What sort of world would women build? Ask a dinosaur who believes that hard hats and spanners are exclusively male toys, and the answer will involve shoe shops and oversized parking spaces. But ask those who live in the 21st century and they may well say: “A better one.”

The latter answer was what Atkins, the design and engineering consultancy, got when it asked the public. Nearly 90 per cent of people surveyed wanted more women involved in designing and building towns and cities. If women were more involved, respondents said, buildings would be more user-friendly and practical places to live and work.

The problem is that few women want careers in this area. Atkins found that only 8 per cent of women would consider a career in engineering and related industries and 33 per cent said that the sector was still dominated by men.

Teresa Schofield, a vice-president of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), agrees that, in some areas of engineering, women are notable by their absence. “They can be isolated – people are still surprised to meet female engineers.”

Women make up just 3 per cent of the UK’s quarter of a million engineers. But the proportion is growing: it almost doubled in the ten years to 2005, according to the Engineering and Technology Board. So, for those women who do decide to enter this traditionally male profession, what’s the attraction?

Pam Wain, a former president of the WES, says that women “share an enthusiasm for getting things right”.

“We enjoy problem-solving with all the twists that real-life problems bring. Many of us work on environmentally important projects and all of us feel we are contributing to building a better world.”

Ruxandra Enache is one of a small but growing band of women engineers working in transport. The Romanian engineer had worked on a two-lane highway “with simple interchanges” in Bucharest and was inspired to come to Britain after seeing internet pictures of the M6 motorway. She followed her dream and worked as group engineer for the Atkins group on a scheme to increase capacity on the M6, but her enthusiasm for Spaghetti Junction has waned.

Jen Weitzel arrived in the UK via a degree in civil and environmental engineering in Canada, her home country. Two years ago, after a masters at London Business School and a post on Heathrow’s Terminal 5, she went into the fast-paced retail industry and is now the head of development in the South East for Tesco Property Services.

Because Tesco has 1,800 UK stores, Weitzel’s role in leading a team of site development managers clearly has an impact on the environment.

“Being a major developer we have an opportunity to make a significant impact, and I do feel we are leading in the area of environmental sustainability,” she says.

She is reluctant to attribute her unique approach to engineering to her gender. Rather, she believes, the perspective formed from an individual’s experiences is what counts.

Find out more

Websites with advice for women considering working in engineering:
The Institution of Engineering and Technology: theiet.org
The Women’s Engineering Society: wes.org.uk
Women into Science, Engineering and Construction: wisecampaign.org.uk
UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology: setwomenresource.org.uk

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