International Women in Engineering Day
Y8 Girls were invited to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day on 23rd June 2019 at AKTII. AKTII is a London-based structural, civil and façade engineering consultancy, internationally recognised as being innovative and award-winning.
The UK has the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in Europe, with countries like Bulgaria and Cyprus leading the way with a 30% female workforce. In 2017 only 15.1% of our engineering undergraduates were women, a stark contrast compared to countries like India, who had double the rate of female engineering undergraduates at 30%.
According to Engineering UK 2018 the following are the latest statistics from the report by WES (World Educational Services):
- 12.37% of all engineers in the UK are women
- 21.80% of women work in the engineering sector (including engineers)
- 22.2% of students starting A Level Physics in 2018 were female
Y8 girls took part in a day of interactive learning including an ‘Introduction to Engineering and AKTII’. The day started with presentations from the team at AKII, explaining what Structural Engineering is and how it is different from being an architect. The girls were also informed about different routes (University/Apprentices etc.) into Engineering.
The last part of the presentations was putting engineering skills into practice and a discussion on what engineers have to consider when they create designs and plans for buildings/landmarks. The girls learnt how to perspective draw (a technique structural engineers use as part of the process when designing structures for buildings and landmarks). The girls were also set a challenge to build a tall structure taking into consideration the design needs of a building, i.e. can it withstand force, tensions, winds etc.
The day demonstrated the need to continually equip, empower and support girls and young women to achieve and aspire in their studies, particularly STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects.
The gender pay gap between male and female engineers has narrowed, but there are still eight times as many men as women in the industry!
Ms Rahman
Learning from Every Situation – The Bow Way
