By: Marna Thompson

The South African engineering sector has evolved to become more gender balanced, as employment equity measures increasingly ensure equal opportunities for men and women.

This might be the long-term goal of the engineering sector, but it is certainly not the current reality.

In 2013, the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) said almost 11% of the engineers registered with the council were women, but that professional women engineers totalled 4%.

Is it that women are not pursuing careers in engineering, or is there an underlying issue that limits the opportunities for women to pursue sustainable careers in this sector?

I believe it is the latter. Shocking statistics from ECSA last year showed that 70% of the women who graduated with engineering degrees left the sector after starting their careers because they felt isolated in their jobs.

Our research at Network Engineering reveals that professional South African women engineers continue to battle old stigmas in this male-dominated industry.

Despite being managers, these women report having to work harder to prove they are capable of doing their jobs, both behind their desks and on the ground. They cannot ask too many questions for fear of appearing weak, nor can they be too assertive for fear of being labelled aggressive. They also cannot show emotion, in case they appear too sensitive, and constantly have to fight the perception that they were only hired to meet employment equity quotas.

A common thread running through our findings is that, because of the prevailing mentality, women engineers perpetually feel that they are not valued as highly as their male counterparts and are perceived to be not good enough for their positions, leading to immense self-doubt.

These conditions are detrimental to not only the industry, but also the country as a whole.

The United Nations’ International Labour Organi-sation (ILO) has long highlighted the urgent need for countries to address gender discrimination in the scientific and technological fields and to change the traditional attitudes that exist in these sectors, noting that failure to do so constitutes an obstacle to nations’ progress.

Is gender disparity playing a role in South Africa’s dearth of competent engineers, hamstringing development in the process? Possibly. By far more men than women are entering the South African engineering sector. In 2014 alone, Network Engineering placed 121 male engineers in employment positions. We placed only 20 women engineers during the same period.

South Africa urgently needs engineers: electrical engineers are first on government’s scarce-skills list, followed by civil engineers and mechanical engineers.

An increase in women engineers would certainly fill this skills gap. So, the question is: More than just recruiting additional women, can this sector transform its inherent culture to one that truly supports and sustains women professionals?

Thompson is a senior branch manager at Network Engineering, a recruitment company in the local engineering information technology and finance sectors.