As part of International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021 CIHT has asked leading CIHT STEM Ambassadors the key questions we need answered. In this Q&A we speak to Tanya Preston, Civil Engineer & Technical Copywriter, Engineered Copy.
I think it’s vitally important to focus STEM work on primary aged children and inspire them from a younger age. At the moment, much of the work being done to highlight STEM careers is carried out at the secondary school level. However, often by this age the students have decided what their strengths or interests are and capturing their imagination is much more difficult. With younger children, we have an opportunity to not just inspire them, but also to make STEM subjects appealing to everyone – not just the students who feel they are “good at maths” or other STEM areas.
We need to highlight the vast range of skills that the highways and transportation sector helps women build and develop. A highways project requires technical knowledge, but it also requires many other skills, such as problem-solving, communication, coordination, team-building, project management, quality assurance, HSE, and commercial. The range of projects available to work on is also varied – you can quickly be responsible for your own improvement schemes, or work as part of a team on large reconstruction or new build projects. I feel this is unique to highways in contrast to other areas of civil engineering, where often engineers are specialists with no other responsibilities beyond their design work. In highways and transportation, you can become truly multi-skilled and develop knowledge across many different areas. In addition, the opportunities for progression are excellent.
We need to be a more family friendly sector. That means better maternity (and paternity) conditions and more support for flexible or part-time working. For example, companies in other sectors offer between three to six months’ full pay during maternity leave (compared to the standard 6 weeks at 90% pay), parental leave for emergencies, as well as the ability to come back on a part-time or flexible basis. Why would women want to invest their time into a sector that they might have to leave when they have a family because they cannot fit their new responsibilities around their work?
Civil Engineer & Technical Copywriter, Engineered Copy
A significant gender gap has persisted throughout the years at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world. Even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in these fields.
Gender equality has always been a core issue for the United Nations. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will make a crucial contribution not only to economic development of the world, but to progress across all the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well.
On 14 March 2011, the Commission on the Status of Women adopted a report at its fifty-fifth session, with agreed conclusions on access and participation of women and girls in education, training and science and technology, and for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work. On 20 December 2013, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on science, technology and innovation for development, in which it recognized that full and equal access to and participation in science, technology and innovation for women and girls of all ages is imperative for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
On 22 December 2015, the General Assembly adopted a resolution to establish an annual International Day to recognize the critical role women and girls play in science and technology communities. In welcoming the efforts of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other relevant organizations that support and promote the access of women and girls and their participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, training and research activities at all levels decided to proclaim 11 February of each year the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
Find out more here https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day/
The opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the CIHT or its members. Neither the CIHT nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.
