tce INTERVIEW

A suitable job for a woman

As a survey of female chemical engineers finds that 98% think that
engineering is a rewarding job, Helen Tunnicliffe speaks to three female
chemical engineers to delve a little deeper into their experiences

E
NGINEERING is a great career option.
The possible jobs are hugely varied,
there are opportunities for foreign A personal profile
travel and to solve global problems, and the
statistics alone tell a great story. With 83%
of engineering graduates in paid work, the Emma Conway
discipline is second only to medicine. In Company: Atkins
the UK, the average salary for a chemical
Job title: Principal engineer
engineer six months after graduating
is 28,992 (US$46,280), second only to Sector: Oil & gas
dentistry and 35% higher than the average
graduate starting salary.
Role: I work with major oil and gas operators, whose sites store and process very
However, just 6% of practising engineers
large quantities of chemicals. I help these operators to assess and manage the
in the UK are women. Of around 20,000 risks of doing so in terms of the people and environment associated with these
engineering graduates from UK universities operations. This enables them to be confident that they are doing everything that is
in 2012, only 16% of them are women, the practical to make the risks as low as possible.
lowest of any discipline. Weve all heard the
stories engineering is a mans world; lots of Standard day: Begins at 09:30 after taking her children to school and nursery.
male engineers dont take female engineers Activities include managing her project team in conducting technical work,
seriously; the women all leave to have babies balancing workloads, writing reports, responding to client queries, preparing bids,
anyway; its too hard to fit in the demands of site visits and attending meetings.
a career in engineering with family life and so
Who or what inspires you?: The people I work with both clients and colleagues
on and so forth. But is any of this true?
make me very happy to get up and go to work every morning. Also, the adrenaline
Engineering giant Atkins joined forces with rush of trying to finish a project in time for the deadline adds some excitement to the
the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), working day.
Rolls Royce and BP to ask real female
engineers what they thought of their lives in Career highlights: Being promoted to principal engineer in 2007; setting up the
engineering. A novel concept. The results, company training scheme and having it accredited by IChemE; being elected a
surprisingly, make for happy reading. Fellow in 2013.
Britains Got Talented Female Engineers Career path:
found that 98% of female engineers think
that their job is rewarding, and 84% say their
Masters in Process Safety Senior Principal
job makes them happy or extremely happy. chemical design specialist engineer, engineer,
Tellingly, 70% said that they believe being a engineering at engineer
the University
at Arthur oil & gas oil & gas
woman made no difference to their prospects at Foster
of Cambridge, Wheeler, D Little, at Atkins, at Atkins,
when they applied for a job and 17% even said
UK Glasgow Cambridge Glasgow Glasgow
their gender was an advantage. Thats one
myth blown out of the water.

