Gender Balance
EGA Engineering Diversity Workshop
The EGA Engineering Diversity Workshop took place on Thursday, March 15th in the UCD Engineering & Materials Science Centre, University College Dublin.
The event, hosted by the EGA Diversity Committee, was to focus on identifying tangible, implementable actions, which can be undertaken by Engineering Graduates, to:
- highlight the opportunities, benefits, challenges and rewards of an engineering education to the very large body of female students who may think a career in Engineering is beyond them or may just never have considered it as an option
- and to support and encourage those female engineers we already have in training or in the early stages of their careers to help them stay in Engineering and progress up the ladder to senior positions.
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Round Table Discussion on Gender Balance with Engineers Ireland
Recently UCD EGA hosted a Round Table Discussion on Gender Balance with Engineers Ireland. Jane Grimson former President of Engineers Ireland chaired the event and Caroline Spillane Director General Engineers Ireland also attended.
Present also was UCD Dean of Engineering Professor David FitzPatrick and Michael Loughnane Immediate Past President EGA who chairs the Subcommittee on Gender Balance and author of our Reports on the subject together with his Subcommittee Members Killian McKenna PhD student in Electronic Engineering and Katie O'Neill Marketing Manager UCD College of Engineering and Architecture.
'Less than 40% of girls are in all girls schools but we equally must target the larger mixed schools which teach the greater range of subjects' Majella Henchion from ESB stated. Michael Loughnane referred to Career Guidance Teachers who invariably do not have a STEM teaching background. Majella noted the high preference for Biology as a subject and Biology Teachers in girls schools with greatly reduced interest in Physics. Students/parents are then dependent on external classes to learn physics and chemistry suffers in the same way. This reduces the steer towards engineering. Chair Jane Grimson stated that engineers are at the heart of a thriving economy and it challenges us all to change work environments to suit female engineers.
David Fitzpatrick outlined the improving situation of 27% females in UCD First Year Engineering in 2015 and the need for more role models. Katie O’Neill said that UCD had a radical new approach in their Open Day for Engineering sessions geared towards better gender balance and instanced that the winners of Final Year Gold Medals in recent years have disproportionately been awarded to females. She also mentioned the EGA 2015 Autumn Panel Discussion on the Digital Economy where there was 60% females on the speaker panel and 40% at the 2016 Spring Panel Discussion on Flooding. The youngest member of the Round Table Caitlin McDonnell Final Masters student in Structural Engineering with Architecture described her journey towards engineering from second level to UCD driven by her love of mathematics.
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EGA Gender Balance Report
Engineering underpins human progress. Engineering is about the practical delivery of scientifically informed solutions for the great challenges and opportunities in a rapidly changing world. It is therefore surprising that females are not as much part of this challenge as males." (P.J. Rudden, EGA President 2012-2016)