Diversity and Inclusion is a crucial conversation to have in the business world, and ensuring gender parity in the people pursuing engineering degrees and careers.
Dr. Hayaatun Sillem is the CEO of the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering—the first woman and the first person of colour to serve in the role. In the McKinsey podcast, she reflects on the evolving role of engineering in a dematerialized world, engineering’s vital role in sustainability, and how to boost the number of British women in the field.
“There were a lot of people who I think were quite perplexed at the fact that I was the chief exec of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Clearly not what they were expecting.” Dr. Hayaatun Sillem. A response she finds is common among many of her interactions.
In her experience, being different built empathy. Growing up, Dr. Sillem was “very aware of being different.” As she explains, “My mother is half Indian, half English. And my father is Cape Malays. He comes from South Africa, but his ancestors probably came primarily from Indonesia. Cape Malays is a mixed ethnic group in itself. And then my name, Hayaatun, is a sort of Indonesian version of an Arabic name.” (The word حياة, hayat, means “life” in Arabic.)
Dr. Sillem brings her life experiences to her focus on diversity and inclusion – which she feels has made her a better leader. “I always think that differentness is a good basis for developing empathy, which I think is a really important part of good leadership,” she says.
“The UK needs more diverse engineers. Just under 15 percent—that’s the share of British engineers who are women”. Dr. Sillem points out that if the UK continues on its current trajectory, it will take until 2085 to achieve gender parity in the people pursuing engineering degrees. As she puts it: “Engineers play a very important role in shaping society. They need to reflect society.” That helps ensure that all the infrastructure, products, and services that engineers develop are truly inclusive, and that the benefits are equitably distributed.
This makes it even more essential to correct stereotypes about what engineers look like, what they wear to work (it’s not all PPE), and what they do. Enter “This is Engineering,” a campaign launched by the Royal Academy of Engineering to help change people’s perceptions—starting with actual images (along with short videos). The goal is to show young Britons all the possibilities that engineering holds. Among the campaign’s key messages: “Being green is engineering.”
—Taken from an Article by Julia Arnous, an editor in McKinsey’s Boston office
Join the conversation about Culture, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace during week 1 of Leadership Month 2022 in March.