28 www.tcetoday.com november 2013

 CAREERS
INTERVIEW tce

Just 6% of practising
A personal profile
engineers in the UK are
women. Of around 20,000 Rachel Cooke
engineering graduates from Company: SABMiller
UK universities in 2012, only Job title: Manufacturing development consultant
16% of them are women, the Sector: Food & Drink
lowest of any discipline.
Role: Managing a global measurement process for around 100 breweries, soft drink
tce spoke to three female IChemE Fellows plants and maltings around the world; assisting in knowledge transfer between
Emma Conway, Jarka Glassey and Rachel plants as a consultant in order to achieve World Class Manufacturing (a set of
Cooke to find out about their experiences management and operational principles for manufacturers developed in Japan).
and compare them with the surveys findings.
Standard day: Is it too much of clich to say that there is no such thing? Could
include data analysis; report writing; meetings with colleagues across the world;
what got you interested in
meetings with experts in sustainability, for example in water, energy or emissions; a
engineering? trip to a brewery; sending business communications on world class engineering.
By far the most common reason cited by
the women surveyed for their interest in Who or what inspires you?: My colleagues, who are talented engineers and
engineering was that their academic interests scientists of various disciplines feed into my enthusiasm about my job. It is a
at school had pointed them in that direction, pleasure to work every day with intelligent, motivated and capable individuals.
with four out of five women choosing this Career highlights: Winning GSK Young Engineer of the Year in 2007; seeing
option. This was certainly a factor for Conway, products she has worked on being bought and enjoyed, in particular Maynards
Glassey and Cooke, who all loved science and Sour Patch Kids; seeing her design for a chewing gum production line in Poland
maths. Three-quarters said that it was down commissioned and working well.
to a love of problem solving or fixing things.
Furthermore, Conway received a lot of Career path:
support at school. I went to see my careers
teacher, Mrs Reekie, and she suggested that I Various roles
Masters in Cadbury at Cadbury
think about studying chemical engineering. PhD on Manufacturing
chemical Schweppes Schweppes
rheology development
Her husband was a chemical engineer, and engineering at graduate in engineering,
of fracking purchasing consultant at
through him, she arranged for me to do a the University of scheme in
fluids and project SAB Miller
Cambridge, UK manufacturing
weeks work experience at Grangemouth management
refinery where I shadowed two female
chemical engineers and (with a lot of help
from them) I designed a plant modification,
she says. Report results: why a career in engineering?
Her school also arranged for her to attend
a week-long residential engineering taster The variety of career
course for girls at Brunel University, and from options/routes
then on, she was hooked on engineering. 15 62 Engineering is a good
17
In common with 39% of women questioned route to lots of other
by Atkins, Cooke was inspired by a family 18 interesting careers
member. You were offered a
27
My father is a chemical engineer and I place at a university
could see that he found his work interesting with a strong reputation
and enjoyable, she says, adding: I was first The good employment
interested in chemical engineering when opportunities
56
he took me to an ICI Melinar open day on 35 You wanted to do
Teesside when I was 14. The chemical plant
something different
looked like an exciting place to explore and
from the typical roles
understand.
proposed for women
45
engineering is satisfying 50
Good salary prospects
Four in five female engineers surveyed say A teacher or tutor
that the most satisfying aspect of being an suggested it to you
engineer is seeing the successful completion Availability of grant
49
of a project on which they have worked. funding/sponsorship
Asked to select other satisfying elements of The good work-life
their work, 72% love facing new challenges; balance
54% enjoy the opportunity to make a Respondents were asked to select which of the following options The school careers
difference. Glassey cites the freedom to contributed to them choosing a career in engineering advisor suggested it

november 2013 www.tcetoday.com 29

tce INTERVIEW

research important areas to improve health

and quality of life as a major source of
A personal profile satisfaction, as well as seeing past students
going on to have successful careers of
theirown.
Jarka Glassey A number of our female graduates often
Company: Newcastle University express views that chemical engineering
allows them to help society and improve the
Job title: Reader in chemical engineering education
lives of people, she says. This may sound
Sector: Academia
grand, but often this is more important than
a high salary.
Cooke loves the chance to travel and work
Role: Developing more efficient manufacturing processes for medicines through the
with different people all over the world,
use of mathematical modelling to capture process characteristics, and computer
as well as making a product that brings
optimisation to determine the best operating conditions. Developing new drugs
pleasure to people. Few would disagree that
for disease treatment and processes to make them. Educating the next generation
chocolate and beer bring pleasure!
of chemical engineers in mass and energy balances, separation, bioreactor
A good work-life balance is hugely
engineering, design and research projects.
important for any career, and almost all of
Standard day: During term time lectures, tutorials, lab work, meetings with those surveyed say that they achieve this.
research students and other meetings for projects she is involved in. She always This is particularly significant when you
tries to be home in time for her childrens return from school and will often spend the consider that 81% of respondents work
evening working on projects and papers. full-time. Almost four out of five say that a
supportive working environment is the most
Who or what inspires you?: The reason for choosing an academic career, rather important factor to achieving a good work-
than an R&D post in industry, was the fact that I love working with young people. life balance while three-quarters have been
Seeing them develop into confident young professionals and knowing that I helped helped by flexible working arrangements.
them in a small way along this journey is very satisfying. Conway has an eight-year-old son and
Career highlights: Being voted the best lecturer by her students; receiving several a two-year-old daughter so finding time
national teaching awards; getting her first research grant and her subsequent for them and her husband is important to
research career; re-establishing the IChemE Education Special Interest Group. her. Her job rarely requires her to work at
evenings and weekends, while Glassey also
Career path: says she has time for her family.
There have been times when Ive found
Chemical engineering the work-life balance difficult to achieve, but
Lectureship at Ive learnt that when things get too much its
degree (masters PhD at Newcastle
Newcastle important to ask for help, says Cooke.
equivalent) at STU, University, UK
University, UK
Bratislava, Slovakia
here come the girls?
The proportion of women, in chemical
engineering at least, does seem to be rising,
IChemE figures: female members by age range but this is a slow process, and we are still
a long way from having equal numbers of
0% male and female engineers. So how can girls
1%
be encouraged to consider engineering?
Part of the solution will come from
Ages changing the perception of engineering.
6% 1524 Three-quarters of those surveyed feel that
2534 engineering is still regarded as a career
3544 for men, while two-thirds believe that the
4554 general public still think that engineers
15%
5564 fixengines.
65+ Changing the perceptions may need to
Less than 15 begin at school, according to Conway, by

