This International Women’s Day, communications director, Jacqui Johnson is calling for more female representation in the engineering industry.

Having been in the industry for almost three decades, Jacqui wants to inspire young females, showing them that they can be the next generation to build and design the schools, hospitals, homes, and buildings of today and tomorrow. 

“If young girls and women knew just how varied, interesting, and well-paid a career in our sector was, I have no doubt figures of females in the sector would rocket. There is a huge skills gap in our sector.”

The first female director of our company, Jacqui has seen a culture shift and with this has come more women into higher-paid jobs, which she hopes to see continue this year.

“I wasn’t exposed to engineering jobs when I was younger. It was always told to me that it was for males and it was all about manual labour. Barriers need to be kicked down and education needs to be had because women are needed in male-dominated industries. 

“We all have different skill sets and work better together. More businesses need to be working closely together with schools – it’s required now more than ever to get women in these positions.”

Statistics from EngineeringUK state women make up 16.5% of all engineers, compared to 10.5% reported in 2010, showing huge promise for the future of women in engineering.

At Sutcliffe, we remain committed to ensuring there is greater inclusion of women in the workforce as well as more female representation in STEM roles, closing the skills gap and equal opportunities for all. 

More recently, Sutcliffe recruited Kate Watson as an executive associate for structures. Kate brings a wealth of knowledge from her experience working on many major London-based projects and we have no doubt her large portfolio of engineering projects can be applied to the North, strengthening our position as a true Nothern Powerhouse city.