Guest post: 'Why should we encourage our daughters into engineering? In a word, seatbelts.'

[NicolaDMumsnet]

In advance of National Engineering Day on 1 November, award-winning engineer Yewande Akinola MBE FREng discusses the role of parents as career gatekeepers in uprooting biases and encouraging their children to follow what they love into engineering.

Why do we need to encourage our daughters into engineering?

In a word, seatbelts. Well, that’s not the whole reason, but indulge me for a little longer while I explain.

The three-point car seatbelt has saved countless lives, some estimates put the number at more than one million, since Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented it for Volvo in 1959. Wearing a seat belt has been a legal requirement in this country since 1983 (for drivers and front seat passengers, 1991 for rear-seat passengers). But it’s astonishing to think that 40 years have gone by and not one study has been conducted on how breast tissue affects seat belt placement. No wonder us women find them uncomfortable.

Caroline Criado-Perez in her book ‘Invisible Women’, highlights the systematic biases behind the data and assumptions impacting our everyday lives as women. Many of us will be very familiar with her opinions as she’s a regular on this site, but if you’re not, ‘Invisible Women’ points out the many ways women are disadvantaged in a man-made world. For example, most offices are five degrees too cold for women, because the formula to determine their temperature was developed in the 1960s and is based on the metabolic resting rate of a 40-year-old, 70kg man. Women’s metabolisms are slower, which means our core temperature is lower and so rooms need to be warmer. There are many more examples, but you get my point.

Criado-Perez argues that this inclusion deficit has happened not because gender wasn’t taken into account (the data exists for women), but because that data just hasn’t been used. I would add that this has also happened because the engineering teams that brought the ideas to life didn’t include women.

Engineers like me are the people who take an idea on a page or a blueprint design and make it a reality. The UK is entirely dependent on my profession to make society and the economy function: we make sure the country is supplied with power and water, that buildings are maintained and improved, and our transportation and communication systems function. From YouTube to iPhones, orthotics to Nike trainers, and bath bombs, engineering’s pervasiveness extends into areas such as medicine, the arts, media and entertainment, finance, fashion and clothing, sports, and the digital economy. Without engineers, we won’t be able to tackle society’s biggest challenges, from providing a sustainable supply of food, water, and clean energy, to advancing healthcare, and keeping us safe and secure.

Unfortunately, we still have the challenge of not nearly enough women taking up engineering degrees or coming into the industry through alternative routes such as apprenticeships. It is currently estimated that women make up only 16.5% of the engineering workforce. At the current rates of change, we will not reach gender parity in entrants to engineering degrees before the end of the century. The imbalance adversely affects the need for engineering solutions for a nearly 50:50 society.

If we as parents and grandparents don’t do something about that now, our daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters will not be able to access the world in the way that men can. And for women, as car safety design illustrates clearly, the consequences of living in a world engineered around male data and without female input can be deadly.

One way to tackle this problem is by destigmatise engineering as something that only men do.

The latest initiative from the Royal Academy of Engineering reminds us that we all – regardless of gender and background - have the capability to think like an engineer. We all display engineering habits (like problem spotting and creative problem solving) on a daily basis. To emphasise that point, the Academy has teamed up with ‘Green Dragon’, successful entrepreneur Deborah Meaden, to launch the “Everyday Engineering" competition. The competition invited us to release our ‘inner engineer’ by submitting ideas and creations that aim to make daily life less wasteful and more sustainable, like a living chandelier light that purifies the air indoors, a biodegradable ice-cooler box or edible tableware. It served as a reminder that problem-solving innovations can come from anyone. The finalists will be revealed on National Engineering Day and the winner will be chosen by a public vote on social media. Cast your votes on 1 November @ThisisEngineering on Instagram and TikTok and @ThisisEng on X (formerly Twitter).

Historically the world has been engineered by men for men, but our future needn’t be. It is mind-blowing how many biases are ‘planted’ into the world - from general comments to adverts on television and social media. And that’s where we, as career gatekeepers, can help by uprooting these biases and encouraging our daughters to check out www.thisisengineering.org.uk and follow what they love into engineering.

Twitter: @YeWanDae
Website: https://yewandeakinola.co.uk/

[Getoutasearlyasyoucan]

Thank you for your post OP, you're so right that we all display engineering habits, and I like the idea of parents as career gatekeepers. Mine are tweens though and I already wonder how much influence I'm genuinely going to be able to have on their decisions as they get older. But actually, firing them up on this subject is probably the most effective way. Kids talk about wanting to change the world - this could be the way they do it.