Every year on June 23, International Women in Engineering Day invites us to celebrate the women who have built careers in one of the world’s most demanding and consequential professions. At OSPE, we take that invitation seriously, and we also take seriously what comes after the celebration: the honest accounting of where the profession still falls short, and what it will take to change that.
Women make up more than half of the Canadian population but remain significantly underrepresented in engineering. As of the 2023-24 academic year, women accounted for 27% of engineering students at Ontario universities, and just 25% of engineering graduates the prior year. The number of women in Ontario engineering programs grew 14% between 2019-20 and 2023-24, but the pipeline is not the whole story. Women leave the profession at higher rates than men, and remain underrepresented in senior and leadership roles. Getting women into engineering programs is necessary, as is retaining them.
OSPE has been consistent in its advocacy on this matter through our advocacy for hybrid work arrangements. For women, caregivers, and many others navigating professional and personal demands simultaneously, they are a retention tool with measurable impact. Our federal pre-budget submission this year included a recommendation for flexible work policy specifically because the evidence shows it expands participation and retention across groups that have historically faced barriers in engineering-intensive workplaces. The profession cannot afford to lose experienced engineers to structural inflexibility.
Inclusive hiring practices matter too. OSPE’s AI 101 report, published this spring by our AI in Engineering Working Group, includes a direct discussion of how AI-assisted hiring tools can replicate and amplify historical bias if not carefully designed and audited. A well-documented industry example involved a recruiting algorithm that penalized resumes containing the word “women’s” because it had been trained on a decade of male-dominated hiring data.
Engineers designing and deploying AI tools carry a professional responsibility to consider who gets included and who gets screened out.
This is not separate from the broader engineering workforce challenge Ontario faces. A 14% increase in women engineering students over five years is encouraging. It is also insufficient on its own if the workplace culture waiting for those graduates has not kept pace. Mentorship, visible role models, and equitable access to advancement are some of the conditions that will make retention possible.
OSPE’s EDIA work is ongoing. The conversations we are having with government, industry, and within our own membership are grounded in the same principle that runs through everything we do: the profession is stronger when it draws from the full range of talent available to it. On June 23, we celebrate the women who choose engineering and recommit to making that choice easier for the engineers who come after them.
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