Women In Engineering

Innovation knows no gender. Reflecting on my journey as an engineer over the past 25 years, from stepping into the workforce to witnessing the remarkable strides women have made today, I am struck by both the progress achieved and the many challenges that persist. When I started my career in the late 90s, women engineers were a handful and today, I'm heartened to see more women not only entering the field but also pioneering innovations and driving meaningful change. ➡️ However, looking at the numbers, in 2023, men outnumbered women in global engineering by 86.3% to 13.7%. And despite the demand for tech skills, women constitute only 28% of engineering graduates globally. In STEM fields, they make up 33% of researchers but hold just 12% of national science academy memberships. ➡️The leaky STEM pipeline begins early and persists over time. It is not just enough to keep feeding the pipeline by increasing the number of female students. It is imperative to work towards breaking gender stereotypes through early investment in reskilling and the promotion of STEM education. Apart from making STEM education more fun and engaging, introduction to female role models and mentors can help change stereotypical perceptions related to these subjects and inspire more girls to choose and work in the area. ➡️I see technology as an enabler here. Achieving equal representation of women in the tech industry requires a collaborative effort from organisations, academia, and government bodies. At the organisational level, tech firms should focus on creating supportive structures that not only attract but also retain and nurture female professionals. Flexible working policies, improved leave and well-being benefits, and support networks serve as key factors in promoting women in the workplace. Investing in training and mentorship programs is essential to equip high-potential women technologists with the necessary skills for leadership roles. Initiatives like involving female employees in the recruitment process, hosting career fairs, and offering internship programs can help organisations move towards a more gender-balanced workforce. The future of engineering is bright, and women are an integral part of that future. By continuing to support and celebrate women in engineering, we are investing in a world where innovation knows no gender, and where the contributions of all are valued and recognized. #InternationalWomenInEngineeringDay 🎉✨

The “Matilda Effect” In the late nineteen sixties at Yale University, Margaret Rossiter sat in the archives surrounded by boxes of scientific records. She was researching the history of American science for her dissertation. It was supposed to be straightforward academic work, a simple tracing of discoveries and breakthroughs. But something kept unsettling her. In photograph after photograph she saw women standing at benches, working with equipment, included on laboratory rosters. Yet when she read the papers, the award citations, and the official histories, the women were gone, names missing, contributions erased-and it had been happening a long time. Women had been doing scientific work since the earliest days of research laboratories. They had simply not been acknowledged. She found countless examples. Women who designed experiments, only to see male colleagues publish the results without giving them credit, who’s discoveries were assigned to supervisors, footnotes instead of as full authors, passed over for awards that went to male collaborators who contributed less. It was not random & not accidental. It was systemic, she needed a name for what she was documenting. She found it in the work of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a nineteenth century suffragist who had written about this exact pattern. Margaret called it the “Matilda Effect”. Her dissertation became a lifelong mission. she spent more than thirty years researching and writing a landmark three volume series titled Women Scientists in America. She read letters, examined institutional policies, followed individual careers, and gathered evidence that proved women in science had been consistently undercredited and structurally excluded. Her work faced resistance. Many scholars dismissed women’s history as political rather than academic. Others insisted she was exaggerating bias. Margaret did not argue emotionally. She simply presented data. She showed documented cases. She showed patterns repeated across decades and institutions. The evidence became undeniable. Her research helped restore recognition to scientists who had been pushed out of the story. Rosalind Franklin-X ray of DNA. Lise Meitner-nuclear fission (omitted from that Nobel Prize). Nettie Stevens- sex chromosomes. Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin-composition of stars…. The Matilda Effect became standard terminology. Scholars used it to examine how credit is assigned, how publications list authors, who receives awards, and who is left out. Universities updated curricula. Margaret received the Sarton Medal, the highest honor in the history of science field. The Matilda Effect did not end in the past. It continues today. Women scientists still receive fewer citations, fewer awards, and fewer promotions. “Margaret Rossiter AHS, Oxford Univ Press” #womeninscience #genderequity

New research from London Business School reveals a troubling bias in innovation pathways: scientific work led by women is significantly less likely to be cited in patents. This means that fewer ideas generated by women scientists are influencing the technologies of tomorrow. ⚠️ That has serious consequences, not only for the careers of individual scientists, but for the very trajectory of innovation itself. Women scientists are more likely to research issues that disproportionately impact women, including specific health conditions. When their work is underrepresented in innovation pipelines, it risks limiting progress in areas that critically need attention, such as women's health. 💡 If we’re serious about building equitable and impactful innovation, we must actively recognize, support, and invest in the contributions of women scientists. #WomensHealth #InnovationEquity #FemTech #SRHR #InclusiveInnovation

