Equality; it takes time.

Alice Perry (1885-1969) is regarded as the "first female engineer". She has earned this accolade because she was the first women to graduate in #civilengineering from Queens College Galway in 1902. It is understood she was the first to graduate from anywhere in Ireland or Great Britain (perhaps the world!). In 1906, she was (for a brief period) the County Surveyor (County Engineer) in Galway West. Unsurprisingly, given the tenacity it must have taken to step out into a world not just dominated by men, but exclusively for men; she was also involved in the suffrage campaign in Galway.

Although she appears to have maintained an interest in #civilengineering Alice moved to London and took up a role as a Factory Inspector for the home office.

At a similar time another engineer called Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (1887 - 1973) was breaking down barriers in continental Europe. She originally applied for and was rejected by the School of Bridges and Roads in Bucharest. In 1909 she was accepted by the Royal Academy of Technology Berlin. She graduated in 1912. She spent almost her entire career working as an engineer moving from Germany back to Romania she returned to the Geological Institute making a significant contribution to this filed of engineering.

She was the first female member of the General Association of Romanian Engineers. Hence she is considered the to be the world's first female engineer (according to the academy of world records). Elisa retired in 1963 aged 75.

Dorothy Buchanan (from Scotland) was born in 1899, educated in #civilengineering at Edinburgh University graduating in 1923. After this she worked for Douglas Fox & Partners in London. She worked on the design of many bridges including the Sydney Harbour Bridge (built in 1925-1932) and the Tyne Bridge (built 1925-1928).

In 1927 (at the age of 28) she became the the first female member to be professionally recognised by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) gaining a status equivalent to CEng MICE. She was recognised because she was a competent engineer. Not to meet any quota targets for diversity. To qualify she had to pass a degree-level exam and gain suitable practical experience. Somethings never change. Since those early days the Institution has gone from strength to strength. It has forged ahead and taken steps towards #diversityandinclusion.

In 1867 a reform bill aimed at giving men and women equal rights was laughed out of the UK parliament. In 1918 a bill was passed allowing women over 30 to vote. Somethings do change! The Women's Engineering Society - the first of its kind in the world - was founded on 23 June 1919. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 enabled women to join professional bodies. This made it possible for women to earn the qualifications and gain the professional experiences required to pass professional interviews. The United States equivalent, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), was founded in 1950.

In 1947 Mary Thompson Irvine became the first woman to be elected a chartered member of the Institution of Structural Engineers.

In 1979 the Finniston Report into the engineering profession in the United Kingdom was commissioned by the Labour government. This ultimately led to the foundation of the Engineering Council in 1981, which in its turn collaborated with the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) to launch the Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) year in 1984. Most recently the Equality Act was published in 2010 making a protected characteristic of amongst other things gender.

At the time of the launch of WISE (82 years after the first female graduated in engineering) only 7% of engineering graduates, in all disciplines across the UK, were women. 29 years later, by 2013, this had doubled to between 13-16% of people on engineer courses. The proportion of female students starting #civilengineering courses in 2015 was 17.2%. Interestingly, in the same year, the proportion of female starting postgraduate courses in civil engineering is as high as 30.6%. This is significant as it is well above the average for other engineering disciplines. In 2017?18, 18.2% of engineering and technology students. (Source: HESA Student record 2017?18). There appears to be an upwards trend. A slow but an upwards one.

Data gathered as part of the European Labour Force Survey 2007 identified the UK as the lowest ranking country in the whole of Europe with women counting for less than 1 in 10 engineering professionals. This compared to the best performance in Bulgaria, ,Latvia, Cyprus, Sweden and Romania with 1 in 4 professionals identifying as female.

On a positive note the Royal Academy of Engineering reported in 2020 that the gender pay gap is smaller in the engineering profession than the UK employee average.

Women engineers and technicians eligible for professional registration (CEng, IEng, EngTech) and registered women engineers and technicians were reported in 2015 at 6%. In 2017, only 4.9% of registrants were female.

Today 15% of all members registered with the ICE are female. In contrast to the overall figure for registered professionals 20% of under the age of 30 who are registered with the ICE are female. This is indicative of a positive future. Especially if you compare it to 16% (or less) of graduates from the same generation were female. This could suggest a greater proportion of female engineers are motivated to achieve professional recognition. if this trend continues then the future is (potentially) bright.

"Engineering is very important to the UK: it contributes 26% of our GDP" ref Engineering UK 2017.

"While women comprised 46.9% of the overall UK workforce in 2016, they only made up 20.5% of those working in engineering sector. This proportion is even lower when considering just those working in core and related engineering roles, at 12.0%." ref State of Engineering Report, 2018.

We have improved as an industry since 1902. Things have been changing. No doubt, they need to continue to change. It took nearly 80 years from the first female civil engineering student to achieve 7% female students. It took another 30 years to double that to 15%. Perhaps with continued visibility of successful females striking out and taking a lead within our industry; this figure will continue to accelerate. In another generation 15 years from now we will double things again and have 30% of students studying civil engineering at UK universities identifying as female. These budding professionals are right now in a primary school near you!

Don't bemoan the state of our industry. Be an engineer and build it up. The more our industry reflects the society it serves the better we will solve the problems that society wants us to solve.