Women in engineering
Nayantara Srinivasan, President, The WiE Network Committee, Department of Engineering Science University of Oxford, talks to Danielle Kenneally
A METALLURGY and materials science engineer, Nayantara Srinivasan is an inspiring woman who is out to ‘change the world’. While pursuing her PhD in materials at the University of Oxford in the area of polymer-based nanocomposites for dielectric applications, Nayantara is also on hand to provide support to other women in the engineering industry to take charge of their destinies.
As president of the Women in Engineering network in the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, she is a role model for other women. Here she talks to the Civil Engineering Surveyor’s Danielle Kenneally about empowering and inspiring more women to lead and succeed in changing the world.
What is the Women in Engineering network, why was it formed and what are its aims?
The Women in Engineering (WiE) network was established in 2012 in the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, with the goal of hosting networking events, social gatherings, career development events, and seminars, like our ‘Lunch and Learn’ talks. Postdoctoral research assistants, graduate students, undergraduate students, and other academic staff make up this group’s membership. It has developed over time into a vibrant, encouraging community of female engineers from various career stages and specialties.
We collaborate closely with the department to bring up concerns pertaining to gender diversity therein. Additionally, we want to encourage more girls to choose engineering as a professional path and support them in realising their goals and dreams.
How did you get involved in the WiE network?
I was always super fascinated with the idea of joining societies and networks that aim to empower women in all ways and specifically women in engineering as an engineer myself. I have my BEng (Medallist) in materials science and engineering from the College of Engineering, Anna University-Chennai in India, followed by a MSc in materials science engineering from the National University of Singapore.
In academia there is a still a huge gap in terms of gender balance.
I am currently doing my PhD in materials engineering in the Department of Materials, Oxford University and working on polymer based nanocomposites with enhanced dielectric properties for alternating current electroluminescent devices.
I have gained a lot from this network especially with the great, supportive and vibrant committee members I work with, who come from different backgrounds of engineering. I have not only learnt a lot intellectually but also imbibed key personality traits, moral, professional and work ethics. Being the president of the network has definitely honed my leadership skills which also comes with a lot of responsibilities such as networking, keeping all members together focussed on goals, creating new sponsors and collaborating, innovating new events which may benefit our members and also starting new creative programmes like mentorship scheme.
Who is involved in the network?
We have a good balance of undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, alumni, and academics, which enables us to learn from the perspectives of all of our outstanding women – both the young, vivacious engineers and experienced researchers. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be a member of a community that empowers and supports one another in both our personal and professional life. This has enabled the WiE network to be successful in pursuing and realising their goals.
One of the WiE network commitments is to raise issues relevant to gender diversity, what is the gender balance like in academia and how do you go about supporting the community of women engineers to feel empowered in environments where they are in the minority?
I personally and strongly believe empowerment starts from ‘us’, supporting each other through acts of kindness, by collaborating with each other, teamwork, valuing and appreciating our peers research, and motivating more women as role models.
In academia there is a still a huge gap in terms of gender balance. In order to promote more women into taking up engineering and specialising in this field, various initiatives, such as creating awareness at an early stage of academic life, having more role models such as women academics sharing their thoughts with aspiring engineers, more real life laboratory tours where there are women engineers, would be extremely beneficial. All of these would definitely help to support women pursuing engineering for their bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD’s, plus more.
As part of the WiE network, we as postdoctoral researchers and academics, help support the community of women engineers by organising networking events, coffee chats, and panel discussions where we invite academics to discuss critical issues such as the wage gap and the challenges they encountered in their leadership roles. We also have an upcoming GenSTEM event to uplift and promote women from minority sectors to exhibit and share their research with others.
I personally and strongly believe empowerment starts from ‘us’, supporting each other through acts of kindness, collaboration, teamwork, valuing and appreciating our peers research, and motivating more women as role models.
During a movie night last term, we watched ‘Picture a Scientist’. It started a discussion among us as to how well we could relate to the protagonists and what we could possibly do to create change.
What are your experiences of being a female engineer?
The course that I had taken up – materials science and engineering sees a relatively better gender-balanced department in comparison to mechanical engineering which we were still a part of during my undergraduate studies. The workshops and the technicians were still predominantly male dominated. Similar situations prevail in many of the developing countries.