Celebrating Role Models Who Are Shaping the Future of STEM: Logitech's recent global research found that 21% of women in China, India, and the U.S. were inspired to pursue tech careers by an influencer or role model. This underscores the importance of visibility and representation because if we inspire girls, we inspire change. Today, we're spotlighting three phenomenal #WomenWhoMaster ambassadors who embody the spirit of this year's IWD theme: 💎Aisha Bowe: Former NASA aerospace engineer, founder & CEO of STEMBoard and Lingo, and soon-to-be the first Black woman to fly with Blue Origin's New Shepard, Aisha is the definition of a trailblazer. Her mission? Making STEM education accessible and empowering underrepresented youths, especially girls, to see themselves as the next generation of innovators, engineers, and astronauts. 💎 Ainura Sagyn: Ainura is empowering women in Kyrgyzstan while tackling the country's waste crisis. She's a computer software engineer, ecofeminist and CEO of Tazar. Tazar connects Kyrgyzstan's citizens and companies with recyclers to help reduce landfill waste across developing countries. But her impact doesn't stop there. Before Tazar, she teamed up with other female engineers and traveled across Kyrgyzstan to teach girls the basics of coding. 💎 Marija Musja: Marija helps girls see that there's a place for them in tech - one that aligns with their passions and creativity. As founder and CEO of Empowerment Lab, Marija connects girls to tech skills and careers that resonate with their passions. The process starts with a fun, science-backed matching quiz, then the app reveals tech-related careers connected to these interests and a range of online courses to help them learn relevant digital skills." Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eYUYE-fU  #WomenInSTEM #GirlsInSTEM #STEMGems #GiveGirlsRoleModels

“It’s not only a question of fairness. It’s a question of quality.” Ms Lidia Brito said during her opening address. This message resonated strongly with me during the International Day of Women and Girls in Science discussions at UNESCO HQ— because the data is clear: gender balance is not a social luxury; it’s a performance driver. Multiple global studies confirm it: • McKinsey found companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 25% more likely to outperform on profitability. • BCG showed that companies with diverse leadership generate 19% higher innovation revenue. • Deloitte reports that inclusive teams make better decisions up to 87% of the time. And the impact goes far beyond boardrooms. When women are underrepresented in research, the quality of science itself suffers: • Emmanuelle Valentin-Fouchs from Sanofi reported that women are often diagnosed up to 4 years later than men for several diseases because clinical data has historically been male-biased. • In car crashes, women are significantly more likely to be seriously injured or killed — partly because crash-test dummies were long modeled on male bodies. These are not abstract inequalities. They are design flaws in systems built without full representation. Gender balance is not about optics. It is about accuracy. It is about excellence. It is about building a world that works — for everyone. #EveryVoiceInScience #WomenInScience #Leadership #DiversityDrivesInnovation #Inclusion #STEM #EvidenceBasedLeadership

Madras. 1930s. A girl is married at 15. A mother by 18. And a widow - four months after her baby is born. No noise. No answers. Just silence. And a baby in her arms. But her story did n0t end there. It began there. Her name was Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha. And what she did next? India was not ready for it. Her father - Pappu Subba Rao, a professor of electrical engineering - saw a spark in her eyes. He did not just console her. He rebooted her future. He walked her into College of Engineering, Guindy. A fortress of men. No woman had ever entered. Until she did. 1943. She walks out with a degree in Electrical Engineering. India’s first woman engineer. No quotas. No campaigns. Just courage. While others whispered, she designed transmission lines for India’s biggest dam. Bhakra Nangal. When nations were building walls - she was lighting them up. She joined Associated Electrical Industries (AEI). Calcutta. Worked for three decades. Designing systems. Fixing failures. Bridging two worlds - British hardware and Indian ambition. No site visits - because widows “should not travel.” So she sent brilliance instead. From behind her desk, she powered grids. She was not loud. She did not fight. She just outperformed - every day. 1964. New York. The First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists. She is there, in a saree, representing a country that barely knew her name. By 1966, she becomes a full member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (London). Not just an Indian story. A global statement. But ask your textbooks. Ask your engineering colleges. Ask your dams and grids. They will remember the voltage. But forget her name. So the next time someone asks: “Was engineering always a man’s world?” Just smile. And whisper: “Before we had panels and policies - Lalitha broke the current.” She did not rebel. She redesigned what rebellion looked like. With no protest. Just precision. Her name was A. Lalitha. And every circuit she drew was a quiet slap to the rules. So, if she could do it against all odds, why can't you? #engineering #construction #motivation #humanresources #RoshanNisar

