Engineers take action to mitigate gender bias

Engineers Australia’s Women in Engineering committee has launched the Action Plan for Mitigating Gender Bias in engineering workplaces. 

“There is extensive research which highlights the importance of diversity in creating effective, innovative, creative teams and organisations,” said Nee Nee Ong, chair of Engineers Australia’s Women in Engineering committee.

“While we are seeing a greater understanding for the need of diversity, there is still a need for a cultural shift towards mitigating gender bias. 

“Most of the time, people do not realise they are inhibiting diversity. Engineers are human and, as such, all possess some bias. With the understanding of bias and how to mitigate it, individuals and organisations are able to be more open to diversity. 

“To this end, we developed this Action Plan for Mitigating Gender Bias — the third in a series of industry blueprints developed by the Women in Engineering National Committee in association with industry partners and gender diversity experts.

“This third industry blueprint works in conjunction with the two previous blueprints, which focused on the need for diversity, introducing women engineering groups within organisations and providing effective workplaces to retain women in engineering.

“Pleasingly, a number of organisations have formed women’s groups, developed policies that allow greater workplace flexibility and are already implementing bias training to try to overcome bias.

“We hope the Action Plan for Mitigating Gender Bias will encourage even more organisations to implement actions to shift their culture towards acceptance of diversity.”

The Action Plan for Mitigating Gender Bias is available online at http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/wie_industryblueprint_p3_digital.pdf.