International Women in Engineering Day shines a light on the amazing work women engineers are doing every day around the world giving them a profile when they are still hugely under-represented. With 2021 figures indicating that in the UK only 16.5% of engineers are women, the day offers the opportunity to encourage young women and girls into engineering careers.
PJA’s Engineer, Fel Llanora explains:
“As a female engineer who is in early years on my career, the gender ratio between male and female engineers is still unbalanced. From attending engineering lectures with a 70:30 ratio between men and women, to walking into male-dominant offices where women are minority, it can be quite intimidating, yet it can feel powerful at the same time.
“This issue has been improved over the past few years and I am hopeful that it will continue to do so. In order to do this, I believe that having fellow women promoting engineering to schools, social media platforms, etc., as well as advertising engineering opportunities by using a face of a woman, can be a great way to help encourage more females in join the industry and help close the gender imbalance gap.”
At PJA, 33.3% of our engineers identify as female meaning our team is much closer to the demographic we create solutions for than the industry standard. There’s still work to be done though by engineering as a whole to support underrepresented minorities. To do our bit on the 10th anniversary of INWED, we’re shining a spotlight on some very talented women engineers working at PJA:
Abbie Smart is a Principal Engineer with over 16 years’ experience in the civils and development infrastructure sectors. Abbie is keen to incorporate sustainable design solutions within her designs and passionate about delivering high quality work for her clients.
Alison Caldwell is a Chartered Civil Engineer in our water resources team. She actively champions holistic water management to ensure long term resilience of future development and has taken a lead role in delivery of multi-disciplinary projects across the UK and internationally.
Amy Bennett joined our Graduate Development Programme in January 2023 after graduating from University of Nottingham. As part of our water resources team, she is interested in flood risk and management strategies, helping clients to develop solutions for difficult projects.
Andrea Nelmes is a Chartered Flood Risk and Drainage Engineer. As a technical specialist in flood risk, river restoration, drainage strategies and SuDS design she provides responsive, pragmatic advice to clients.
As an expert in land contamination, Associate Charlotte Smith’s main interest is in the reclamation and remediation of brownfield sites where she has proven abilities in engaging key stakeholders and regulators and navigating the planning process to deliver land ready for development.
Charlotte Turner joined our Graduate Development Programme in 2021 after graduating from Coventry University. She has since developed a keen interest in natural flood risk management using her skills in GIS and hydraulic modelling to assess the impact of new development.
Fel Llanora is a Civil Engineer focused on highway schemes and improvements for development projects from preliminary stage through to construction. She is eager to promote women in STEM subjects, particularly towards the younger generation.
Holly Mullen is a Principal Consultant with 13 years’ experience in design and consultancy. She is an experienced engineer with skills predominantly in the design and delivery of walking and cycling infrastructure schemes from feasibility to construction.
Kayleigh McGeogh is a Geo Environmental Consultant focusing on ground investigation for potential development sites and has worked on a wide range of geo environmental and geo technical projects across the UK.
Nikki Slack is a Civil Engineer focused on highways and road safety engineering from initial site studies through to detailed design as well as infrastructure design for both residential and commercial developments.
Phoebe Ryding is a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager focused on developing surface water drainage strategies which holistically manage surface water through the use of SuDS. She also produces Flood Risk Assessments to support proposed development and works with local authorities and SuDS Approval Bodies reviewing applications.
Samantha Furey is a Civil Engineer focused predominantly on highways, drainage and earthworks design for residential projects throughout the project lifecycle. She is working towards becoming a Chartered Civil Engineer.
Sonja Townsend is a Principal Engineer working on multi-disciplinary projects from feasibility to construction stage. She is an experienced engineer with skills predominantly in public realm design, utility strategies and planning and technical support. She also takes concept schemes in to detailed design and prepares Transport Assessments and Travel Plans.
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