Women in Engineering: Why Confidence and Culture still Shape Careers

Women currently make up just 17% of the engineering and technology workforce in the UK compared to 56% in other occupations, according to EngineeringUK and the Women’s Engineering Society.

At the same time, the engineering and infrastructure sectors continue to face growing skills shortages across rail, energy, aviation, water, highways, buildings, telecoms, and wider infrastructure projects. This Women in Engineering Day, the conversation is not simply about representation. It is about talent.

While the industry has made significant progress in attracting more women to engineering and infrastructure careers, many businesses still risk missing out on capable women due to confidence gaps, unintentional recruitment bias, and workplace cultures that do not always support long-term retention.

The challenge is not about women’s capability. More often, it is confidence, visibility, progression, and whether people feel encouraged to step forward in the first place. One of the most widely discussed recruitment statistics, popularised by a Harvard Business Review article, suggested:

Men often apply for jobs when they meet about 60% of the listed criteria, whereas women are more likely to apply only when they feel they meet nearly 100% of the requirements.

Source: Harvard Business Review – Why Women Don’t Apply for Jobs Unless They’re 100% Qualified

Although more recent studies suggest the gap may not always be as significant as originally reported, the wider trend still appears consistently across recruitment and leadership conversations. Women are often more selective before applying for opportunities and more likely to screen themselves out earlier in the process. That matters in an industry already facing talent shortages.

Katie Walker, Head of Compliance & Administration at Advance TRS, believes confidence remains one of the biggest factors influencing whether women put themselves forward for opportunities across engineering and infrastructure.

“Don’t be afraid to put yourself forward for opportunities, even if you don’t meet every requirement.”

That point resonates because many careers within infrastructure are not built by arriving with every possible requirement already mastered. They are built through progression, mentorship, transferable skills, learning on the job, and experience gained over time.

Confidence, however, often shapes whether someone takes that first step.

Katie also reflected on how confidence changes the way people operate within traditionally male-dominated environments.

“When you go in with confidence, you’re demanding that people listen to you and take up space.”

Katie also reflected on the importance of visibility and awareness when encouraging more women into the industry, particularly at school and at the early career level.

“I think in every single industry and sector, there is always room for visibility for people to know what opportunities there are.”

That visibility becomes increasingly important in sectors like engineering and infrastructure, where many careers remain misunderstood or underrepresented within schools, colleges, and early career conversations.

The industry has made progress in this area. There are now more women visible across technical, operational, commercial, compliance, leadership, and project delivery roles than ever before. Conversations around equality, diversity, and inclusion are more open, support networks are growing, and businesses are placing greater focus on widening access to opportunities across infrastructure.

But visibility still matters. According to EngineeringUK, girls continue to show lower interest in engineering and technology careers from school age onwards, despite often performing just as strongly in STEM subjects. That is why improving awareness and visibility around engineering careers at the school level remains so important. People cannot aspire to careers they do not know exist, and early exposure to STEM pathways, role models, and the breadth of opportunities available across engineering and infrastructure can play a major role in changing perceptions and building confidence.

Engineering Careers Are Broader Than Many People Realise

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding engineering and infrastructure is that careers are limited purely to technical or site-based roles.

Modern infrastructure projects rely on huge multidisciplinary teams working together to successfully deliver complex programmes across transport, energy, utilities, aviation, defence, and construction.

Engineering and design teams work alongside project planners, commercial managers, project controls specialists, safety professionals, recruiters, operations teams, compliance specialists, environmental consultants, digital professionals, and leadership teams.

Katie Walker highlighted the importance of improving visibility into the range of opportunities available across the sector.

“People assume engineering and infrastructure are limited to site-based and technical roles, where in fact there’s such a big scope to the roles you can have in the industry.”

That visibility is particularly important for attracting future talent into the sector.

Today, there are also significantly more support systems and communities available for women within engineering and infrastructure than there were even a decade ago.

Organisations such as the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), Women in Rail, STEM returner programmes, Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) leadership networks, mentoring initiatives, and apprenticeship pathways are helping create stronger support structures and clearer progression routes into the industry.

The sector is evolving, and so is the perception of what engineering careers look like.

That growing visibility and support network is helping more women see engineering and infrastructure as industries where long-term careers and leadership opportunities are genuinely achievable.

Recruitment Bias Is Often Subtle, Not Intentional

Bias within recruitment processes is not always obvious or deliberate.

In many cases, it appears subtly through the wording of job descriptions, unrealistic “wish lists”, limited flexibility around hybrid or remote working, or recruitment processes that unintentionally narrow talent pools and discourage capable candidates from applying.

Even job titles themselves can influence confidence.

Karen Upton, Recruitment Lead and Delivery Manager at Advance TRS, recently reflected on supporting a highly experienced female candidate who initially doubted whether she was senior enough for a role because of the wording of the title, despite already managing significant infrastructure projects and multi-million-pound packages of work.

The capability already existed within this highly skilled candidate. The challenge was her perception and confidence. That is why businesses increasingly need to think carefully about how opportunities are presented and whether recruitment processes encourage people to apply or unintentionally discourage them.

Long lists of “essential requirements” may narrow talent pools unnecessarily. Separating essential skills from desirable experience, focusing on transferable capabilities, and improving visibility around progression opportunities can make a significant difference in attracting broader and more diverse talent pipelines.

At Advance TRS, equality, diversity, and inclusion principles are embedded throughout recruitment processes and company culture. This includes ongoing EDI training for consultants, competency-based recruitment, carefully reviewed job advertisements, and blind CV screening where appropriate to help reduce unconscious bias within hiring processes.

