Many of the women interviewed had an early interest in STEM-related activities, enjoyed tinkering with technology or had a love for maths and science. But how did they discover engineering as a potential career, and what inspired them to pursue it?
Interviewees were asked about social and parental expectations, career advice received at school and any other programmes that opened doors for them to engineering.
They shared the thoughts and feelings they had as young women dreaming of their future career.
1970s
Gretchen
…[the careers mistress] clearly didn’t say that to [the boys].
Gretchen rejected the careers advice offered at high school. Then over the summer between her 6th and 7th form year, she met a chemical engineering student…
Janis
…I was often the person helping my father when I was young…
…that was still the time when teaching and nursing were options…
…I had a firm belief that feminism had arrived…
Kim
…[people] would say ‘well you can’t…'
I read a book about Isambard Kingdom Brunel…
Sharee
…I knew I enjoyed maths and science…
1990s
Shelley
It took a while for me to find engineering…
Philippa
…there wasn’t a lot of information about engineering around me.
2000s
Sina
…all of us kids were pretty good at maths, pretty good at science, simply because that was the expectation at home.
Sheridan
I stumbled into it…
Charlotte
I really wanted to do something with the maths and the physics…
2010s
Jess
I think it all stems back to my dad being an excavator operator…
Rosita
I didn’t actually know what engineering was until Year 12…
Alice
…when you are good at something you tend to enjoy doing it.
2020s
Te Rina
We got to make a wee house that was going to be tested on the shake tables at uni…
Te Rina had never heard of engineering until Year 10 when a teacher suggested she attend QuakeCraft, a hands-on programme for high school students promoting engineering and social resilience.
Zoe
…a culture of if you are smart and you do physics [engineering] is a pathway people expect you to take…
Lily
University experience Interviewee profiles…engineering wasn’t as well advertised to the girls at my school…
