TV coverage of engineers’ career seminar left girls out of the limelight

A SERIES of information seminars took place in primary and post-primary schools from February 8-13 as part of Engineers’ Week.

As a careers adviser, I was delighted to encourage students to avail of the opportunity to learn more about careers available to them in such an expansive and inspiring area of expertise. In a clip on RTE’s Six-One News (February 11), which sought to highlight the events taking place during Engineers’ Week, it was disappointing to note the only female who featured was the maths teacher at the top of the classroom.

Further, all the interviews which took place during the course of this television clip were with boys and with rugby star Malcolm O’Kelly. How do we as educators hope to encourage women to pursue careers in engineering and aid the promotion of equality in the workplace when this type of reporting reinforces a stereotype that has been in existence for too long?