As a senior leader within SLR Consulting, Louise has enjoyed a successful career in a highly technical field and is now a champion of women in the workplace, in both early-stage career, and later in life when other challenges present themselves! 

 

Pamela is Key Account Portfolio Director for ISS Technical Services and oversees a broad range of services supplied mainly to the UK banking sector. After starting her career as an apprentice, she proved herself ‘on the tools’ working predominantly in a male-dominated environment as a hands-on engineer. 

 

Sharon is an accomplished engineering contractor, and is director of Ashron Consulting, a business she established after moving into engineering contracting. 

 

Inspiration and Early Years

Chelvi spent her childhood living in university quarters in Kuala Lumpur – her father was a Professor of Civil Engineering and her mother was a Maths Teacher. Her parents encouraged her that she could pursue any career path that she desired.

“When I was young, I wanted to be a doctor or a surgeon but this changed when I was ten during a family holiday to Europe. We were travelling around by train and while passing through Austria, I saw these beautiful bridges linking remote communities that would otherwise be completely isolated. I was awestruck by the nature and the human spirit of it, and this stuck with me.”

When the time came to go to university, Chelvi’s parents asked her what she wanted to do, and she chose to study engineering at the University of Southampton. 
“There were around 40 students on my course and just four of us were women. However, one was an exchange student who just came for a year, so for the remainder of the course we were just three!”

Working as a Woman in Engineering

After graduating at the top of her class with a first-class honours degree, Chelvi accepted a job with a British company in Singapore. Here she discovered that proving yourself is key to developing a career in the industry.

“I was brought up to be fearless, so I never go into a situation expecting a problem but that doesn’t mean problems didn’t happen! What I found in the East was, they look at you with a bit of trepidation initially, but once you’ve proven your technical abilities, then that’s it and your gender doesn’t matter, which is what all of us want. I’ve worked in the UK, Europe and South-East Asia, and I’ve had the least number of female colleagues when working in the UK., We have to question why that is.”

As a woman of colour in engineering, Chelvi has endured and overcome a number of different challenges. Some of which were harder to resolve and adapt to than others.
“Before I left Singapore, my mentor – a Senior Engineer at the company I worked for – warned me that I would encounter racism while working in the UK. This was unfortunately the case but I’m a resilient person and would usually try to laugh it off. For example, people at work would often comment that I’d be making curry for dinner that night, and I would just tell them that actually we very rarely eat curry in my house”
But there were other practical issues Chelvi faced.“A practical issue that I experienced early on – and one that I still see people talking about on LinkedIn – is that they never had boots in my size for when I was on site.

“I remember once we were clearing an old burial site and I had to wear two or three pairs of these welly-type things over my shoes because I couldn’t fit into any of the boots. As I tried to walk across the site, I sank into the mud and two men had to pull me out and carry me across. This was in 1989 and still today women find it hard to get appropriate site boots in their size.”

With more women being encouraged into engineering these days, many businesses are attempting to become more inclusive employers, with some setting a target of hiring 50% female employees.

“When I entered the profession, I would say women made up 10 - 12% of the workforce and today it’s only improved to 16%.”

Workplace Discrimination

“A huge barrier I faced was that I needed one year of on-site experience to become a Chartered Engineer. Every time I approached the training manager, he’d say he couldn’t find a suitable placement for me, but I would tell him that I don’t care where I go, just get me on site.

“When I left university, I was voted the person most likely to get chartered first, but then I was left behind everyone else. This is what led me down the structural engineering route, which is just as rigorous, but they allow you to accrue site experience rather than having to go and do a full year.

“This was perhaps the most direct gender discrimination I experienced. I’ve had a pretty good trajectory in my career, so after that stumbling block, the next big obstacle was becoming a parent, and then becoming a single parent.

“Many women have to take on the role of the main carer. I was finding that I wasn’t often getting the roles that I was qualified and experienced to do. Or, if I did get these roles, then it was very difficult to get the flexibility I needed as a parent.”

“In the UK, my son’s childcare cost me just as much as my mortgage, so I ended up moving back to Malaysia for three years where I could afford childcare. But when we returned to the UK, I was back in the same situation.

“When I asked for a raise, a superior at work told me that I was unlikely to get a promotion until my son was a teenager because they felt I wouldn’t be able to put the hours in. It wasn’t until 1996 that I found a company to work for that paid for my son’s nursery and allowed me to work from home one day a week, which meant I could pick him up from school.

When her son was ten years old, Chelvi made the decision to give contracting a try.
“At this point, I’d been struggling for several years. In fact, I’d gone overseas to work because it was easier than trying to find what I needed in the UK. Contracting through Alexander Associates was key to my career because you got me into the right roles without wasting any time. Also, this allowed me to work a four-day week during a time when that was highly unusual.”

The work-life balance that Chelvi found meant that she could develop professionally and have more time to spend with her son.

The Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap is still an issue in many industries, and Chelvi found accessing fair pay as a female Engineer wasn’t straightforward.

“When I was reading my Master’s, I was offered a job at good pay, but I didn’t take it because I felt morally obliged to go back to the company that had given me the scholarship, even though I wasn’t actually tied to them in any way. Here I was offered terrible pay but when I challenged it, it was just laughed off. The implication was that I should be grateful, so I accepted that.

“Later in my career, I was overlooked for promotions because I was a single parent, which meant my salary wasn’t increasing. This is why contracting was such a breath of fresh air for me. With contracting, you have your pay per hour and you get paid for every hour that you work. But on the other hand, if you don’t work, such as if you’re off sick, then you don’t get paid.

“When I made the decision to re-join a company in a permanent position in my 50s, I requested a figure but was turned down. I soon discovered what other people in the company were being paid and could see that I was very underpaid. That was a horrible feeling because I’m a very technically-competent Engineer and I have years of excellent experience, so I didn’t understand why I was being undervalued in this way.
“I decided to fight the company on this and some of my colleagues were willing to share their salaries and speak up for me. There was also a great HR person who mediated between me and upper management. This all started within four months of my joining the company and it took the whole year to get something, which even then was given in phases.

“People have said to me, do you think you’re being discriminated against because you’re a woman or because you’re a woman of colour or because you’re a parent? My answer is simply that I don’t know, it could have been anything.”

Giving Back to the Engineering World

As an established and highly-sought after Engineer, Chelvi enjoyed an exciting career and worked on a number of different projects before deciding she wanted to inspire others.

“I decided that the best way to give back was to work at a company on a permanent contract and to do mentoring and training. I re-joined the firm that was actually my first employer. I was 51 when I did this and within a few years, both of my parents, who were living in Sri Lanka, became quite frail. It was decided that they’d go and live with my brother in Singapore and I knew that I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.
“I wanted to go to Singapore, but I wasn’t able to make this work with the company I was at. However, I was in touch with my old mentor and he invited me to work with him in Malaysia, which is just an hour’s flight from Singapore. So I resigned at the age of 54, even though I knew coming back and looking for a job in the UK would be difficult due to ageism.

“I knew that if I didn’t go then I’d regret it, so I went to Malaysia to start my new job in June and my dad passed away in August. I was able to see him every weekend during those months and to be present to support my mum afterwards.

Engineering Everyone

Chelvi is undoubtedly a trailblazer in her industry. Her story will be an inspiration for countless women today who are working in traditionally male-dominated industries, not just engineering.

“I’m sad to say that sometimes I find women don’t make it easy for other women. One of the things I always say is that we should all lift each other up, especially women. We all have our unconscious biases and it’s up to us to challenge them.”

These days, Chelvi is still determined to encourage more people, especially women, to consider a career in engineering. She set up Engineering Everyone to raise awareness of how integral Engineers are to society and to inspire people from all walks of life to enter the profession.

“I’ve got my objectives of educating the public and supporting Engineers, and I also think it’s really important to introduce the language of engineering to kids.
“I’ve taken lectures that I used to deliver at London South Bank University and simplified them to create a series of children’s books – The Language of Structures.
You can watch the full interview with Chelvi on YouTube or check out Engineering Everyone for more details on her mission! 

