Re-Engineering Gender Bias Event Report
23 June 2015
Media City Salford
On 23 June the University of Salford held an event to support the National Day for
Women in Engineering.
The event was organised by members of the University of Salford Athena SWAN SelfAssessment Team to celebrate the achievements of women in engineering and to raise
awareness of opportunities for women considering a career in science, technology,
engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM).
A number of events were held on the same day across the UK, coordinated by WES
(Women’s Engineering Society) and were promoted via their website.
Invitations to the free event, held on 23 June 2015, were distributed electronically via
Eventbrite, across the University of Salford staff and student networks as well as to the
whole Athena SWAN network, WES network, local professional networks and groups
and the Salford City-wide Equality Network.
Over 40 male and female delegates attended the networking lunch and event.
A copy of the programme, speaker profiles and presentations can be found at the end of
this document.
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Speaker Highlights - Key Points and Issues Raised
Professor HaifaTakruri MBE University of Salford - Professor in Engineering and
Science Engagement – (Chairperson)

Exciting prospects for science and engineering in the future as Universities are now
more than ever aware of the value and contribution of women in STEMM – in part
thanks to the Athena SWAN Charter but also because women themselves have a
an excellent track record in academia and in industry

Women come from across the world to study here – there are cultural differences in
gender roles that we need to better understand to ensure that there is gender
equality and fairness achieved by recognising and removing barriers for women. A
challenge for us is to sensitively address cultural issues

There is currently a skills gap in STEMM

Understanding of career pathways for women needs to improve

STEMM areas are still seen as “boy’s subjects” – so we must also try to influence
the perceptions of girls in school and raise their aspirations whilst they are young
and selecting their areas of study.
Professor Sunil Vadera University of Salford, Head of the School of Computing,
Science and Engineering

I have been an advocate for gender equality for many years – I believe that women
have the same talents and skills as men and it is the mix of talents, experiences
and perspectives that makes our lives more productive, creative and fulfilling.

As a father I want my daughters to fulfil their potential and have every opportunity
that life can offer

Diversity leads to a more creative / innovative and flexible workforce – this is
increasingly recognised by employers

The Athena SWAN Charter provides a useful framework to create the conditions in
any University where gender equality can flourish

Diversity makes us a more successful University – a great place to work and to
study

The industry has a role to play in getting more girls to study STEMM subjects and
raising awareness of the employment opportunities for women. They could also do
more to challenge male and female stereotypes.
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Annette Lardeur – Construction Industry Engineer

I became an engineer because there were plenty of engineers in my family and it
just seemed natural to be self-sufficient.

The Careers Service did not promote engineering to girls when I was at school.

At University I had no real strong female role models in engineering – it was very
clearly a male dominated environment and women just have to learn to survive –
conversations / social interactions are all very different. I had to learn to talk about
football to be able to break the ice and have conversations with my male
colleagues.

Gender did not really cross my mind until I realised how women were totally absent
at the top of my profession – no real role models and no-one saw this as an issue in
the industry. It was just accepted as that’s how it’s always been and always will be.
In the main it’s all men at management and senior levels. Sometimes you see
females on site but the whole day to day environment of a site is organised around
men and their needs – a woman in the industry has to find her way and engage her
male colleagues on their terms.

Sometimes it’s hard to get your authority accepted in an all-male environment.

I get work / contracts because I am good at my job. Women have to excel – to the
point of over–achieving in ways that their male counterparts do not. A woman can’t
get away with being “OK” at her job in such a masculine environment – women
have to be even better than their male colleagues. Women have to earn respect
and accept that their work, behaviour and how they present themselves will come
under much more scrutiny in a male dominated work environment.

At work women get judged – what you wear, how you dress. How manicured your
hair is, how attractive you are. Sexism in the industry is overt and not challenged –
just accepted as the norm. Somehow building sites remain a place where overt
sexism is normalised – it’s clear that the problem is seen to rest with the women not
with the men. This type of behaviour would not be accepted in the company offices
of these large organisations but on site there is a totally different set of standards.

Engineering is not a well-paid industry but compared to men I was not paid the
same – the pay gap is wide and a difficult issue to crack. Maybe men are more
money driven – women focus on getting the job done and men focus more on the
bottom line / money / bonus.

I now find it normal to be the only women in the room. I notice that women are over
represented in admin and supporting roles in the industry.

The reasons why women stay or leave engineering are unclear but site work is hard
graft for anyone – and there is the long hours culture driven by contract deadlines
and penalties.
The industry is driven and based on a history of men – long hours etc. – maternity
pay isn’t even on their agenda or part of contracts which shows the total male
orientation in the building industry. Sustaining a career in the industry for women is
a real challenge when everything is so male orientated.
There are many reasons why women don’t stick in the industry – even social and
corporate hospitality is male orientated – golf for example. Even when I learned to
play golf I still didn’t get invited on corporate hospitality. A look at the industry
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awards table shows you the male domination of the industry – the award for best
financial advisor was a set of cufflinks – even though they knew the person who
won was female.

