Women in Engineering: How MJE Projects Is Proving the Industry Wrong

Walk into most engineering firms, and you will find the same picture: a sea of men in high-vis, and perhaps one or two women in a back-office role. It is a dynamic the UK industry has been trying to change for decades, and in 2026, the statistics still make for uncomfortable reading.

According to EngineeringUK's Engineering and Technology Workforce May 2025 Update, women make up just 16.9% of the UK's engineering and technology workforce compared to 56% in every other occupation combined. More troubling still, the number has been going in the wrong direction. Between 2022 and 2023, 38,000 women left engineering roles, with the sharpest drop concentrated among experienced professionals aged 35 to 44. The pipeline from education is growing; retention in the profession is not keeping pace.

At MJE Projects Limited, our Nottingham-based conveyor engineering firm, we are not waiting for the industry to sort itself out. We are already working the way it should.

The Problem Nobody in Engineering Wants to Admit

The gender gap in engineering is not just a diversity issue; it is an economic one. Research widely referenced across the engineering sector, estimates that increased female participation in UK science and engineering roles could unlock £150 billion in additional economic value. The talent is there. The pathways, workplace culture, and retention structures often are not.

For women who do enter engineering, the barriers are well documented: a lack of visible role models, workplaces designed around a single way of working, and an implicit assumption that a certain type of background, personality or CV is required. The result is that women who are entirely capable of outstanding engineering careers are being lost to other industries or never entering the field in the first place.

This is the context behind International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), held every year on 23 June. Now in its 13th year and run by the Women's Engineering Society, INWED celebrates women already in engineering and signals to the next generation that they belong here. The theme for 2026 is Engineering Intelligence, a recognition that diversity of thought, background, and perspective is not a nice-to-have; it is what good engineering actually looks like.

What Female-Led Engineering Actually Looks Like at MJE

MJE Projects has been designing and manufacturing bespoke conveyor systems for over 40 years. We work across food processing, e-commerce fulfilment, packaging, and manufacturing,  environments where precision engineering and operational reliability are non-negotiable. A significant part of the team driving that work is female.

This is not a branding position. It is simply how we work.

Karen Emerson: Operations Manager

Karen Emerson leads office management and production planning at MJE Projects, with over 15 years of operational director experience. Her background is not a conventional engineering route, she came to the business via the print industry, having worked as an Account Director before moving into operations management.

That experience is precisely what makes her effective. Karen brings a client-first discipline to a technical environment, ensuring that every project is planned, communicated, and delivered with the rigour that a client-facing role demands. It is the kind of cross-functional thinking that pure engineering training does not always develop, and it shows in how projects run, on time, within budget, and with clear communication at every stage.

Her story also challenges a persistent myth: that you need a specific academic background to build a serious career in engineering. Operational excellence in manufacturing is a transferable skill, and Karen is proof of that.

Cara: Design Engineer, Former Aircraft Engineer

Cara is one of our design engineers, and her career path is the kind that should be held up in every school careers fair in the country. She trained as an aircraft engineer, one of the most demanding and technically rigorous disciplines in the field, before moving into conveyor and materials handling design.

She also has four children and a serious rock climbing habit. We mention this not as an aside, but as a deliberate point: engineering and a full life are not mutually exclusive. The narrative that women must choose between a demanding technical career and everything else is one of the most damaging in the industry, and it contributes directly to the mid-career dropout that the data consistently shows. Cara does not accept that framing, and neither do we.

The precision that aerospace engineering instils translates directly into the work we do. When Cara designs a conveyor system for a food production environment operating to HACCP standards, or specifies a pallet handling configuration for a high-throughput fulfilment centre, that aerospace background matters. Tolerances matter. Failure modes matter. Her experience raises the standard of what we produce. Research from the IET's Engineering and Technology Magazine confirms that the sharpest drop in female engineering talent is concentrated in exactly this age and experience bracket, mid-career women with precisely the depth that the industry cannot afford to lose.

Clare Buckley: Engineer

Clare came to engineering through a route most people would not expect. Her first degree was a BA in Graphic Design from Nottingham Trent University. She then completed an NVQ and HNC in Engineering and Business, and is now working as a trainee engineer at MJE Projects, with hands-on factory floor experience alongside CAD work in SolidWorks.

This combination of creative training and engineering study is rare in the industry and disproportionately undervalued. The ability to think visually, to communicate technical solutions clearly, to approach a design problem from the perspective of how it will be understood as well as how it will function-  these are skills that engineering firms rarely recruit for, and that Clare brings naturally.

Her career path also answers a question we hear from young women regularly: what if I picked the wrong degre? The answer, is that there is no wrong degree if you are willing to build on it.

Clare put it best herself, in a post she shared on International Women's Day:

"Being a female engineer isn't always the easiest path. It can come with challenges, but it also comes with resilience, determination, and a different perspective that strengthens the industry as a whole."

"As a mum myself to two daughters, it means even more to me. I'm proud that they can grow up seeing that women belong in engineering, in STEM, and in any career they choose."

Why This Matters to the Clients We Work With

We are aware that a buyer reading an article about women in engineering wants to know whether this reflects substance or noise. It is a fair question.

The answer is that the way a firm operates internally is directly connected to how it performs for clients. A team built on mentorship, precision, and diverse ways of thinking produces better engineering. It communicates more clearly, plans more rigorously, and is less likely to rely on the unchallenged assumptions that lead to expensive mistakes on complex projects.

When you commission a bespoke conveyor system from MJE Projects, you are working with a team where Karen manages the project timeline with operational director precision, Cara applies aerospace-grade attention to design detail, and Clare brings a creative problem-solving perspective that is rarely found on an engineering shop floor. Mike Emerson, our Managing Director, began his career with a prestigious apprenticeship at the Royal Ordnance Factory in Nottingham and has spent over 40 years building a business on the values of mentorship and integrity. That combination is what you are actually buying.

What the Industry Needs to Change

We are one firm. We cannot fix a sector-wide pipeline problem on our own, and we would not pretend otherwise.

But the businesses that will attract and retain the best engineering talent over the next decade are the ones that already look like MJE: workplaces where non-traditional routes are valued, where life outside work is not treated as a liability, where mentorship is built into how the business operates, and where the results speak for themselves.

If you are a woman considering a career in engineering, whether straight out of school, mid-career in another industry, or returning to work, the field needs you. The skills gap in UK engineering is significant and growing. And some firms will value what you bring.

To find out more about INWED 2026, access resources and connect with a global community of women engineers, visit www.inwed.org.uk. 

Work With an Engineering Team That Gets It

MJE Projects Limited designs and manufactures bespoke conveyor systems for food processing, e-commerce, packaging, and manufacturing operations across the UK. We are based in Nottingham and have been doing this for over 40 years. If you have a project to discuss, get in touch with the team here or explore our full conveyor range.