This year’s global survey will gain direct insight from all members of the industry to understand current barriers to achieving equality and how to further diminish discriminatory practices in the workplace.
In honor of International Women in Engineering Day, we are launching our annual Global Women in Engineering Survey, a continued opportunity for professional women in engineering to share their insights and experiences, shedding light on career development as well as the broader challenges and opportunities within the electronics engineering industry.
The survey will run for two months, closing on Saturday, August 20. The global survey is designed to gain direct insight from all members of the industry to understand current barriers to achieving equality and how to further diminish discriminatory practices in the workplace while painting a vision for the future. The results of the survey will be announced in September. Farnell’s global organization is continuing to support the survey to provide a comprehensive view of the challenges professional women working in the electronics engineering industry continue to face and how they can successfully turn them into life-changing opportunities for themselves and the organizations they represent.
Looking back on the 2021 global survey, this drew responses from 370 people. Most of the respondents were between the ages of 25-54, and just over half said they had more than 10 years of experience in the electronics engineering industry. The survey showed that while women in engineering are gaining support from all genders, they are still underrepresented overall and may experience various degrees of discrimination. The 2021 research further highlighted that all respondents believe the most important goal for the modern workforce is to achieve equal treatment of all genders. This year’s survey will be a key indicator of whether positive trends have continued.
Other key findings of Farnell’s Global Women in Engineering Survey 2021 included:
- All genders have similar views about the benefits women bring to the engineering industry and believe that inequality needs to be addressed. Elevating more women into leadership positions where they can act as role models and mentors to other women will strengthen the implementation of equality policies and reduce inequality and sexism in the workplace.
- The research showed strong agreement on many issues, while some key differences were uncovered. Despite women citing good pay as a benefit of working in engineering, they still believe that the gender pay gap is still an issue.
- One powerful finding was that women were less worried about the need to travel for work than other genders perceive them to be. Only 15% of women surveyed suggested that reduced travel would be beneficial to their work-life balance and career prospects in contrast to the 25% of all other respondents who believed this to be true. This response suggests a further reduction in one perceived barrier to advancement in engineering careers for women.
- There was an overwhelming response from all genders encouraging women to be more confident, trust in their abilities and embrace the challenge of working in engineering. Some of the top drivers leading women to enjoy a career in engineering included the opportunity to work on diverse projects, being involved in the birth of next-generation technology, and establishing and nurturing a good work/life balance.
I have been lucky enough to see the evolution of the electronics and tech industry over the last 25+ years and witness the improvements. One of the ways many people focus on closing the gender gap in the tech industry is by encouraging girls to study STEM. I personally volunteer with local groups in Chicago to help teen girls learn about careers in engineering and tech and over the years have continued to mentor many fellow female engineers.
We continue to strive for the element14 Community to be part of the solution. Our goal is to be a safe, comfortable, and welcoming space for everyone with an interest in the electronics engineering field (not always something that is easy to find). The addition of three women hosts (Katie DuMont, Lorraine Underwood and Whitney Knitter) to our element14 Presents show has resulted in a high level of positive engagement across YouTube and the element14 Community. We are making some good progress, but we’re not finished yet!
And that’s where this survey comes in. In partnership with our colleagues across Farnell, Newark, element14 and Avnet, we want to hear from members of the industry: Have you witnessed or experienced discrimination against female colleagues or engineers? What barriers do you see that might be holding us back from reaching equality? What are some of the things you’d like to see, or recommendations you’d make for us?
Thank you in advance for taking just a few minutes to complete the below survey and share your thoughts. We really appreciate you sharing your experience with us.
Dianne Kibbey
Global Head of Community & Social Media