Kat Parsons is the Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging UK and Ireland at ISS Facility Services, a position earned after a successful, and hard-won engineering career.

But perhaps, more specifically, from the experiences and lessons she collected while travelling this path. One not unfamiliar to many female engineers. In this blog, we learn more about what she has overcome to get to where she is today as a woman in engineering.
 

What Was the Spark that Lit Kat’s Engineering Bug?

When Kat began looking at her university study options, she tried to find something that sparked her academic interests while being connected to her desire to have an active career. 

“As I was having a flick through the prospectus, I saw an image of a consultant taking water samples. I was like, that’s me!”

She enrolled at Lancaster University to study Environmental Science: a nice mix of all her interests. 

During her studies, Kat did a couple of work placements to gain some experience. She used this time to refine the vision she held for her career, or as she put it, apply a “temperature check”. On a 6-week placement with an Environmental Consultancy, Kat thought, “I really see myself here – hard hats, overalls on. This is what I want to do.”
 

The Work Begins

After graduating, much of Kat’s work focussed on flood risk. But when her role started to touch on work with contaminated land, she got excited. At this point, Kat joined a bigger firm and moved into Project Management in land contamination. "I was in the field, five days a week. I realised that this was the work I really enjoyed, that ‘logistical, last minute, quick we need someone’ work.” 

What became apparent was that she was more valuable in the office, working on the backend of site management, so she embarked on a route that would see her attempt to ascend the company ladder, one that she had to work hard to climb!
 

Challenges of the Climb

Kat managed to move from her graduate status to a more senior position quickly, citing her logistics and project management skills as having supported her progression.
Over the course of 10 years, Kat reached what she describes as a plateau, trapped in middle management with no clear sign that she would get to where she wanted to despite demonstrating her worth over and over. 
 

Goals and Visible Role Models?

When considering goals and role models, Kat acknowledges that “It was quite tricky. Female engineers already in the business were very technical, but I was more of an all-rounder. It almost felt like my skill set was holding me back because I wasn’t ticking the technical box. Men with fewer skills would always get promoted ahead of me, which was quite frustrating.”
 

Coping With Gender Inequality

Kat admits that she opted to get tough to match the nature of the male-dominated sector, reflecting that she went to great lengths to demonstrate her capabilities above and beyond what was expected of others. Kat realised she would need to move on to find the promotion she deserved. 
 

Fighting for Equal Pay

When we raised the topic of equal pay, Kat faced this issue a lot.“Whispers of what people were being paid versus what I was being paid. That was always pretty tough.”
To ensure she’s being equally paid for her skillset, it’s one of the first things she looks into—an unfortunate reality for women in engineering and a product of being a victim of pay inequality.  

Kat eventually moved and embarked on a different career path, feeling she got pushed to make the decision by the limitations of her Engineering career. “I reflected on my career and realised I wasn’t happy. I was very stressed, and my work-life balance was horrendous, so I decided to change industry completely and move into Facilities Management.”
 

Appealing Factors

Kat entered Facilities Management in a Health and Safety role. She knew nothing about the industry but found space she enjoyed. 

As part of this new role, Kat worked on some health-focused projects, including her acclaimed project on Menopause. “That got picked up and I was asked to be the Head of Diversity and Equality for the UK and Ireland. A position I originally said no to! I thought I couldn’t do that. This new role required empathy that I thought I didn’t have. With some self-reflection, I realised I had bucketloads of empathy. I knew I could make a real difference.” 
 

Dismantling an Ingrained Culture 

Discussing that much needs to be done to change how companies support their people, Kat notes, “It’s very much cultural. Working on construction sites, it was either men swearing their heads off or refusing to swear in front of me. Either way, I would do something to fit in.

It was difficult at the time, but I think it’s quite a skill to adapt how you talk to a group of people. Going onto a site, my whole demeanour would change. In the first few minutes, I knew I needed to say something to prove I wasn’t a feeble woman. Something to prove I deserved to be there.”
 

Has it Changed?

“I always remember the toilets being horrendous. A surveyor I talked to last week said she doesn't drink from when she gets up to the end of her shift so that she doesn’t have to use the facilities. Essentially, women’s basic needs are still not being met."

On the flip side of that, a company Kat worked for implemented a Menopause policy, which is new and fantastic for the business and the women who come after her. Women in senior positions leave the industry because they’re not getting the support they need to deal with the anxiety, stress, and depression associated with fluctuating hormones.

Honest Reflection

So, what does Kat think about the industry as a whole?

“Looking back on my career in Construction and Engineering, I remember the good bits. I absolutely loved it! I got to see parts of the country I never would’ve seen. I met thousands and thousands of people. I wouldn’t change it. Yes, it was hard, but I think that’s made me who I am today.”
 
Women are a force of nature in the engineering world, and if you want to find more opportunities here then speaking to the teamat Alexander Associates could be the best thing that you do for your career.

Emily Owen is a Hydrologist with an Environmental Consultancy. Her focus is flood risk assessment work and surface water drainage design, many of which support planning applications, whilst some involve retrofitting for insurance purposes. With an appetite for acquiring new talents and diversifying her skill set, she has been developing her water management portfolio. Recently, she moved into mine water management and water resource modelling.

“Water management is as it sounds – in terms of a site, water comes in and out. If you get it wrong, you get flooded or run out of water – particularly at sites with high water use. Mine sites need to look at water use in depth. A lot of the time, they're in water-poor regions but use a huge amount of water. Water use now feeds into the ESG journey. Mining is probably one of the earliest industries to adopt ESG from a functionality and future-forward perspective.”

This work started for Emily at the very technical end, doing things like water balance modelling and looking at how water moved through mining systems and processes. Now, Emily is moving into water security and more sustainable water use.
 

The Engineering Idea? 

Emily felt almost felt like engineering was not a choice, but where her studies and interests were always going to take her.

“Going into A-levels, I still loved physical Geography. I was getting frustrated by the end of A2 with Geography being a bit wishy-washy. I wanted to do the sciences behind it. I felt like I should be able to apply what I was doing in the other sciences to my Geography work. So I went and studied Science as an undergraduate. From there, the water element really interested me, so I did a Master’s in Hydrology and Water Resource Management within the Engineering department at Imperial. This brought me into the Engineering world and was probably the point that I realised that what I was doing was actually Engineering.”
 

Women Represented in Study

“I went to Durham for my Undergraduate course, which was probably male-dominated because it sat inside that traditional field of study like Geology. I went on an exchange for my second year. When I returned, I was free to do what I wanted because I wasn’t enrolled in a traditional course. You definitely got changes in the gender mix depending on which modules you took. The more environmental courses tended to draw in more women. Maybe because they're newer, less rigid and are constantly evolving.”
During her Masters, Emily reflects that females and multinationals predominantly represented the group and affirms that her overall study experience was positive. She felt well supported by other aspiring female Engineers throughout her studies.
 

Female Role Models and Representation

When discussing the outward-facing persona of a business and what people – particularly women or those from a diverse group – want to see reflected back at them, Emily agrees it’s not a board or interviewing panel of white middle-class men.
Reflecting on her personal experience with female Engineers and access to senior women or mentors in the industry, Emily shares that shehad a lot of strong male managers, but they’ve always been very comfortable with telling her to seek advice and support from other women where possible so that’s helpful.

“As our company has grown, we have more women in the office, which has helped to bring in more women. Having these female contacts on the bad days and having someone you can talk to is important. Sometimes you don't know if it's a discrimination thing or just a life thing. When you're the only person who meets the female criteria, you don't know the difference. Sometimes you just want to call someone up to cross-check it.”
 

Personal Experiences with Discrimination

“I’ve definitely had moments when I thought I’ve been discriminated against, but I do’'t know that’s been a clear-cut case. Some personality traits that have naturally been encouraged in me have made it difficult to tell. I will always offer somebody a cup of tea or coffee when they arrive somewhere because that’s what I'vebeen brought up to do. But then I found that I was always being asked to make the cups of tea even when I had a male colleague of equal status sitting next to me.”

Was Speaking Up an Option?