48%

30%
A good work-life balance is hugely important
for any career, and almost all of those
surveyed say that they achieve this. This is
particularly significant when you consider
that 81% of respondents work full-time.

30 www.tcetoday.com november 2013


educating schoolgirls and their teachers
on what engineering is really like. Glassey
agrees.
We need to be enthusiastic in our
interaction with school students, showing
them what it is possible to achieve and that
they can do it too. However, it is also very
important to reach out to the teachers and
show them how satisfying and realistic
engineering careers can be for girls so that
they nurture and encourage the talent when
they spot it early on, she says.
Armed with this sort of knowledge, careers
information will be better, something 70% of
the survey respondents say is vital. Conways
positive experience with her careers advisor
seems to be unusual. 64% say that work
experience placements would be helpful,
something Conway herself benefitted from,
while 56% say that there is a need for a
UK-based organisation dedicated to sending
female speakers into schools.
Just under half of respondents say that the
term engineering should be used early on
in schools, rather than covering everything
with science and technology. Glassey adds
that maths and science should be made as
interesting as possible from a young age.
Focus on your professional
development.
Train with IChemE
Chemical Engineering for Non-Chemical Engineers
1113 November, Melbourne, Australia
Chemical Engineering for Other Engineers
1214 November, Shipley, UK
Better by Design Sustainable Business and
Chemical Engineering
26 November, Redcar, UK
HAZOP Applied Hazard and Operability Study
24 December, Manchester, UK
Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)
45 December, Cork, Ireland
To register or for further details visit
www.icheme.org/courses
Email: courses@icheme.org
Tel: +44 (0)1788 534431
CAREERS
INTERVIEW tce
Uninteresting lessons can put students off at
a later stage.
Engineering may also have an image As more and more girls
problem, according to Cooke. After all, how decide to study engineering
many girls sit dreaming of a future stomping and go on to have a fulfilling
about in PPE? I think we need to address
the hard hat and safety glasses stereotype.
career in engineering, then
Of course there are engineering roles that more and more friends,
require them, and Ive worn them myself for cousins, sisters and daughters
short periods, she says. But Ive spent most
of my working life dressed exactly the same
of these women will follow
as a woman who had a career in marketing in their footsteps, and the
would be dressed. stereotype that engineering
Raising the proportion of female engineers is just for boys will gradually
may have its own snowball effect. As more
and more girls decide to study engineering fade out of existence.
and go on to have a fulfilling career in Emma Conway
engineering, then more and more friends,
cousins, sisters and daughters of these
Principal engineer, Atkins
women will follow in their footsteps, and the
stereotype that engineering is just for boys
will gradually fade out of existence, says
Conway.
Lets hope that happens sooner rather
thanlater. tce
htunnicliffe@icheme.org
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