Men are not always good managers of women – women’s softer skills /
communication or social skills are not appreciated or valued – staff management
tends to be much more hard-line.

Sabine Von-Hunerbein – University of Salford, Senior Lecturer

Refer to the statistics set out in the presentation attached

There are fewer women in engineering in the UK than in other EU countries

Women are not the only minorities / disadvantaged groups in Higher Education

Girls in school rule out engineering by the time they are 14 – this is a critical
point for gender segregation in the workplace – fewer girls than boys come into
University to study engineering, and even fewer enter into careers.

We need to get more females into STEMM academia to have any chance of
increasing the representation of women in STEMM related careers – so schools,
colleges and universities need to create a supportive environment and to
actively encourage girls to widen their choices.

Girls from all-girl schools account for 80% of STEMM students

The whole language and conversations around STEMM are masculine – there is
lots of pressure on women to conform rather than to change the industry to cater
for women

Sexism effects males and females – there is pressure on boys to be “boyish”
and accepted behaviours – boys allowed to be more boisterous than girls – girls
judged if they behave the same.
Tara Hughes – University of Salford, PhD Student

I wonder if men get asked questions like this in an interview – “Have you secured
childcare?”, “How you will cope with poorly children”, “How will you cope with
swearing?” and “What made you choose engineering?

I don’t know anyone else who came to the University of Salford – I came here
initially because my college was linked to the University of Salford and I kept
coming back here and was drawn to engineering – I stayed because of the support.

I like the diversity of Salford – there are all kinds of people, lots of support – you
have to work very hard but it is worth it.

