Why do I think female engineers are golden?
Posted on October 6, 2016

The essence of leadership is to manage a social entity. Organisations are examples of social entities.   Organisations are groups of people who organise together to achieve something that they can do together but could not have achieved alone.

Great leaders understand this and are skilled at communication and relationship management. To be more effective in leading an organisation, it also helps to know about your industry.

Let us focus on the industry of engineering.

Engineers, in general, tend to be better at dealing with things rather than relationships.  Their focus is on design rather than social interactions.  They tend not so much to be interested in social interactions and communication; that is, why it can be hard to find good leaders to lead engineering organisations.  There are only a very few people who have the social skills and the engineering skills to lead engineering organisations.  When you find an engineer with social skills, they are really valuable.  Hold on to them.  Nurture them.

You might be thinking, “So, what does this have to do with gender?”

For those of us who are parents, we know that there are stark gender differences in the way boys and girls relate and communicate.  I will never forget the scene when I dropped my three-year-old son off at a childcare.  It was early and there were only eight children at the centre – four boys and four girls.  The four girls were sitting at a table talking to each other and colouring in.  The four boys were on the floor pushing toy cars around and not talking to each other.  This made me reflect that, in general, women are wired to have a more social orientation than men – a skill that is very much required for leadership.  On the other hand, men tend to have a more practical and tangible orientation. This could maybe explain why there are more men than women who are attracted to engineering.

Female engineers are still relatively rare. They constitute about only 14% of the profession and much, much rarer in leadership roles.

It is likely that female engineers will make awesome leaders in the industry as they are likely to have the necessary leadership skills combined with an understanding of the engineering profession.  In addition, they have spent their higher education and professional careers as a minority in a male dominated workplace in work cultures that are relatively harsh (for men and women).  To have survived this, they must have been smart and resilient. Therefore, they must have excellent credentials for leadership in the engineering sector.

So, look after your female engineers.  Provide them with career opportunities and develop them.  Make sure they have the necessary support so that they don’t drop out of the profession.  Allow them with the opportunities to raise a family as well as maintain their career.  Provide them with the necessary coaching and external support.  It can be hard and lonely being a minority over an extended period of time.

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