Happy International Women’s Day 💜 A gender gap persists in STEM globally. We’ve made progress, but women are still woefully under-represented. Tackling our greatest challenges - improving health to combating climate change to developing AI as a force for good - must harness all talent. Gender diversity expands and extends the talent pool and is essential as today’s technologies demand different ‘Power’ skills: ▪️Emotional Intelligence: to manage emotions and navigate interpersonal relationships effectively, enhancing teamwork and leadership in STEM ▪️ Collaboration: fostering effective teamwork, with a focus on joint problem-solving ▪️ Adaptability: STEM is moving fast, I see that every day, being able to quickly learn and adjust to is indispensable ▪️ Empathy: drives solutions that truly resonate with human needs ▪️ Creativity: Brings unique perspectives that fuel innovation ▪️ Ethics: development is responsible and beneficial for society However ▫️Women are given smaller research grants and, while 33.3% of all researchers, only 12% of STEM academics are women ▫️In cutting edge fields such as AI, only 1 in five (22%) is a woman ▫️Despite a shortage of skills driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, women still account for only 28% of engineering and 40% of computer science graduates ▫️Female researchers have shorter, less well-paid careers. Their work is underrepresented in high-profile journals and they are more often passed over for promotion ▫️Although STEM fields are widely regarded as critical to economies, so far most countries have not achieved gender equality in STEM So what? Not only is this unethical, unfair it’s also misinformed, I mean stupid: ▪️The crash test dummy is a classic case. Initially, modelled on the average male body. Women were 47% more likely to be seriously injured and 17% to die in car crashes. Despite efforts, the gap in safety due to a lack of diverse testing persists ▪️Cardiovascular research has long been skewed towards men. Women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed with heart attacks and treatment is less effective ▪️Trials for medications did not sufficiently account for gender in pharmacokinetics so dosages were based on male biology, women experience adverse drug reactions nearly 1.7 times more often ▪️Medical devices have focused on male anatomy, for example, women are 20% more likely to have a stroke or die within 30 days of being treated with stents for artery disease ▪️Voice recognition technologies were developed using data from men leading to error rates for women’s voices up to 70% higher ▪️Famously Amazon discovered that its AI-based screening was biased against women favoring male candidates by a significant margin ▪️Facial recognition has error rates of up to 34.7% for dark-skinned women, vs 0.8% for light-skinned men So, should you need it, today is a reminder that women play a critical role in STEMs and that our participation must be strengthened #iwd2024 #BeEqual #GenderEquality #DEI

𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟵𝟱𝟬𝘀? As you can imagine I consume at a lot of longevity content, and one thing keeps standing out: the biggest names I see and hear are still mostly men. 1️⃣ Only 17% of the top 100 longevity leaders are women. 2️⃣ At major conferences, lineups can be as imbalanced as 12 men for every woman. 3️⃣ In 2024, women-led startups in health and longevity attracted just 2% of venture capital in the US and Europe. 4️⃣ In research, only about 30% of scientists are women, and in drug trials women make up under 30% in early phases and about 41% later on. That imbalance whilst seemingly trivial does influence who gets the microphone, whose science is amplified, and thereby likely has knock-on effects to which companies get funded. Whilst less pronounced, the imbalance seems reminiscent of the past ✔️ After the thalidomide crisis in the 1950s, women were excluded from most clinical trials until 1993. ✔️ For decades medicine defaulted to the male body, leaving women with more side effects, misdiagnoses, and treatments that didn’t fit their biology. ✔️ Even now, they are 50–75% more likely than men to have adverse drug reactions. Of course men can talk about women's health and cite studies, but I believe it isn't the same as when women lead the conversation. With their biology, longer lifespans, and greater burden of chronic illness, women bring nuance and lived experience that male-led research can possibly miss in addition to simply being more likely to inspire behavioral change in female audiences. Still, the spotlight often circles the same few male voices, while equally credible women don’t always get the same recognition. Yet there are already incredible names in the space: → Dr. Rhonda Patrick: breaking down complex aging science for a mass audience. → Celine Halioua (Loyal): raised $125M+ to develop the first FDA-approved longevity drug. → Kristen Fortney Fortney (BioAge Labs): using AI and biobank data to target aging pathways. → Robin Berzin MD (Parsley Health): building a new model for preventive, personalized care. → Anne Fulenwider (Alloy Health): tackling menopause as a central longevity issue. → Dr. Gabrielle Lyon: putting muscle health at the center of longevity. → Stacy T. Sims, PhD.: proving that “women are not small men.” through research → Roma Van der Walt (Vitelle): creating longevity protocols designed for women. → Lucia Kupcova: supporting healthspan ventures and investors. → Kate Ryder (Maven Clinic): built the first women’s health unicorn and is reshaping femtech investing.