I struggled a lot to find support from women and was simply expected to adjust and adapt within this male-dominated system. It meant I had to always exhibit a strong mindset to deal with my male colleagues.In Singapore the situation was different and diverse and I could see many more women professors and colleagues and a more gender-balanced lab environment. My internships in various industrial units such as an oil and gas company, petroleum research centre and a manufacturing company were also pretty insightful and very useful to develop my skillsets and gain practical work and career related insights.
However, I could clearly see just a single female or a countable number of women engineers and it was not a very inspiring working environment for me as they were somewhere I felt quite out of place many times. Also, I did see the roles I had gotten were those with less field work and more office work. I struggled a lot to find support from women and was simply expected to adjust and adapt within this male-dominated system. It meant I had to always exhibit a strong mindset to deal with my male colleagues.
How important are role models?
Role models have played a very important role in my life. It is very easy to connect with people who share common ambitions and ideology and it provides a sense of confidence to have someone to look up to and follow their path or at least imbibe some of the advice that they have to give, especially at the beginning of a career. My very first role model was Kalpana Chawla, a leading scientist and the first Indian-American woman, who went to space.
After her, I started searching for role models with whom I could connect to even on a day-to-day basis. I found this in my cousins. They took up engineering and went on to do their PhDs and earned a very successful career and life. There was still a scarcity of women role models in engineering I could look up to though, but times are changing for the good.
Role models inspire and motivate us to pursue our goals in spite of challenges. And while engineering continues to be a male-dominated profession – since 2010 both the percentage and number of women in engineering roles has increased1.
Who do you think should be driving the change?
I believe the first step should be to eliminate gender-specific roles and stereotypes governing the work locations. I realise this is absurd, but it comes directly from the textbooks we study, where men are depicted working as the breadwinners and women spending more time at home as dependents for everything including the basic necessities. This mentality needs to change right away, and there is more that can be done to inspire women to pursue careers in engineering.
Great strength lies in teamwork and together as women in engineering, we can all share our strengths and weaknesses with each other. We are here to make a positive difference to the world.More context and options could be provided in school curricula, lab tours, industrial visits, discussions, mentorship programmes, and scholarships for women pursuing these fields. For those already in these positions there should be equality in terms of wages, promotions, more programmes for expecting mothers, and more governmental incentives.
These should come with examples of role models that demonstrate that nothing is unachievable, providing more financial help, awarding scholarships to women who genuinely desire to pursue engineering, promoting gender equality, and placing more women in leadership roles, for example, can encourage more women to opt for engineering as their career path. Change begins with us and with our baby steps, doesn’t it?
The Department of Engineering Science has a successful outreach programme designed to explain what engineering is and to encourage more female students to study engineering, have you seen an increase in the uptake of engineering by women?
While there has been positive progress in the number of women taking up engineering through all these years, I would definitely say we aren’t still there as far as gender balance is concerned and also the progress has been pretty gradual. To have an exponential increase in women taking up engineering, exponential efforts are inevitable, such as a tuition fees waiver for those who want to pursue engineering, especially from developing countries.
Do you think a female graduate starting out her career this year might have a different experience from you?
I started my journey into engineering nearly 10 years back. I think things have progressed in a very positive way since then, both in terms of spreading awareness and also advancement through technology, access to resources and real-life role models that are now more approachable. There is definitely an advantage.
What does the future look like for the WiE network and for women in engineering as a whole?
As a young network, we hope to find more collaborators and sponsors for all our events. Our sponsor Springboard have been extremely supportive but it would be nice to have more organisations involved.
We could definitely also organise more events such as a mentorship schemes, workshops, networking events and also empower more women to take up engineering. We’re an extremely great platform for women to come forth and discuss how we could change the world and create more leaders of the world. Great strength lies in teamwork and together as women in engineering, we can all share our strengths and weaknesses with each other. We are here to make a positive difference to the world.
Engineering requires certain key attributes such as analytical thinking, logical reasoning, patience, perseverance, creativity, combined with a mindset to serve the society with love and compassion – all innately and intrinsically linked with women. We are destined to lead and succeed.
Nayantara Srinivasan, President, The WiE Network Committee, Department of Engineering Science University of Oxford, talks to Danielle Kenneally
www.eng.ox.ac.uk/women-in-engineering