An exhibition highlighting the accomplishments and experiences of female fellows in UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has opened at the organisation’s London headquarters.
Sixteen women are spotlighted on a series of banners exhibited in the building’s entry hall. The first four banners are being displayed until 7 October when the next four will be displayed. The remaining eight will be featured in the new year.
The first four women featured includes Isabel Coman, director of engineering and asset strategy at Transport for London, Smita Sawdadkar, delivery lead at AtkinsRéalis, Meshi Taka, an independent consultant and project lead for Project Groundwater Northumbria, part of the UK’s Environment Agency’s Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme and, finally, Nicole Paterson, chief executive and accountable officer at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
The second group of women to be featured will be Ciara Lappin, technical director with the infrastructure team at Doran Consulting, Ghada Mohamed El-Mahdy, professor of structural engineering at the British University in Egypt, Alice Chow, director of strategic development with Arup Hong Kong and then Teresa Frost, assistant quality manager with Cormac Solutions.
Each banner will feature a portrait of the fellow, a quote from her and a QR code that will link to a more detailed feature on the ICE website. The exhibition is part of the initiative ICE Connects: Women in Fellowship, created to help increase the number of its female fellows.
The Institution of Civil Engineers is a 97,000-strong global membership organisation with more than 200 years of history. As the highest grade of membership at the institution, fellowship recognises those who have made outstanding contributions to civil and infrastructure engineering and society in general.
Historically, women have made up a tiny percentage of the fellowship, despite the overall number of female ICE members increasing. However, since beginning the ICE Connects: Women in Fellowship programme in June 2021, there has been a 45% increase in women fellows.
“We set up ICE Connects: Women in Fellowship to address the enduring misconceptions of who and what a typical civil engineer at the highest level is,” said Jenny Green, ICE director of regions, who spearheads the initiative. “The women featured in this exhibition come from a broad range of backgrounds and have wide-ranging expertise. Their collective experience highlights the diverse careers within civil and infrastructure engineering, and the importance of celebrating professional accomplishments.
“The sector needs to attract and retain the best talent to tackle the challenges society faces. We wanted to highlight unique stories, both to encourage other women to consider becoming a civil engineer or to pursue career in infrastructure and to inspire other ICE members to consider fellowship; it may be more achievable than they think,” said Green.
The exhibition is the brainchild of one of the women profiled, Isabel Coman at Transport for London, and a member of the ICE Connects: Women in Fellowship Focus Group. “At a certain point in your career, ICE Fellowship becomes pretty much a prerequisite if you want to progress. It underlines that you have the right experience, knowledge and capabilities.
“We have a duty to reach out and encourage the right individuals to more actively pursue ICE Fellowship,” she said. “But because of misperceptions, there are lots of people with the right levels of experience who are currently missing out. Hopefully sharing our stories will help more women see this is an opportunity that could be for them.”
