Personal Profile - Cathy

Cathy is 28 years old and works for a national manufacturing company in the midlands.

Cathy decided very early on that she wanted to be an engineer. At the age of ten she walked into the kitchen to her mother and announced that when she grew up she was going to be an engineer and she has never looked back since.

Schooling
Cathy went to school in Scotland and so completed four Scottish Highers and then three A Levels. Having attended an engineering taster course at a prestigious English University she knew that her decision at age ten to be an engineer was still the right choice.

University
Cathy stayed in Scotland to complete her University course, spending three years as an engineering graduate. Cathy found that her University studies were nothing like the things she'd been shown on the taster course and that being one of very few women she felt isolated and unimportant. Realising herself what the problem was she set about organising a Women's Engineering Society (WES) Group. However, her efforts were unrewarding as the few women that there were in engineering had no interest in a WES Group, the other women didn't see the need for a group for women.

Cathy left University with no confidence as an engineer but still wanted to do it - she hadn't put all that time and effort in to finish the course to then go and do something else. Cathy set about applying for engineering jobs and after attending two interviews, one at a national manufacturing company and the other a nation transportation company she decided to go with the manufacturing company.

Employment
The selling point of this company was when they described what she would be doing. Boot Testing. Testing manufactured parts and basically getting involved with a hands on approach. For Cathy this was exactly what she was after. The job was only a temporary one, a six month contract, but having competed her time and done an excellent job she was asked to stay on and went to work on the shop floor.

On the shop floor Cathy worked with a large number of people, mostly men. The atmosphere on the shop floor was one of sarcasm and joking, commonly known as banter. Having been in an almost all male environment at University and for the previous six months of employment, Cathy was well equipped with dealing with the comments. Giving as 'good as she got', Cathy was made to feel like a member of the group and accepted.

Her acceptance to the group was shown on two occasions. On one instance a male co-worker began arguing with Cathy, who defended herself. It was when the rest of the workers also defended her that the aggravator realised he was in the wrong and backed down. On another instance, in order to complete a job on time, Cathy was putting in extra hours before and after work. This wasn't fair as no one else was having to stay late so one co worker went to the supervisor and pointed out the situation which was corrected.

Cathy then went to work in the quality department for eighteen months. Although she enjoyed herself there she found that there was a lot more paper work than she had initially thought.

It was her supervisor that told her about another job in the design department, a job that he thought she would be perfect for. Cathy felt very honoured at this compliment and taking the supervisors advice applied for the new role. Cathy was the best candidate for the job and so moved on to the design department.

Her new role and working environment was completely different to what she was used to. Working in an office with other graduates and other females Cathy soon found out that banter may be okay for the shop floor but not for the office! It was when one colleague was almost in tears at something Cathy had said that she realised that if you hadn't spent time on the shop floor you didn't know how to deal with sarcasm and banter.

Working in the design department Cathy had a few issues with how to do the work. The general consensus was that if you needed to design something new you found something similar and slightly altered it, using the same processes and materials, Cathy felt that copying other items was not necessarily the most efficient way of doing things. What she did find though was that her time on the shop floor gave her a great background when designing, she knew the limitations of processes and materials and was able to incorporate these into her work.

Cathy is still working for the design department and has been there two and a half years. She has been thinking about her next move and has been considering a management or team leader role but knows that more responsibility more often than not means more time as well, something Cathy is not keen on as she loves her spare time.

Cathy has been to see her manager and discussed the matter but for the time being she is happy to continue where she is.

Throughout her employment Cathy has also had very close links with the Women's Engineering Society and the organisation of it.

Personal Thoughts
Cathy puts her new found confidence in engineering down to a supportive and encouraging supervisor. A man who pointed out when mistakes had been made but also congratulated her on her achievements and work, he made her feel that she was good at being an engineer and renewed her desire to be one.

Working on the shop floor was a lot of fun for Cathy. She loved the banter that went on there but says that any comments that were thrown at her were as a graduate and not as a female engineer, they did not have any issues with her being a female. Cathy also notes that there were times when she would be in an uncomfortable situation but in most cases others would get involved or she would just walk away from the situation. As a rule though she never felt undermined or discriminated against for being a woman.

The differences between working on the shop floor and in the office are immense. Banter is an acceptable, and often necessary, form of communication on the shop floor but is totally unsuitable for the office, often upsetting. Cathy misses the shop floor though, she misses the fun and laughs but says that the one thing she hated about the shop floor was the use of the term 'one of the lads', as far as she was concerned she was being herself and not 'one of the lads' and did not like being labelled as such.

Cathy has no regrets about coming into engineering and says she is still adamant that she wants to stay in engineering. It's a fun and constantly changing career with great people, she couldn't see herself anywhere else.