Q&A: Carolyn Hicks, CFO/COO and co-founder at Brill Power

You recently wrote about your – completely understandable - love/hate relationship with International Women’s Day. Is that same dynamic at play with INWED or is it more nuanced?

I had to reflect deeply on why I have different feelings toward International Women’s Day (IWD) and International Women in Engineering Day (INWED). While IWD brings both celebration and frustration for me, INWED is primarily celebratory due to its focus on encouraging a changing workforce in engineering. By having a sector-specific focus, we can set targets and measure the progress of reaching gender balance in traditionally male-dominated fields. 

MORE FROM INWED24

How did your own engineering journey begin and were you aware of the gender imbalance in the sector from a young age?

For myself and a lot of my female engineering peers, our route into engineering was via our high school courses. A guidance counsellor once told me, “You’re good at math and physics, so you should do engineering.” There wasn’t much discussion about what the role of an engineer included, just a push toward the field based on my skillset.