Today sees the publication of the Gender Pathways 40 by ’40 Blueprint for Action, setting out recommendations to support the ambition of young women making up at least 40% of young people on educational pathways into engineering and technology careers, by 2040.
Women are grossly underrepresented in the engineering and technology workforce and the pathways into those sectors, and this is a core EDI focus for the Academy. Progress to address this must be accelerated if we are to secure an engineering community fit for the future.
The Gender Pathways project, of which the Academy is a core partner, brings together around 60 organisations to build the evidence and collective wisdom needed to identify the systemic changes that will support more girls into engineering and technology.
The 40 by ’40 Blueprint created through the Gender Pathways collective offers a guide to government and policy-makers, to effect change for girls considering educational pathways into engineering and technology at age 18. It’s critical that government departments do more to consider gender equity within policy development.
Image: EngineeringUK 2026
The 40 by 40 Blueprint for action sets out how Department for Education (DfE) policy could go further to steer schools towards addressing bias and stereotyping in teaching and pedagogy, subject choice, enrichment and careers activities. We encourage DfE to work with other departments, including the Office for Equality and Opportunity, to foster a culture of gender equity in schools and colleges. These changes would benefit everyone – and they would disproportionately support the aim of increasing girls on pathways to engineering careers, for a more sustainable and equitable engineering profession in the future.
As the national Academy for engineering, we provide progressive leadership for engineering and we prioritise equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Through this work we aim to:
-
create an engineering community fit for the future and reflective of society
-
make sure that technology improves the lives of everyone, regardless of background or personal characteristics
-
support an economy that produces fairness and equity, not exclusion and disadvantage.
Image: EngineeringUK 2026
Only 17% of the engineering and technology workforce are women and just 26% of those on educational pathways into engineering and technology are female. An estimated 240,000 people are needed to join the engineering and technology workforce each year up to 2030. If 50% of workforce entrants were women, they would collectively earn around £1 billion more every year, compared with them going into other roles – creating an important dent in the UK gender pay gap and strengthening the economy.
To achieve change demands an intersectional approach to ensure all groups of women and girls are supported. Through our programmes and leadership, we work to challenge and support engineering educators,
employers, professional bodies and academics to improve the environment for women engineers, and for girls and young women considering a future engineering career. For example, we have been making the case for change, including through our EDI Engine report of 2024, on the business benefits in terms of people, products, partners and processes. We provide training for employers on inclusive practice, and we work with Professional Engineering Institutions to build their EDI maturity and capability.
The Academy recognises the importance of a systems approach - tackling the issues that arise at the point of entry for women and girls considering engineering, as well as their career experience, retention and progression within engineering. Our upcoming research will examine how to address attrition of mid-career women engineers. Academy interventions such as our Graduate Engineering Engagement Programme (GEEP) and Amazon Future Engineering Scholarships support the transition of underrepresented students including women and girls into engineering careers – but we recognise the importance of addressing all stages of attraction, recruitment and retention in engineering and technology.
The Gender Pathways collective was founded by EngineeringUK, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, the Royal Academy of Engineering, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), and the Women’s Engineering Society (WES). The core group that currently leads the collective also includes the British Science Association, Capital City College, Digit<all>, Orbyts, TechSheCan, and UCL.