The Omnia Interview: International Women in Engineering Day #INWED25

In the UK, approximately 16.5% of those working in the engineering and technology sector are women. This figure is wildly disproportionate, and speaks to the continued debate around the meaning of true gender equality in an industry which remains overwhelmingly male. Whilst efforts have been made to encourage more women into STEM, questions of accessibility in the engineering and technology sector remain a hot topic; though female students were traditionally guided away from ‘unsuitable’ subjects like engineering, schools today largely encourage girls to follow their desired career path, no matter the industry. Despite this, only 19% of students currently studying for engineering degrees are women.

Of course, this plays into a wider infrastructure of gender imbalance - with fewer female voices to support prospective female engineers and project managers on their journey into the sector, getting a seat at the table of industry is still a hustle that can dissuade women from pursuing their passion for STEM. There are questions, too, of industry accessibility for women currently working in the engineering and technology sector: in an industry largely controlled by men, the career of an eminently qualified female engineer can too often stall if she elects to have a baby, or take time off for childcare.

These are all concerns posed by the Women’s Engineering Society, who, in 2013, founded International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), a public awareness event which, in championing female engineers across the globe, “encourages more young women and girls to take up engineering careers”. To celebrate INWED, we spoke to one of our own, Jenni Houghton, about what it means to be a woman in the engineering sector in 2025. Jenni joined Omnia in 2022, and has since become a crucial part of the team as one of our most impressive project managers- she is currently Portfolio Manager of the Asset Intervention scheme for the North East. “I started as a project manager at a time when it was relatively unusual to see a woman in any kind of engineering role,” says Jenni. “One site I worked on didn't even have a women's toilet! I’ve been lucky to work with really supportive people throughout my career, people who have encouraged me to develop my skills and have faith in what I'm doing. But you can't help but think that it was obvious from the get-go that my presence - the presence of women - has typically been unusual in our industry.”

That said, Jenni feels hopeful about women’s place in the sector. “I’ve broken the glass ceiling myself, I suppose. When I first started my career twenty years ago, I was responsible for the sales and management of service works for Diesel Generating Sets across the UK electricity supply industry, and now I’m Project Manager for FEED and detailed design of replacement surge arresters. I’ve also been taking on extra work managing the portfolio of the asset intervention scheme. So more than anything, it’s a question of pushing yourself to get the training that puts you in the best possible position to advance in your career.” This, of course, is not about gender. “I might be working in a male-dominated industry, but nowadays there’s an understanding that, if you develop the right skills, you can do anything that anybody else can do. I’m travelling the same path as everyone else. It just so happens that, as a woman in the engineering industry, my particular path is a little less-trodden.”

This isn’t lost on Jenni, and she has some thoughts as to why, in 2025, women continue to be massively underrepresented in engineering and technology. “For a long time, I know, there was the idea that women just weren’t interested in technical roles, irrespective of whether it was an ‘appropriate’ career. People don’t think like that any more. But I feel that there’s still this concern by women and girls considering whether to start a career in the sector that they could be - or will be - the only female voice in the room. There’s maybe a lack of visibility, of other women saying, “you’ll fit in here!”. I think that puts girls off when they’re deciding what to study and what to do with their lives.”

The practicalities of the industry for women are also an issue. “I often travelled around the country for my previous employer, which is obviously something that is out of the question for a lot of women who have children. By and large, childcare still falls to women, and part and parcel of a career in the sector is that you have to go where you’re needed. What our industry so often lacks is flexibility, which is something I have at Omnia. It’s important to maintain control over where and when you work. In my current position, I can work from home as much as I want to. I know that I can pick my children up from school, or take them to an appointment. Women need to feel that they’ll be supported in their careers without making sacrifices. I don’t want to choose between work and motherhood, and at Omnia I don’t have to. But for a lot of women, there’s still the fear that, if they become an engineer or a project manager, the industry they go back to after having their baby won’t move to fit their new lifestyle. In that respect, I’m very lucky. But the more women we have within the engineering industry, the more that women considering these kinds of careers will see that there’s a place for them, and that the industry is developing to meet their needs. That’s why INWED is such a crucial event. It’s all about speaking up to show people that the balance is there and you really can achieve everything you want to, that no woman feels as though she has to pursue another career because STEM is out of the question. It’s not, and I’m proof!”

One thing, however, is for sure: as Jenni proves, an engineering and technology sector that remains even slightly inaccessible to women could be robbing us of tomorrow’s best and brightest would-be engineering experts.