Blog: We’ll never tackle gender imbalance by focusing on recruitment alone

It is shocking that, despite some improvement in recent years, women make up just 16.5% of the engineering workforce, especially compared with their 47.7% representation in the overall workforce. On the other hand, I am genuinely encouraged by the extent to which many employers are making real efforts towards addressing this in their recruitment practices. For instance, through reducing the risk of biases in their processes and opening up recruitment criteria. However, this can only help so much if there simply isn’t an abundant pool of trained female talent. In order to drive real change, we need to go back a stage or two – starting younger and investing in engaging girls and fostering their aspirations to become engineers and technicians. This will ensure that when it comes to recruiting, we have a much more gender-balanced talent pool to choose from.

So how can we get more young women pursuing engineering and tech careers? Unfortunately, engineering barely features in the school curriculum, meaning many girls might not even be aware of what it involves, let alone be aspiring to a future career in the sector. This is why high-quality, impactful Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers activities are so vital in helping to inform and inspire girls.

We recently published a new report which brings together the evidence on interventions that aim to increase girls’ aspirations for engineering and technology careers. The aim of this ‘rapid evidence review’ is to inform programme design and delivery for STEM engagement practitioners and funders, and to highlight gaps where more evidence is needed.  Split into five main sections, the review covers learnings from activities for primary school students, programmes designed specifically for girls, role models and mentors, links to higher education, and careers and summer camps.

One of the key takeaways from the review is that we need to start engaging girls with engineering and technology activities at a young age. In fact, research suggests that it is generally easier to influence girls' aspirations towards engineering and technology careers in primary compared to secondary school. At a young age, girls' attitudes toward STEM are more malleable. As they get older, societal and cultural influences, as well as peer pressure, can have a negative impact on their confidence and interest in these fields.

The review also highlights the importance of providing activities that challenge the gender stereotypes around engineering and technology. Children begin to associate certain careers with gender at a young age, and these associations can shape their attitudes and beliefs about what they are capable of and what career paths are available to them. Providing activities that challenge these stereotypes may help young people to see that engineering and technology careers are for everyone, regardless of gender.

However, the review also suggests that while we should be mindful of the interests and preferences of girls when designing programmes, we need to be careful of the over-use of ‘pink tech’ in STEM outreach activities for girls. ‘Pink tech’ refers to technology products or marketing designed to appeal specifically to girls or women, often by using stereotypically ‘feminine’ themes, or aesthetics. While the intention may be to make STEM more appealing to girls, this approach can reinforce gender stereotypes and limit girls' exposure to a full range of STEM fields and applications. We also need to be mindful of the limitations of gender as a binary concept.

Unfortunately, our review finds that there are many gaps in the current evidence, and much of the evidence reviewed is based on studies abroad, typically in the US, and the findings may not translate to UK settings. It is vitally important that UK based research explores these issues and that funders and deliverers of engineering put the effort and funding into evaluation so that we can all learn how to be more effective. You can find some guidance we have pulled together to support organisations with their evaluation on our Tomorrow’s Engineers website.

So next time you find yourself struggling to recruit more female engineers and technicians, I’d encourage you to consider what else you might be able to do the tackle the issue from an earlier age. By engaging and inspiring girls today, you’ll be securing our female engineers of tomorrow.

Dr Hilary Leevers - CEO, Engineering UK