The business has also previously supported client diversity objectives through targeted executive search, diverse shortlists, and inclusive recruitment practices, including work aligned with Alstom’s commitment to increasing female representation across managerial and professional roles.

The Value Women Bring to Engineering and Infrastructure Projects

The conversation around women in engineering is not simply about improving statistics or meeting diversity targets.

It is about strengthening businesses, projects, leadership teams, and long-term industry performance through broader perspectives and different ways of thinking.

Infrastructure projects are complex environments involving operational pressures, stakeholder management, safety considerations, public impact, commercial risk, and multidisciplinary collaboration across large delivery teams.

Strong communication, analytical thinking, collaboration, emotional intelligence, and strategic problem-solving are critical across every stage of delivery.

Karen Upton, who recruits rail professionals across the infrastructure sector for Advance TRS, reflected on the value that diverse perspectives bring to engineering and infrastructure environments.

“As women, we analyse things naturally in our personal life as well as our professional life.”

She also spoke about how women often bring broader perspectives when weighing up complex situations and navigating project challenges.

“I think women can often bring broader perspectives when weighing up complex situations.”

Katie Walker, whose role oversees compliance and operational support across the business, similarly highlighted the importance of collaboration across infrastructure projects and how successful delivery depends on multiple disciplines working together.

“Engineering projects don’t succeed because of an individual discipline. They succeed because the technical, operational, commercial and compliance teams all work together towards the same goal.”

McKinsey’s Diversity Wins research continues to support the wider business value of diverse teams, finding that companies with greater gender diversity within leadership teams were more likely to outperform financially, while wider studies continue to link diverse teams with stronger innovation, collaboration, and decision-making. As infrastructure projects continue growing in scale and complexity, those broader perspectives become increasingly valuable.

Attracting Women Into Engineering Matters, Retaining Them Matters More

Recruitment is only one part of the conversation. Retention matters equally. At a time when engineering and infrastructure businesses continue to face significant skills shortages, retaining experienced talent has become just as important as attracting it.

Many engineering and infrastructure businesses are actively working to attract more women into the sector, but long-term progress also depends on whether people feel supported, recognised, listened to, and able to build sustainable careers once they are there.

Karen Upton spoke openly about the importance of feeling valued within organisations and the impact workplace culture has on confidence and progression.

“Recognition is fundamentally important. Unless you feel valued, noticed and recognised within a team, it’s all fruitless.”

Karen Upton also reflected on how confidence can directly influence progression and leadership opportunities across the industry.

“You do miss opportunities for strong female leaders to come through when their confidence gets knocked.”

Creating environments where employees feel supported, encouraged, recognised, and able to progress confidently is therefore not only important for individuals but for strengthening future leadership pipelines across the industry itself.

These themes increasingly shape how people choose employers and whether they remain within industries long term.

Karen Upton reflected on how important flexibility and trust-based management have become within modern workplaces, particularly for women balancing long-term careers alongside family responsibilities.

She spoke about the importance of creating environments where employees are trusted to manage their workloads while still maintaining balance outside of work, rather than feeling restricted by rigid working structures or micromanagement.

She also discussed the importance of open dialogue, supportive leadership, and employees feeling heard within organisations.

“I think it’s really important to have that open dialogue.”

For employers, many of the improvements are not necessarily complex. Often, the biggest impact comes from creating environments where people feel trusted, recognised, supported, and able to progress. Clearer job specifications, visible progression pathways, mentorship, flexibility around family responsibilities, inclusive leadership, and open communication all play an important role in whether talented people choose to join a business and build long-term careers there.

EngineeringUK research has previously highlighted concerns around women leaving engineering roles mid-career, particularly between the ages of 35 and 44, often linked to progression barriers, workplace culture, burnout, and lack of flexibility.

That is why attracting women into engineering cannot rely solely on recruitment campaigns. Workplace culture, leadership, flexibility, recognition, and progression all influence whether people remain and grow within the industry long term.

Representation Builds Confidence

Representation has a direct impact on confidence and aspiration. Seeing women succeed within engineering, infrastructure, project delivery, operations, recruitment, commercial leadership, compliance, and technical environments helps demonstrate that progression is achievable across the industry.

Karen Upton reflected on how significantly the sector has evolved during her career, particularly compared to 20 years ago, when many areas of infrastructure felt far more male-dominated. That progress is visible across many businesses today

At Advance TRS, women currently represent 45% of the overall workforce, with women holding 58% of management positions and 25% of board-level roles. Female representation across leadership continues to grow, reflecting the importance of creating visible progression pathways, supportive environments, and opportunities for long-term career development across all areas of the business.

Representation alone does not solve every challenge, but visibility matters because it helps others see what is possible.

Continuing the Momentum Beyond Women in Engineering Day

At Advance TRS, we recognise that creating a more inclusive industry is not solved through a single campaign, policy, or hiring initiative. It comes through long-term investment in people, inclusive recruitment practices, visible leadership, supportive workplace cultures, and creating environments where individuals feel confident enough to grow and progress.

That is why equality, diversity, and inclusion remain embedded throughout our recruitment processes and company culture, from ongoing EDI training and inclusive hiring practices through to supporting clients with broader and more diverse talent attraction strategies across the built environment.

Women in Engineering Day is an opportunity to celebrate the progress already being made across the sector, but also to continue building momentum for the future.

Because the engineering and infrastructure sectors need the widest possible range of skills, perspectives, experiences, and ideas to solve the challenges ahead. And the industry cannot afford to miss out on talent.

Whether you are a candidate looking to build a long-term career within engineering and infrastructure or a business looking to attract and retain diverse talent, Advance TRS is committed to supporting inclusive growth across the sectors we serve.

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