“Sometimes I would speak up, but that often made it worse because it made people feel defensive. I reached a point where I spoke to someone in the office and told them how it made me feel. They intercepted the requests and offered to make the drinks.” 
Emily struggles to determine whether the issue was gender or personality based as it was clouded by the circumstance she had always offered in the past. Nonetheless, the request was always directed at her. 

“It's a difficult one because we had no admin support. The truth is that 90% of admin staff are women. So, when you’re the young female in a room, the assumption is that you’ll make the tea. It was something that when I was more junior would really get me going.”
 

What can Schools in the UK do Better to Encourage People into Engineering or Other Expansive Careers?

“Encourage students to go out and look for things they haven’t thought of. There's a lot of information out there. Almost every profession in the UK has an institution that goes with it. They would love to do more with young professionals and students, but the gap between them is quite difficult. They can’t force themselves into a school environment, so maybe the solution is encouraging the interested kids to speak to these groups.”
 

What’s the Biggest Misconception About Engineering? 

The practical misconception

“I think it’s what’s included in engineering. My preconceptions were people sat doing calculations and tapping away at a computer all day. But obviously, the job relates to so many other things. Particularly for graduates. A large proportion of it is site work where you’re out and about interacting with people. I don't think people realise this is a huge part of being an engineer.”

The gender misconception 

“Some of the worst discrimination I’ve faced was while collecting bore water samples. A farmer approached me and asked, “What do you think you're doing young lady?” That phrasing, while quite common, makes you feel like you are five years old with your hair in pigtails. I’m obviously collecting a water sample, doing my engineering role, but there’s this whole misconception that you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing because you’re a woman.”

When asked whether Emily felt this was a public misconception or if she felt the sentiment is echoed on site too, she shares, “I think you are treated differently some of the time. Partly because it’s a bit more unusual, and they don’t know how to interact with you. But I think some of it is a lack of provision for ladies coming to the site.”
Aside from less-than-ideal facilities, the provision of female-sized safety gear on site has also been an issue historically. According to Emily, this is getting much better. However, things often need to be made to order to accommodate the many variations of the female form.

There can often be a lag time of up to six weeks between placing an order and it arriving. These delays prevent female graduates from being able to get onto site as soon as they hit the workplace, limiting their real-world exposure in the initial stages of their careers. Ill-fitting gear makes it difficult to carry out your work comfortably but also lines you up to be the butt of someone’s joke. And whilst Emily acknowledges that humour and taking the mickey is effectively the love language on a site, it can also make the person on the receiving end feel a bit awkward, especially if this person is a young female graduate.
 
Finding the Right Opportunity

Women can make waves in engineering, and with strong women at the forefront of change, it’s important to know where to find the right opportunities. With the help of our team, you can find your next engineering role that’ll make you feel included and supported. Contact us today and learn more!

Danny is a true diversity champion, and a firm believer in supporting others to achieve their full potential in life. Having worked within healthcare and infrastructure businesses, he’s now in a senior leadership role for a well-regarded trade body, giving him a unique insight into the way organisations operate. 

 

Name: Pamela Hardie
Job Title: Key Account Portfolio Director
Location: Based in Edinburgh covering the UK

When did you realise that a career in engineering was right for you? Was there a particular moment in your life?

Once I had successfully achieved my apprenticeship, I knew I wanted to remain in the industry and have a successful career in engineering. I felt because I had come so far, I owed to myself to continue.  
 
What does an average day look like for you?

Currently I am office/home based with occasional site visits and spending days with engineers. When I was a mobile engineer, we serviced commercial properties across the central belt of Scotland. Attending sites for planned preventive maintenance or reactive breakdown jobs.  I worked across multiple trades so could be maintaining, repairing, or installing AC or gas systems to more glamorous work of unblocking toilets. I enjoyed the interaction with the customers and surprising them when a female engineer arrived on site.
 
How did you get into this career? What qualifications did you get?

I knew I wanted to become an apprentice and not attend university however I fell into engineering as my brother had started an apprenticeship the year before, so I followed in his footsteps with encouragement from my father.

