Enticing "lost" women engineers back into the fold

Industry bodies are working together to bring more women into engineering and entice women engineers lost to the profession after career breaks back into the fold

It is well known that there is a significant gender gap within engineering, and the professional bodies have invested a considerable amount of time and effort into improving diversity in the profession.

However, while most of these efforts are focused on trying to encourage young women to enter the profession at the start of their careers, much less attention is paid to trying to entice them back into the industry after having children.

According to research by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), there are approximately 20,000 skilled engineers who have left the profession, and now find that they cannot get back in again.

Tapping into this lost talent pool could help companies tackle some of their skills shortages, while improving diversity within the profession.