International Women in Engineering Day 2025
International Women in Engineering Day is celebrated annually on 23 June, aiming to celebrate the women in our industry and provide visibility to younger women and girls to encourage them to join the field. Despite women making up 56.1% of the UK’s workforce, only 15.7% of engineers identify as female. To us, that isn’t enough. Female voices should be heard in engineering, and we are proud to celebrate the women of engineering every day. On this important day, we want to highlight a few of the incredible women who are part of our business. We sat down with three members of our Edinburgh team to discuss this year’s theme, ‘Together We Engineer’.
We asked Holly Foster, Civil Engineer, about her journey as a woman in engineering. “Having grown up in France, my journey into engineering started around age 16 when I chose to follow the ‘Scientific’ stream of the French baccalaureate (the main route into STEM university study in France). In 2016, I moved to Scotland and joined a civil engineering cohort with around 40% women at the University of Edinburgh. In the summer of my third year, I undertook an industry placement which was a fantastic introduction to the working world. The COVID-19 pandemic hit at the end of my fourth year, and it was a difficult final year leading up to graduation with online lectures and group projects conducted exclusively on Teams and across multiple time zones.
I joined Cundall’s Edinburgh Civils team in September 2021 and I’m proud to be part of a very diverse team. Since joining my team almost four years ago, I have worked on a wide variety of projects, from small- scale extensions to city-scale masterplans. Along the way, I’ve been part of some male-heavy design teams and attended (a lot) of meetings where I was the only woman, and it is always a refreshing change when that’s not the case. However, I’m grateful that my experience has been overwhelmingly positive and I’m fortunate to have very rarely been made to feel different from my male colleagues.
At my level, I hardly notice an imbalance in gender representation, however I do feel a lack of female representation in the mid to leadership roles with female role models being few and far between. I’m optimistic this will change with time, through grassroots engagement and changing societal perceptions, and I’ve enjoyed playing my part in this through primary school visits and participating in academic research.”
Debbie Smith, Building Services Technician, reflected on the challenges she has experienced in her career, “With 17 years’ experience in the construction industry, largely focused on BIM, I still find myself in rooms where I am underestimated. Often the only woman on the project team, I’ve not only had to prove my technical capability but also challenge assumptions about what experience “looks like”.
I am frequently perceived as far younger than I am, which can in certain instances lead to being overlooked or undervalued, especially in male dominated building services environments.
I challenge the norms as a woman in engineering by trying to speak up in meetings, pushing back if interrupted even when it is maybe uncomfortable to do so and encourage others to do the same. I try and call out bias when I see it and continue to show up and prove that a woman can be just as technical.
#TogetherWeEngineer to me is all about us all encouraging allyship as it is critical in unlocking gender diversity”.
When asked for her advice to girls and young women looking to enter the engineering industry, Irene Vogiatzi, Sustainability Engineer, said: “From a young age, I was captivated by how things are built. That curiosity grew into a love for engineering during a technical drawing class when I was 13. Over time, that spark became a career path rooted in both creativity and responsibility. My advice to girls and young women considering becoming engineers is follow your curiosity and let it guide you toward the problems you care most about solving.
It’s true that engineering is still a male-dominated field, but that doesn’t mean you won’t belong. There are many talented, successful women in engineering, each forging their own path and proving there’s no single formula for success. Engineering isn’t just about calculations. It’s about shaping the world we live in. If you’re good at something and passionate about it, lean into that. If you want to make a meaningful impact, engineering offers powerful ways to turn your values into action. This field needs people who want to solve real-world problems with purpose.
Don’t feel pressured to fit a certain mould. There’s not one type of engineer and your unique background, ideas and perspective are exactly what the profession needs. You don’t have to know all the answers, just the motivation to keep asking questions and exploring possibilities. Be open to learning and surround yourself with the right people - those who respect your ideas, challenge you to grow and want to see you succeed - and you’ll find your place.”
We are committed to helping build a more inclusive industry, and that starts with ourselves. We aim to champion the women of Cundall every day, not just International Women in Engineering Day.
