Supporting daily life is helpful The event’s fourth edition in 2022 included an additional workshop, where three female engineers talked about their challenges while three other women moderated. “We talked about how we can empower other female electrical engineers in our daily lives. Sometimes a little support, like picking up the kids, goes a long way”, Nadia explains. “We had productive discussions during the workshop, and the results have been shared with everyone.” Change takes time Ahmed El-Hamaky, Regional Manager, at OMICRON Bahrain, was one of the male participants at the event. “To be honest, I didn’t feel welcome at the beginning, but I knew we had to find a way to make electrical engineering more appealing to women. When I graduated over 20 years ago, there was only one woman in my graduating class. I feel fortunate that Nadia joined our team four years ago because she has experience empowering women in the Middle East. The idea for an event came up through the stories we shared with each other”, Ahmed remembers. «It’s a good platform for learning that the challenges I face as a female engineer are universal.» Evelyn Mutula, Kenya OEW participant “There’s a significant gender imbalance in our industry, and as part of this industry, it’s up to us to discuss and address the issues behind it. OEW provides a good platform for having these types of discussions. Inequality has always been present in the engineering field, as is evident in the number of females compared with males in our workforce. The role of male engineers is substantial when it comes to empowering female engineers. I have 14 years of experience, and during this time, male engineers always taught me what real-world engineering was. They supported me when I struggled to work on-site, shared their honest opinions to help me make better decisions, and promoted and encouraged me. But companies need to change too. Flexible working hours should be offered within practical limits that reflect the nature of the job. Concrete actions should be taken to recruit more female engineers. Companies should participate in STEM activities, so we can reach more young people to explain that girls can also become engineers. Women need to own their decisions, own their careers, and stop letting their gender or whatever perceptions others might have of them prevent them from reaching their goals.” Yasemin Baygar, Principal Protection Engineer, Siemens Energy UK OEW speaker 8
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