I achieved SVQ Level 1, 2 & 3 Heating & Ventilation in Service & Maintenance qualification from North Glasgow College. My company also paid for my driving lessons and test which I successfully passed first time and allocated me my first vehicle which was an Astra van.
 
Did you face any challenges with your career decision as a woman engineer?

I faced many challenges as the only woman on the tools in my company and on my college course. It was harder for me to fit in with the younger men I was attending college with and there were many times I had to share facilities such as changing rooms as they weren’t equipped for women. I also had to deal with being written off daily by the men I worked alongside and customers which isn’t easy at 17. As the saying goes, I had to work twice as hard as a man to be seen as half as good as one. I felt different and felt on some occasions I was treated differently certainly until they got to know me better and found out I was more than capable which I was determined to show everyone!
 
What advice would you give to young girls considering a career in engineering?

Go for it! The career opportunities and earning potential in this industry is massive and it doesn’t just stop at becoming an engineer. Do not doubt yourself or hold yourself back because of your gender because in reality this isn’t a factor in becoming a great engineer, manager or director. Let your work do the talking. I believe attitudes are now changing towards women in engineering and it is far more accepted and accessible than when I started. My granny laughed at me when I told her I was an engineer, I don’t think she believed me, although we still have work to do to promote this career for young women, I believe societal views are shifting.
 
Do you have any standout memories/funny/interesting stories from your career as an engineer?

I really enjoyed being an apprentice and working alongside many great men who have become lifelong friends and allies. 

Name: Lisa Abbott
Job Title: Pre-Construction Director
Location: Birmingham

We're delighted to have worked with Lisa Abbott, who has enjoyed a successsful career in the construction industry, and now holds a senior role working for BAM Construction. 

Here's her story:

When did you realise that a career in engineering was right for you? Was there a particular moment in your life?

When I was studying A Levels, I wanted to do something that continued with the maths and sciences I was studying but wanted to do a vocational course at university – rather than studying an academic subject for another 3 or 4 years and still not knowing what career I was going to follow.

After looking through the big book of careers (no Google in those days!) I was interested in Engineering and Quantity Surveying, so I organised a work experience placement at Wimpey Construction in the surveying department – and I loved it! Looking back this was mainly because of the people I worked with, and this is still true today – construction is all about the teams and people we work with.

What does an average day look like for you?

Is it a cliché to say there isn’t an average day? My career has been through a number of iterations to get from quantity survey to preconstruction, but none of them have involved an ‘average day’. Its all about interacting with teams, both internal and external, and developing solutions to the challenges we face on projects and as an industry. Although there can be a theme to the challenges, each project and client is individual and has individual needs.

How did you get into this career? What qualifications did you get?
I went to university to study a degree in Quantity Surveying, and quickly followed that with gaining my MRICS status. After about 10 years in the industry I did an MSc in Construction Project Management, and that was invaluable.

Did you face any challenges with your career decision as a woman engineer?
My parents were unimpressed with my choice, and it was hard going off to university and taking that big step of independence under a bit of a cloud. And when I look back at those early career years, I can see how hard I had to work to integrate with project teams and prove myself as a woman in construction. Although women are still very under-represented in construction and engineering now, I hope their experiences are better now men are used to working with us and appreciate that we are as good as our male counterparts.
 
What advice would you give to young girls considering a career in engineering?
Go for it, it’s a brilliant industry! The opportunities and variety are amazing, and construction needs you. We need a more diverse industry to represent the communities and clients we work for. Our industry transforms communities, all our projects make a difference and if we don’t have diverse teams that understand the stakeholders we work with, how can we deliver long term sustainable solutions.
 
Do you have any standout memories/funny/interesting stories from your career as an engineer?
Visiting the billion-dollar replacement Oakland Bay Bridge project in San Francisco as part of my MSc course was amazing. The scale of engineering to put foundations in San Francisco Bay and off site manufacturing of precast bridge sections was beyond anything else I’ve ever seen, and makes you realise the extreme challenges that engineers can solve.

Ruth talks to Emily Owen, an Associate Hydrologist for SLR Consulting, who shares her career path, and the experiences she has as a woman working in engineering.