Study to examine gender equality in mechanical engineering

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and Nile University in Egypt have received £25,000 through the British Council’s Gender Equality Partnership scheme, to identify the factors that influence career choice and progression.

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) the participation rate for women in mechanical engineering degree courses rose from eight per cent in 2012 to 10 per cent in 2016. This is against a background where the number of women accepted into full-time STEM undergraduate courses rose by 49 per cent between 2010 and 2020.

This 12-month project - Unblocking the Equality Pipeline in Mechanical Engineering - will form two parallel networks in the UK and Egypt and includes 100 women at various stages of the career ‘pipeline’ from first year undergraduates to the most senior levels of the profession. The networks will be complemented by 100 men at similar career stages. Once formed, the networks will share their experiences of the challenges and opportunities they have faced in their careers, underpinned by periodic surveys aimed at identifying the ‘blockages’ in the pipeline. The UK part of the study is being led at Heriot-Watt University and the findings collated alongside the work carried out by academics at Nile University.