--- title: "International Women in Engineering Day 2018" description: "I’m not an engineer, so you might well ask why I’m writing this piece about International Women in Engineering day. Well one out of two isn’t bad and hopefully I can explain how the engineering bit fits in as I go along. Just over 30 years ago, as a new graduate, I was working f..." canonical: "https://www.safety-management.co.uk/news/international-women-in-engineering-day-2018" type: "Article" publishedAt: "2018-06-25T11:01:20" modifiedAt: "2020-08-17T11:02:22" keywords: "Uncategorised" --- # International Women in Engineering Day 2018 I’m not an engineer, so you might well ask why I’m writing this piece about International Women in Engineering day. Well one out of two isn’t bad and hopefully I can explain how the engineering bit fits in as I go along. Just over 30 years ago, as a new graduate, I was working f... Canonical URL: https://www.safety-management.co.uk/news/international-women-in-engineering-day-2018 ## Article “Girls don’t know about machinery” I’m not an engineer, so you might well ask why I’m writing this piece about International Women in Engineering day. Well one out of two isn’t bad and hopefully I can explain how the engineering bit fits in as I go along. Just over 30 years ago, as a new graduate, I was working for a traditional manufacturing company who were in the engineering sector. It was an interesting time to be entering industry, with the remnants of the management and union attitudes from the bad old days of the 1970s still around, and real health and safety improvement only just starting to happen. I once went to an industry sector conference in Birmingham, where I was one of only three women in the room out of around a hundred people attending. As a graduate trainee I was seconded to the health and safety department, working with the senior safety advisor who was a practical engineer. I recall one of the site engineers being told that it would be me coming to look at the safety of his new machine and pleading with my colleague to come instead. He didn’t quite like to say (even in those far-off days) “it’s because she’s a woman and I don’t think women know about machines”, but I knew that’s what he was thinking. My colleague assured him that I knew what I was doing (I’m not sure he was right at the time, but I soon learned!) and off I went to look at this thing. Well of course you don’t have to be a practical engineer to understand machinery safety, but you do have to know enough to ask the right questions, so that the people who are engineers can then work with you to come up with the clever solutions as to how we’re going to make the thing safe. Safety, like engineering, is a practical job. Thirty years later, the days of being side-lined in industry because you are a girl are long gone, but even today, I still come across far more male engineers in industry than female ones. So why is that? Unfortunately, there are still too many old-fashioned stereotypes around out there and so there are still girls that don’t think engineering is a woman’s job. It’s important that those of us working in practical, technical professions do all we can to raise the profile of women in engineering. This year, the theme for the day is “raising the bar” and the aim is to get as many organisations and individuals as possible to take part and raise the awareness of engineering as a great career choice. If you’re reading this, you’ve already started the process! For more information about Women in Engineering [www.inwed.org.uk](http://www.inwed.org.uk/) #INWED18 [@INWED1919](https://twitter.com/INWED1919?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) Author: Heather Collins ## Related guidance - [Practical Health & Safety Support: Knowing Where to Start and What to Do Next](/news/practical-health-safety-support-knowing-where-to-start-and-what-to-do-next): Managing health and safety can feel straightforward when everything is running smoothly. Policies have been written, risk assessments have been completed, and there have been no recent incidents. However, many organisations reach a point where they begin to ask more fundamental... - [Why Retained Health & Safety Support Gives Leaders Greater Confidence](/news/why-retained-health-safety-support-gives-leaders-greater-confidence): For senior operations, health and safety and facilities leaders, the challenge is rarely a lack of documentation. Most organisations already have policies, risk assessments and procedures in place, and many have competent people responsible for maintaining them. The more difficu... - [How Workplace Safety Audits Help You Focus on What Actually Matters](/news/how-workplace-safety-audits-help-you-focus-on-what-actually-matters): A workplace safety audit is often associated with compliance, paperwork and preparing for inspections. While these are all important aspects of health and safety management, they are not the primary reason for carrying out an audit. The real value of a workplace safety audit UK... - [What Should You Do After a Near Miss in the Workplace? A Practical Guide for Businesses](/news/what-should-you-do-after-a-near-miss-in-the-workplace-a-practical-guide-for-businesses): A near miss in the workplace is an incident that had the potential to cause injury, ill health, damage to property or interruption to business operations but, fortunately, did not result in harm. While it may be tempting to regard these incidents as isolated events because no on... ## Explore local coverage - [Explore local coverage](/locations): Browse support across regions, towns, services and sectors. - [Health & Safety Consultancy in Bedfordshire](/services/health-safety/bedfordshire): Health & Safety Consultancy coverage linked to Bedfordshire businesses and surrounding towns. - [Manufacturing support in Bedfordshire](/sectors/manufacturing/bedfordshire): Manufacturing guidance connected to Bedfordshire operations and site risk. - [Health & Safety Consultancy in Bedford](/services/health-safety/bedfordshire/bedford): Health & Safety Consultancy support for Bedford and nearby areas including Luton, Dunstable.