A UN progress report stated that at current rates of progress, gender equality will be achieved in 300 years, and it will take 140 years to achieve equal representation in leadership in the workplace. Recent figures from EngineeringUK have shown a decline in the number of women in engineering and technology roles, dropping from 16.5% to 15.7% over the past year. This amounts to 38,000 fewer women in the sector’s workforce. This decrease is particularly prominent among women aged 35 to 44, the age when people typically progress into leadership roles.

On 12 November 2024, Victoria Trudgill (National Vice Chair of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering’s Emerging Professionals Network) hosted an industry event in the offices of AtkinsRéalis in London to discuss the barriers and solutions to address the challenge of achieving gender equality within leadership.

The expert panel included:

• Claire Gott MBE, Head of Building Structures at WSP
• Dr Nike Folayan MBE HonFREng, Chair and Co-Founder, Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers UK (AFBE-UK) and Technical Director, WSP
• Dr Sarah Prichard, ACE Chair and Global Director of Projects and Operational Excellence at Buro Happold
• Sally Twisleton, Collaborative coach and consultant specialising in coaching women leaders in engineering
• Becca Gooch, Head of Research, EngineeringUK
• Vince Pizzoni, Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham and Board Advisor at Male Allies UK

Key barriers

The workshop started by focusing on the challenges ahead and identifying the key barriers that are preventing women from advancing in our sector.

When discussing this with the panel, Claire Gott reflected on her recent experience of returning to the workplace after a career break to start a family. Claire highlighted that juggling the responsibilities of being a full-time parent and traveling to sites across the country can be very challenging for many women. This led to discussions on the primary care responsibility regularly being placed on women, potentially due to limited paternity leave, the perceived role of women or men being more hesitant to go part time due to the stigma attached to this.

Other panellists highlighted the challenge of bringing allies along the journey to support, which was also highlighted by the lack of male representation in the room. It was raised how men may not feel as though they are invited to contribute to discussions or events around gender equality, which in itself is a barrier that needs to be overcome.

Solutions

The second half of the workshop focused on removing obstacles. A key theme was the need for greater flexibility in the workplace, especially for women returning to work after starting a family, as well as trying to remove the stigma around men taking on primary care responsibilities. Dr Sarah Pritchard pointed out that it’s not about imposing a single maternity policy on all female staff but embracing different approaches dependent on an individual’s circumstances, such as part-time working, working from home for part of the week, compressed hours or starting the day earlier.  

Discussions emphasised the essential and powerful role of sponsorship in advancing women’s careers. Rather than just providing mentorship, senior leaders can do more. They can actively advocate for women and boost their visibility within male-dominated senior leadership.

“Mentorship is great but sponsorship is the real difference maker…Women are over mentored and under sponsored. A sponsor is someone in a position of authority who uses their influence to help the beneficiary advance in their career. Sponsors can advocate for the beneficiary’s career, introduce them to their networks, and recommend them for promotions. Sponsorship is the hidden hand of help when you are not in the room.”

Vince Pizzoni, Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham and Board Advisor at Male Allies UK

This is essential for creating more opportunities. Workshop attendees called for greater accountability for senior leadership more generally to call out when practices within their organisations are hindering their female colleagues’ advancement.

Next steps

We had excellent audience participation and feedback on the event has been great. Outcomes of this event and further initiatives to drive this forward will be developed over the next year. This event is just one in a series of upcoming EDI-focused initiatives hosted by the Emerging Professionals Network. We’ll share insights and host more events in 2025 designed to explore this topic further and to push for change. To get involved and to share your thoughts, please get in touch with us at: membership@acenet.co.uk