Tuesday 24 July 2018

IET Women in Engineering seminar - Katriya Sabin [UKAEA Apprentice]


On Friday the 22nd of June I travelled to my old local city of Birmingham to attend the IET Women in Engineering seminar at Austin Court. Though I wasn’t particularly excited about the Birmingham aspect, my feminist bones were quaking as I made my way through the city like the independent woman I am

Austin Court, like the event, was a hidden gem amidst concrete walls and aggressive conversation. For example, an uninterrupted and informative panel discussion about the gender pay gap with people from Boeing, Microsoft, Prospect and Costain Group with audience participation. As well as that, we opened up the conversation about positive discrimination and the procedures people put in place to prevent that.

 Next, a fantastic talk about the ‘dripping tap effect’ with Richard Chapman-Harris. A very engaging session about micro-aggressions and unconscious bias. In this talk we were asked to draw what we imagined an engineer looked like. At the end, there were two men, many women, stickmen and gender-neutral engineers. Mine (as you’ll see below) is a person so engrossed in their laptop that their keys are flying off.


I learned about how routine often directs your train of thought and may contribute to unconscious bias, with emphasis on how it’s ok to have this as long as you are aware of it and are taking it into consideration during your decisions. After that, I attended a talk called ‘Diversity toolkit: A practical approach to addressing the gender pay gap’ with Mivy James, Maya Kolaska and Kinjal Dave.

This one I was a bit torn about. The main positive things I took away from that was the inclusion of the arts into STEM, AKA STEAM. I believe that this is the right step in including more women in traditionally STEM workplaces because it is near impossible to switch professions at a later stage in your career, which in turn will shrink the pay gap sooner. I don’t handle CV’s but the idea of removing names, ages and anything that indicates a person’s gender seemed like a very good way to combat discrimination across the board. What I felt uncomfortable about was the feasibility of some of the actions they were proposing. I could see companies blissfully agreeing, yet I felt that the agenda had shifted from gender equality to a PR move. Maybe I’m being cynical but paying extra to women-built tech start-ups is not going to happen in a private, profit driven company- that’s another discussion.

The last talk I visited was called ‘Through life development of women in engineering’ held by Lieutenant Tracey Lewis. She was a delight to listen to. We had great conversations about what inspired women into engineering and how our childhood reflects that. It was good to hear that no journey was the same and useful to know about the things that made people comfortable and uncomfortable whilst joining that workforce. 

Then, networking and drinks. A perfect close for a Friday summer’s evening. 

Note:
I am working on a project that focuses on what feminism means to young people and what can be done to make the transition from education to the workplace easier. If you are a woman, man or anyone in-between that has is/has been on the UKAEA graduate or apprenticeship scheme, please contact me so that we can improve schemes across the UK.