Girls and young women are grossly underrepresented on educational pathways into engineering and technology. Addressing the barriers in education and skills will enable more women to go into engineering and technology – they currently make up just 17% of the sector’s workforce.
The 40 by 40 blueprint for action, produced by the Gender Pathways collective and published today, calls on government to embed long-term, sustainable interventions to improve gender equity in education and skills. In England, by age 18, currently only 26% of those on engineering and technology education pathways are female. To raise this proportion to at least 40% by 2040, the blueprint calls for the Department for Education to:
- ensure that teaching and pedagogy support girls on STEM pathways
- work with other relevant departments to ensure gender-equitable delivery of engineering and technology careers guidance, enrichment and work experience
- work with other departments, including the Office for Equality and Opportunity, to foster a culture of gender equity in schools and colleges
Improving women’s participation in engineering and technology is vital to meet workforce needs and improve the productivity of these sectors and therefore the wider economy. An estimated 240,000 people are needed to join the engineering and technology workforce each year up to 2030.
Better participation of women will also improve equity in the labour market. If 50% of engineering and technology workforce entrants were women, they would collectively earn around £1 billion more every year, compared with them going into other roles.
The first step to achieving this will be ensuring more young women are on pathways into these roles. Girls are currently significantly underrepresented on both academic and vocational pathways.
‘40 by 40: Gender equity in engineering and technology education’ highlights the barriers that limit young women’s access to, interest in and enjoyment of the subjects that can lead them into engineering and technology.
Dr Hilary Leevers, Chief Executive of EngineeringUK, comments:
“Action needs to be taken to remove the barriers that limit girls and young women from joining pathways into engineering and technology. Women are by far the most underrepresented group in the engineering and technology workforce. And they are grossly underrepresented in the educational pathways that lead into those roles. We have identified clear actions to improve that inequity. It is time to stop talking and start delivering that policy change.”
Dr Laura Norton, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Director, says:
“In publishing the 40 by 40 blueprint for action, the Gender Pathways collective makes evidenced recommendations for government, particularly the Department for Education. However, cross-departmental work is essential to achieving the change needed to address this gender disparity.
As a collective, we have today written to the Minister for Women and Equalities and the Secretaries of State in 4 government departments including the Department for Education. We’re asking for sustained and targeted action that will ensure that girls and young women have greater opportunities to be part of the future engineering and technology workforce.”
The Gender Pathways collective is a partnership of organisations committed to significantly increasing the number of girls and young women in education pathways to engineering and technology by age 18. To find out more about the collective and to read blueprint for action, go to www.engineeringuk.com/40by40.
