Linden is a first-year Make UK apprentice currently working at Jaguar Land Rover in Castle Bromwich. As part of International Women’s Day on 8 March, Hannah shares her experiences as a young woman entering a male-dominated industry. Read the full article here.
Key takeaways from this year's celebration
Overall, it seems that there is still a long way to go in order to break the biases and systemic issues that are still sadly entrenched within this male-dominated industry. However, there is much to celebrate in terms of the sector taking critical steps towards greater gender equality. It is incredibly inspiring to hear about the trailblazing women who have managed to forge successful careers in spite of the obstacles they have faced, and the companies who are striving to support them. It is important that the engineering industry takes the lessons learnt from International Women's Day 2022 as a call to action to tackle inequalities, eliminate damaging gender stereotypes, and ultimately encourage more women into this exciting and rewarding field.