I finished by PhD and I now work at the University of Salford as a researcher

I have benefitted hugely by being “taken under the wing” of people – often older
men that I have met here. Being allocated mentors did not work for me, but it may
work for other people. I would caution against a female mentor for female students.
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Re-Engineering Gender Bias
Media City 3rd floor, Room 310 / 311
Foyer
1.00 – 2.00 Registration, lunch and networking
Room 310/311
2.00pm
Professor HaifaTakruri MBE – (Chairperson) Welcome and
Introductions
Professor Sunil Vadera – University of Salford, Head of the School of
Computing, Science and Engineering
Promoting the role of women in engineering
Annette Lardeur – Construction Industry Engineer
Life in the real world
Sabine Von-Hunerbein – University of Salford, Senior Lecturer
Career progression
Tara Hughes – University of Salford, PhD Student
Why engineering? Why UoS?
Dr Sharon Coen, University of Salford, Psychologist, School of Health
Sciences
Workshop: Unconscious gender bias
Professor Maggie Pearson, University of Salford, Pro-Vice Chancellor
(Public Benefit) and Dean of the College of Health and Social Care
University of Salford - taking gender equality forward
4.00pm
Conclusion
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Speaker Profiles
Professor Haifa Takruri MBE (Chairperson) University of Salford
Haifa Takruri is a professor in Engineering and Science Engagement at the
University of Salford. An electronics engineer with a multidisciplinary practice,
Professor Takruri current teaching focuses on wireless and mobile networking.
Her technical research focuses on Mobile networks (2G – 5G) and integrating
networking technologies and instrumentation, in particular wireless sensor networks
and their applications in intelligent buildings, networked appliances, precision
agriculture and energy saving.
Professor Takruri is an advocate for the promotion of engineering and science to
young people in particular girls and minorities. She is heavily involved in research
projects, public engagement projects and initiatives that aim at addressing the underrepresentation of women and minorities in engineering and science studies and
careers. She collaborates with a number of organisations as a science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) Ambassador.
In June 2009 she was awarded a (Member of British Empire) MBE for services to
Women, Black and Minority Ethnic people in Science, Engineering and Technology
Education in recognition of her contribution.
In March 2010 she was awarded the Ministry of Defence sponsored Muslim News
award for Excellence in Engineering, Science and Technology.
Professor Sunil Vadera – University of Salford, Professor of Computer Science
Sunil Vadera is a Professor of Computer Science and the Head of the School of
Computing, Science and Engineering at the University of Salford He has held
various previous roles including Associate Dean Research and Innovation for the
College of Science and Technology, Director of the Informatics Research Institute,
Associate Head Research and Associate Head Teaching.
He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Manchester which was
awarded in 1992. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Chartered
Engineer, Chartered IT Professional and is a member of the IFIP Technical WG 12.2
on Machine Learning and Data Mining. In 2014, he was awarded the best in
Science and Engineering award by BDO in recognition of contributions by British
Indians in the UK.
His research is focused on data mining, and has included projects on learning
Bayesian networks for sensor validation in power plants with the Mexican Instituto de
Electricas, research on a British Gas funded project on data mining of SMART
meters data with a view to recommending energy saving measures to households.
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He was Principal Salford Investigator of the FP7 Self Learning Energy Efficient
Buildings (SEEDS) project and a Technology and Strategy Board project on data
mining for credit rating of sub-prime loans that has been selected by the ESRC as
an example of impact of its funded research in the UK.
His research has been published in the leading outlets in Informatics such as the
ACM Transactions of Knowledge Discovery and Data, ACM Computing Surveys,
IEEE Transactions of Power Systems, Computer Journal, Journal of Operational
Research Society, Foundations of Science, Expert Systems and conferences such
as IJCAI and Uncertainty in AI.
Sunil has a wide perspective on equality and participation rates in Science and
Engineering, having seen the impact of cultural differences in different countries,
from his personal experience as a parent and being in a fortunate position to benefit
from the contributions from female academics to the School of Computing, Science
and Engineering.
Annette Lardeur – Construction Industry Engineer
Annette has been working in the construction industry for over 20 years.
Starting as a graduate civil engineer in the offices of a major consultant, she worked
on a range of projects in the water, major highways, infrastructure and regeneration
fields, before moving into the renewable energy sector. The last four years have
seen her developing wind farms for a major private developer.
Her career has taken her from the beginnings as graduate engineer and Assistant
Site Engineer to Resident Engineer and leading large multi-disciplinary teams
delivering complex multi-million projects.
Sabine Von-Hunerbein – University of Salford, Senior Lecturer
Sabine graduated from the University of Konstanz with a Physics Degree in 1995.
She first used wind profiling remote sensing techniques during her PhD at the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology between 1995 and1999. After an interlude in the
Business Sector implementing and designing a business model for an Internet
Gaming Platform for a Swiss Cable TV provider she joined the Acoustic Research
Centre (ARC) in Salford, UK, as a Research Fellow in 2001 to work on design and
application of acoustic wind profilers.
As a lecturer she was Salford principle investigator within the EU-funded project
UpWind and an EPSRC funded project on SODAR optimisation for wind energy
applications.
From 2007, she was involved in work on acoustic perception research of wind
turbine noise in a DEFRA/DTI funded project on “Aerodynamic Noise from Wind
Turbines”. Other perception work included the Danish government funded work on
low frequency noise from large wind turbines and work on the affective response to
amplitude modulated noise commissioned by RenewableUK.
Throughout her career she has found peer support and networking with colleagues,
male and female, very rewarding and a key ingredient to success.
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Tara Hughes – PhD Student
Tara has recently submitted her PhD thesis at the University of Salford. Her
research in the Engineering Research Centre involved developing a device that can
unobtrusively track individuals using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags for
personalised domestic energy monitoring applications.
Tara’s background is in mechanical engineering, with a special interest and
experience in renewable energy and sustainable development.
Dr Sharon Coen
Sharon is a Senior Lecturer in Media Psychology at the University of Salford
interested in social and media psychology. She has a background in intergroup
relations and am the Honorary Secretary of the Social Psychology Section of the
British Psychological Society (BPS).
She took part in a workshop organised by the North West Branch in occasion of the
International Women’s Day in 2015 of the BPS on Social Media and Feminism and I
have organised a colloquium on Prejudice and Discrimination during the Black
History month in 2014.
Professor Maggie Pearson University of Salford, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Public
Benefit) and Dean of the College of Health and Social Care
Professor Maggie Pearson is Pro-Vice Chancellor (Public Benefit) & Dean of the
College of Health & Social Care at the University of Salford. After taking a degree in
Geography from Cambridge University, she went on to train as a nurse. Her PhD, at
the University of Liverpool, was on Leprosy Control in West Nepal.
Maggie has held a series of director-level posts in higher education and the health
sector. After an academic career in medical sociology & health services research at
the University of Liverpool (1985-1996) where she was Director of a self-funding
health services research centre, Maggie went on to become Regional Director of
Research and Development for the NHS in the North West of England, & Regional
Director of Cancer Services & Specialised Services Commissioning (1996-2001).
She was Director of Education & Training for the NHS in England (2001-04) before
going on to be Deputy Vice Chancellor at Keele University (2004-07).
From 2007 – 2013, Maggie led the curriculum development & higher education
strategy for the UK Modernising Scientific Careers Programme. She has been a
non-executive director of several NHS organisations & was a lay member of the
Commission on Human Medicines. She was also the HE sector Director of the UK
Sector Skills Development Agency (2006-08).
Following several years in health policy & workforce consultancy, Maggie was
appointed Pro-Vice Chancellor (Public Benefit) & Dean of the College of Health &
Social Care at the University of Salford in February 2013. She is Vice Chair &
Director of the Salford Academy Trust & a Trustee of the Dowager Countess Eleanor
Peel Trust.
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Notes produced by Celia Hart, Diversity Advisor and Athena SWAN Co-ordinator,
University of Salford.
Email: Equality@salford.ac.uk
Telephone 0161 295 0446
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