NMITE's thoughts: International Women in Engineering Day

However, having a diverse engineering team is not enough if the culture around that team is not also enhanced by inclusive behaviours that help people to feel a sense of belonging. Some of the data on the risks of not achieving this is stark, including this piece from IMechE indicating that within a few years of graduating, half of women with an engineering degree will have left the profession (IMechE, 2017).

If you want to make the most of your diverse team and retain talented women in engineering, celebrating them is not as powerful as reflecting whether there as aspects of workplace culture that either overtly or subtly signal to women that they don’t belong. These behaviours and cultural norms tend to develop over time in predominately male environments where few had primary responsibility for caregiving, and where aspects of male culture were intensified.

Cultural norms become invisible to those who are part of them, and if you are part of the cultural majority (typically white, able-bodied, straight, and male), it is entirely possible that you will be unaware of how behaviours can impact people not in that cultural majority.

Paying attention to the following in INWED may help you to understand some of the subtle ways that a workplace culture can reduce a sense of belonging for women in engineering. Look out for these occurring, and think about what you can do to address the issues.

• Taking up space
• Conversational norms
• Conversations about children/ caring
• Flexible working