In our cross-Canada consultations, the CCWE heard from women engineers who dropped out of the engineering profession because of isolation, lack of respect and lack of support.

Many are the only woman engineer at plants or remote sites; several have been the first woman engineer to be hired by their companies.

As more women engineers enter the workforce, their isolation will gradually disappear. Unless the environment changes also, women will still experience lack of support and some will choose not to work as engineers. Some women engineers report having experienced more overt forms of lack of respect in their workplaces.

One group of human resource practitioners and women engineers and technicians identified the most common and difficult barriers faced by women engineers. In order of priority, they cite: lack of collaboratively planned career development; absence of policies that support individuals balancing career and family; workload demands; heightened visibility; promotion that depends on emulating management; traditional attitudes to women in technical roles; and absence of networks, mentors and role models (Parenteau and Balcom, Prairie Region Forum).

Women engineers unable to progress in their careers or having difficulty balancing career and family responsibilities often change jobs or even leave the profession. When highly trained engineers leave, the employer loses training and development investment; the employee loses self-esteem, career satisfaction and income. It is in the employer's interest to ensure the corporate culture and the work environment allow women engineers to develop their own careers and contribute fully in achieving the organization's goals.

Changes to the corporate culture require the visible commitment of senior management. The president, chief executive officer and all senior managers need to develop and monitor the impact of a new corporate culture throughout their organizations. Everyone from the executive suite to the plant floor must be familiar with policy changes and understand why such policies exist and how they will be administered.

Very few women engineers have reached senior management in Canadian companies. In 1989, one percent of women engineers and 10 percent of men engineers were in executive positions (Table 17). Employers of engineers should significantly increase the number of qualified professional women, including women engineers, who are appointed to boards of directors and to senior line management positions. By doing so, corporations will demonstrate a commitment to change and will ensure that women, as senior managers, can help create a corporate culture that is comfortable for women. It will also send a positive message to all women in the organization.

Employers of engineers need realistic but challenging objectives and timeframes for promoting women engineers to operating line functions and senior management. For example, a company might decide it wants to have a female vice-president within five years. The company would identify women with potential, provide developmental and career opportunities, and fast-track them to give them the experience needed for senior management positions. Where suitable candidates are unavailable within the organization, the company would recruit from outside. For such a plan to work, senior management must ensure all employees understand that the women hired are qualified and competent. Strategies for identifying, attracting and developing women with management potential are discussed in Chapters 14 and 15.

Employers of engineers should form gender-balanced advisory committees to ensure senior management is aware of, understands and resolves the concerns of professional women, especially engineers. Formation of such committees is important because most companies are managed by men. It will be difficult to develop a women-friendly corporate culture if women are excluded from the process.

Such an advisory council or committee could advise and act as a resource for senior management on issues of concern to professional women, especially engineers. To provide a diversity of perspectives, members should come from all levels of management, the organization's workforce and, where applicable, union and management. Broader equity issues could also be discussed if the committee members also represent groups such as visible minorities, aboriginal people and people with disabilities.

Such a committee's mandate should include reviewing company policies and programs affecting women employees and surveying women about their concerns. An important role of an advisory committee would be to report on progress in attracting, retaining and advancing the careers of women engineers for which the strategies, time-frames and goals in this report could serve as a guide.

Senior management should commit to the principles of equity in employment, pay and promotion practices. Adoption of these principles and corporate-wide representation targets for women at all levels of the company will provide the necessary guidelines for managers to recruit and promote women engineers.

Women engineers are not represented equitably in levels of responsibility throughout organizations (Table 17) and tend to be paid less than their male counterparts (Chapter 15). Inequities in salary and promotion can result in loss of otherwise valued employees. One mining engineer who experienced salary discrimination left her company after her employer refused to adjust her remuneration.

Federally regulated employers and those doing business with the federal government have no choice but to implement employment equity. Under the Federal Contractors' Program, employers wishing to do business with the federal government are required to review their hiring and promotion practices and implement employment equity for four designated groups, including women.

Critical to the success of employment equity programs is an education program that explains to all employees the purpose and objectives of such programs. The CCWE is concerned that both men and women automatically infer that women who are hired to fulfill employment equity goals are not qualified. Rather than being seen as giving women an equal chance in the workplace, these programs are viewed sometimes as reverse discrimination or as preferential treatment. Many women battle against the false view that the only reason they were hired was to fill the company's quota for number of women. Education programs must address the fears some men have about employment equity, including:

All managers should be held accountable for successful implementation and monitoring of employment equity and harassment policies. At a few committed companies, such implementation and managers' ability to work with and for women are prerequisites for career progression and promotion. Some companies have moved responsibility for employment equity to individual departments, leaving the human resources department to oversee the overall monitoring and implementation.

Hiring and promoting women engineers is not enough. Employers of engineers must identify and actively discourage attitudes and informal and formal activities which are inherently biased or discriminate against women. Systemic discrimination can appear in many forms according to several women engineers.

Hours of work and overtime.

Intolerance of different work styles.

Accepted behavior.

Attitudes towards women engineers.

Attitudes towards working mothers.

Attitudes towards dress.

Attitudes towards women project managers and supervisors.

Events open only to men.

Once systemic discrimination is identified, organizations can make plans to remove it. Activities and membership in organizations that exclude women must be discontinued. More management flexibility regarding hours of work, work styles and even styles of dress will result in a more comfortable working environment for women. The greatest change, however, will be achieved by altering attitudes that stereotype men and women.

Many women engineers face the prospect of being the first woman engineer at a mine site or a remote plant. Their initial adjustment period to a new workplace is often longer and tougher than that of male engineers. Employers have a responsibility to prepare their workforce to welcome women engineers into the workplace. Employees can be prepared by training and awareness programs that promote the value of increased diversity in the workforce, and the benefits of a gender-balanced workforce.

Effective gender awareness seminars and workshops sensitize employees to the subtle ways women are devalued and discriminated against. Awareness programs should also relate the need to get the best from all resources, including human resources, to meet the increasing demand for industrial and international competitiveness. Such programs should address workplace harassment (Chapter 17). Work-group dialogue and focus groups for all staff, including management, create open discussion of the issues. Awareness programs must also explain the rationale behind employment equity programs, and other initiatives that address inequity in the workplace.

Employers of engineers must ensure that suitable safety equipment, clothing and facilities are provided to women at work sites. As more women begin working in the field, companies are resolving problems such as work boots and clothes that are too big for women, machinery and protective clothing designed by men for men, and the absence of female washrooms.

Employers should extend human resource policies and procedures to companies and contractors who supply human resources under contract. If human resource policies are not extended beyond the company boundaries, some companies may circumvent the internal policies by using outside engineering contractors.

Schedule for success: