Revisioning the Engineering Profession

Abstract

Beginning with a brief account of the value of diversity and inclusivity in a globalizing world, this chapter presents an overview of the current situation of the engineering profession in some English-speaking countries. The starting point addresses the enduring difficulty encountered by attempts to increase and diversify professional engineering. Drawing on a series of studies of engineering education, engineering workplaces and people, both in Australia and beyond, this chapter outlines barriers to entering engineering for anybody other than white mainstream males. Access and retention have long been recognized as serious impediments to increasing numbers of women in engineering. The particular breakthrough in this chapter describes the ways in which some Australian women engineers are working to sustain and enrich their professional status within the workplace by developing strategies that enable them to continue as professionals without diminishing other important features of their life worlds. The implications for all sectors of education, and employers, to emerge from this study offer a basis for redesigning engineering as a more diverse and inclusive profession.