DIVERSITY | WOMEN IN ENGINEERING PRIME EXAMPLE After the inauguration of the first female CIBSE President, Liza Young finds out why inclusivity and female role models benefit engineering organisations and looks at what industry is doing to boost diversity F emale role models in positions of leadership are imperative in the built environment, because you cant be what you cant see. Thats the view of Susie Diamond, partner at Inkling, who says a female CIBSE President [Lynne Jack] is bloody marvellous, and about time after 122 years. Shes very impressive in her field, shes international and shes smart but the fact shes a woman is really exciting to me, Diamond adds. Its a view shared by many in the profession. Lucy Vereenooghe, operations director at ChapmanBDSP, says: The industry has been slowly making steps towards increased diversity and inclusion, but a female role model at the highest level is a step change, and will hopefully inspire future generations. David Stevens, vice-chair of the CIBSE Facilities Management Group and a member of the CIBSE Inclusivity Panel, says Jack will be an excellent president, regardless of her gender. It is important, however, that we celebrate our first female president a role model for young female engineers across the breadth of building services. It is just a pity CIBSE members have had to wait until 2019, Stevens adds, while other institutions have had female presidents for at least a decade including the IMechE, which appointed Pamela Liversidge in 1997. Women are still under-represented on the CIBSE board, and there is no female candidate currently in the chain of succession, he says. Despite this, CIBSEs membership figures for the past seven years show an upward trajectory for female members. At the end of 2018, 10% of the Institutions membership was female, compared with only 6% at the end of 2011 (see graph on page 26). The highest ratio of females to males is found among the graduate and student members, however, with women making up 23% of graduate members up from 16% in 2011 and 22% of student members, up from 11% in 2011. However, the drive to get more women into the industry is almost the easy bit, says Kieran Thompson, head of talent, diversity and inclusion at Cundall. What we havent tackled is the problem of women leaving the industry. We can do everything to get a 50-50 male to female ratio at 24 June 2019 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Jun19 pp24-26 Women.indd 24 24/05/2019 16:17