👩🔬 She buried her husband. Raised 12 children on her own. And when companies refused to hire a woman engineer — she simply… redesigned their kitchens. And changed how the entire world works. 🧊 Every single day you use at least three of her inventions. You just don’t know her name. 📚 Born in 1878 in Oakland, California, Lillian was the oldest of nine children in a Victorian family that believed higher education wasn’t meant for girls. She fought just for the right to go to college. 🎓 In 1900, she became the first woman to speak at a graduation ceremony at UC Berkeley. Then she earned a master’s degree. Then a Ph.D. Not in a “female” field, but in engineering and industrial psychology. 💡 Together with her husband Frank, she created the concept of “therbligs” — 17 fundamental motions that form the basis of any manual task: searching, selecting, grasping, reaching, positioning… But Lillian was different. She didn’t look only at efficiency — she looked at workers’ faces. Are they comfortable? Are they in pain? How can we make work less exhausting? 💔 In 1924, Frank died suddenly. Lillian became a widow with 11 children still at home. Companies immediately canceled their contracts. They had hired “the Gilbreths,” not a lone woman. 👠 So she did the impossible. She took principles from factories — and applied them to kitchens. To the place where women worked every day with no recognition, no ergonomics, no respect. 🍳 She invented: • The L-shaped kitchen (minimum wasted movement) • Refrigerator door shelves (yes — butter and eggs on the door is her idea!) • The pedal-operated trash bin (touchless = fewer diseases) • Ergonomic mixers, can openers, stoves, and more… 🧼 Her designs relieved pain. Saved time. Protected health. And became the global standard. 🏛 At 57, she became the first female engineering professor at Purdue University. She worked well into her 80s, advised governments and companies, and designed accessible kitchens for people with disabilities. 🏅 Lillian Gilbreth’s recognition in the U.S.: • First woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering (1965) • The Hoover Medal for humanitarian impact (1966) • Over 20 honorary degrees • A U.S. postage stamp in her honor 👣 Every time you open a trash bin with your foot — that’s her. Every time you grab butter from the fridge door — that’s her. Every time you cook in a kitchen that doesn’t destroy your back — that’s her. 💬 Her philosophy: Design should serve people. Efficiency should reduce suffering — not amplify it. 🌍 She changed the world — starting from a kitchen. And most people still don’t know her name. (Photo for illustration)

Where did all the female engineers go? There are fewer, not more of us. Not long ago, many companies proudly talked about recruiting women into engineering. Universities promoted STEM initiatives. Organizations launched diversity programs. The pipeline looked promising. Yet across the energy and infrastructure sectors, experienced female engineers still seem surprisingly absent from leadership tables, project teams, and technical decision-making roles. The issue was never just recruitment. It was retention. Too many talented women left because of: • Burnout from carrying both technical and organizational burdens • Limited advancement opportunities • Cultures where they constantly had to prove credibility • Lack of sponsorship, not just mentorship • Work structures built around outdated assumptions about caregiving and flexibility • Being included visually, but excluded operationally And when experienced women leave engineering, the industry loses more than headcount. We lose institutional knowledge, leadership diversity, technical perspective, and future mentors for the next generation. The power industry is facing massive workforce shortages while simultaneously overlooking one of its most valuable talent pools: experienced women who already understand the work. If companies are serious about solving workforce challenges, the conversation has to move beyond “getting women into engineering” and toward creating environments where they can actually build long-term careers. What changes do you think would make the biggest difference in retaining women in engineering and energy long term?