The Lad saw an excellent article in The Guardian on 27/6/13 on encouraging women into engineering. He liked it so much that he stole part of its sub-head for this post title. He hopes that the writer, Oliver Wainwright, or his paper do not mind: that – and the quotes below. Such golden words and the nous to report them should be broadcast far and wide.
Just as woman are rare in engineering so is a good article on the topic by an Architecture and Design Critic; which is Oliver’s present task. He has found these engineers and their views.
As a water engineer for the great consultants, Arup, Ms Yewnde Akinola won the Young Woman Engineer of the Year award last year. The Lad lauds her for hitting the nail on the head. She said,
“…the job [engineering] is all about design, creativity and innovation”. She had already said “…when you’re at school it’s difficult to see that there’s anything beyond hammers and metalwork and boilersuits…. She made a cracking suggestion “…let them go see JLS and think about how the stage, lighting and sound engineering works.”
Putting a slightly different slant, Ms Roma Agrawal is Structural engineer at WSP who worked on the Shard. She is involved in university and schools programmes trying to change the perceptions of the industry. Her point was also equally important; “A lot of people still think it’s all about sitting on the computer doing really hard maths all day. But most of my time is spent on creative problem solving – drawing and sketching out ideas.”
The Lad cannot better that in such a few words; so he won’t try. He will, if he can reach them, invite both Ms Akinola and Ms Agrawal to guest post on their speciality.