The Scottish Government and UN Women are calling for more women and girls to be involved in addressing climate change
With the climate crisis affecting everyone on the planet, the UN is appealing to employers in science, technology and engineering companies to ensure the broadest possible workforce to be used in addressing the problem. It believes that currently, women don’t have a prominent enough position in such roles. It says that in the UK women make up just 24 per cent of the total core-STEM workforce, falling to just over ten per cent of engineering professionals.
Carbon-zero technology company, Katrick Technologies believes that technology companies have an important role to play in addressing the imbalance.
Two of its engineers have spoken about their roles at the company. Victoria Phillips manages all research and development relating to the wind technology at the company and Amy McGill is a mechanical engineer who will begin developing new prototypes later this year.
According to McGill, the reason it’s important for more women and girls to pursue a career in STEM is simple. “Diversity benefits every industry,” she explained. “STEM careers develop things for everyone to use, so having the biggest variety of inputs results in better end products.”
Phillips agrees, adding, “a career in engineering lets you use your problem-solving skills every day. Just when you think you’ve seen it all new challenges evolve. As an engineer, you never stop learning and progressing.”
Both McGill and Phillips are enthusiastic about the potential of carbon-zero technology at Katrick Technologies. The wind project is an adaptation of something everyone is familiar with, taking wind energy and generating electricity from it. But this technology approaches it differently, creating new opportunities for power production in non-conventional environments. According to McGill, while the passive cooling system is unique from an academic standpoint, it introduces a completely new refrigeration cycle. “Both technologies are significant for different reasons,” she says.
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