Gender Inequalities Persist in UK Industry

When it comes to tackling the under-representation of women in the science, engineering and technology (SET) industries, the UK is still lagging behind some of its European neighbours.

Statistics from the UK Resource Centre for Women (UKRC) in Science, Engineering and Technology show that gender inequality is still rife, with women making up less than a quarter (24 per cent) of the UK’s workforce in sectors that have traditionally been dominated by men.

A similar pattern emerges across much of Europe, where other major economic powerhouses, such as France (20 per cent) and Germany (21 per cent), fare little better.

Research suggests that it is Eastern European countries where most progress has been made and the top performer by far is Lithuania, where women make up 43 per cent of the workforce in science, engineering and technology. The most recent figures available show that Romania (35 per cent), Estonia (34 per cent) and Bulgaria (32.5 per cent) all have significantly higher proportions of women working in these sectors than the UK. This is likely to be a consequence of various cultural and political factors, which have led to women being actively encouraged to work in these fields.

The good news is that progress is steadily being made in the UK as the number of women working in SET rose from 22.5 per cent in 1993 to 24.1 per cent in 2004.

Annette Williams of JIVE, a national partnership led by the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology that has been working to tackle issues that prevent women from securing jobs in these industries, said: “These figures demonstrate that, whilst things are changing for the better, there is still a great deal of work to be done to actively encourage women into roles within these sectors, and to challenge the stereotypes and false perceptions that have acted as barriers to them.

“Although a number of cultural and economic variations must be taken into account, research shows that only a tiny proportion of European countries are anywhere near achieving a 50-50 ratio of women to men, and even where proportions are high, women are mainly in lower level positions.

“These figures should be a real wake-up call for employers, careers professionals and key figures from within industry in the UK because we simply can’t afford to continue overlooking this vast untapped workforce, particularly given the skills shortage in these sectors.”

The UK isn’t the worst offender when it comes to the disproportionate number of women working in science, engineering and technology; in some countries the figure slumps to well below 20 per cent. Austria is the bottom of the pile, with women making up just 13.7 per cent of the workforce, and Belgium (16.9 per cent), Italy (18.6 per cent) and the Netherlands (18.7 per cent) also have low rankings.