Equate Scotland

24/06/2026

👷‍♀️Celebrating International Women in Engineering Day💡

This International Women in Engineering Day, we’re reflecting not only on progress, but on the collective effort it takes to create meaningful, lasting change across the sector.

At Equate Scotland, our work continues to evolve to support women across the full STEM and engineering pipeline, from education through to leadership, while working with organisations to drive systemic change.

Over the past year, we’ve been proud to:

🔹Support Student Champions in science and engineering across 7 universities in Scotland, delivering 8 training sessions and 5 meetup events to build skills, confidence and community

🔹Deliver targeted training through WE:Build Retrofitting and WE:Build ConStructEd, supporting women into Scotland’s growing construction and retrofit sectors

🔹Launch the Career Enhancement Programme 2026, focused on green skills and the transition to net zero

🔹Create spaces for connection and growth through Friends of Equate events on project management, mentoring, confidence and resilience

🔹Convene sector-wide conversations through our panel on Building Inclusive Workplaces in Scotland

🔹Share insights and drive change with our report on General Inclusive Practices in Scottish Organisations

Together, this reflects a whole-system approach: supporting individuals, influencing employers, and contributing to wider cultural change.

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we’re proud of how far we’ve come, and even more excited about what’s ahead.

Because building an inclusive engineering sector isn’t a one-off effort, it’s sustained, collaborative work.

✨ Watch this space for more to come.
👉 Learn more and get involved: https://equatescotland.org.uk

16/06/2026

🔍 Why are women leaving engineering—and why it matters

This thought-provoking piece by Jennifer MacDonald highlights a critical challenge across the UK’s engineering sector: women are not only entering and excelling in engineering—but leaving the profession earlier and in growing numbers.

It’s not about attraction or capability. The pipeline is there. The issue lies in what happens next.

At Equate Scotland, we see this every day through our work supporting women in STEM. As highlighted in the article, our recent 20th anniversary report set out clear recommendations to strengthen equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) across the sector—particularly supporting SMEs to take meaningful, practical action.

What stands out is the need to move beyond one-off solutions. This is a systemic challenge:

➡️ Attraction, retention, progression, and workplace culture are all connected
➡️ SMEs and large organisations face different realities—and need tailored support
➡️ Existing tools and expertise (including ours!) must be made more accessible and actionable

The loss of experienced women in engineering isn’t just an equality issue, it has real implications for innovation, productivity, and the future of the sector.

As we reflect during , it’s clear: meaningful change will require aligned effort, shared responsibility, and sustained action across the whole system.

📖 Read the full article here:https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/26185963.early-exit-women-engineering-really-matters/

Women are entering UK engineering in growing numbers but leaving mid-career, deepening skills shortages

11/06/2026

🌿 Explore ‘Wiggly Careers in STEM’ with SRUC & Equate Scotland

Join us online on Monday 15 June, 7:30–8:30pm for an inspiring evening celebrating diverse and non-linear pathways into STEM.

SRUC’s first Student Champions, Morven and Grace, are hosting a special session featuring Kate Richards and Cath Seeds, who will share their experiences navigating “wiggly careers” across the STEM landscape.

From agriculture and animal care to conservation management and food security, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) offers a broad spectrum of opportunities—and this session will highlight how careers don’t have to follow a straight line to be impactful.
What to expect:
✨Real-life insights into flexible STEM career journeys
✨Inspiration from professionals working across rural and environmental sectors
✨A chance to reflect on your own career path

Whether you're a student, early-career professional, or exploring new directions—this event is for you.

📅 Date: Monday 15 June
🕢 Time: 7:30–8:30pm
💻 Online event

👉 Register now and start embracing your own “wiggly” career journey! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wiggly-careers-tickets-1987904362461?aff=oddtdtcreator

We are bringing together women and non-binary STEM professionals to celebrate career challenges and opportunities. All welcome!

05/06/2026

🌱 World Environment Day | In Conversation with Dr Hannah Salamon

This World Environment Day, we asked political scientist Hannah Salamon, research associate at University of Glasgow Centre for Public Policy, to share her thoughts on the links between climate change and gender inequality:

“As a political scientist, there are two challenges that I find most pressing: climate change and gender inequality. Global warming driven by excessive fossil fuel is already causing irregular and extreme weather that harms both human life alongside the lives of the plants and animals with whom we share the planet. While notable progress has been made, transitioning from fossil fuels to green energy has proven to be a massive political and governance challenge.”

“Simultaneously, violence and discrimination against women continue, fuelled by rises in dangerous masculinities that are spreading across the internet and the real world. The exclusion of women from positions of power, and violence towards them, has enormous implications for security, community cohesion, and conflict.”

“World Environment Day seeks to improve awareness of the ways that we can better take care of our planet and create a greener future. As a political scientist, I use the scientific method to robustly measure the factors which impact the governance of the climate: in particular, gender inequality.”

“Not only do women experience climate change uniquely, but increasing women’s presence in parliaments has been shown to improve environmental outcomes. In the UK, women parliamentarians speak more about the environment than men parliamentarians do.”

“Improving women’s agency, equality, and access to power not only has beneficial societal impacts but is part of the pathway to a greener future.”

At Equate Scotland, Hannah’s insights reinforce what we see in practice: building a sustainable future requires inclusive systems, diverse leadership, and equitable access to STEM and green careers. Supporting women’s participation and progression is not just a matter of fairness, it is essential to addressing the climate crisis.

02/06/2026

🌈 Pride Month: Championing Inclusion in STEM

This Pride Month, we stand in solidarity with LGBTQ+ communities, celebrating the diversity, resilience, and talent that enrich our workplaces, our industries, and our society.

In STEM, inclusion isn’t just a value, it’s a necessity. Yet too many LGBTQ+ women and non-binary individuals continue to face systemic barriers, from underrepresentation to environments where they may not feel safe to be their authentic selves.

Creating truly inclusive STEM spaces means:

✨ Respecting and using people’s pronouns
✨ Valuing individuals for who they are and what they bring
✨ Challenging bias and discrimination wherever it appears
✨ Actively working to dismantle structural inequalities that limit gender equity

Because when people feel seen, respected, and supported, they don’t just succeed, they innovate, lead, and transform the future of STEM.

This month and every month, we reaffirm our commitment to building a sector where no one has to choose between their identity and their career.

💬 Let’s keep the conversation going. What does inclusion in STEM look like to you?

02/06/2026

We had a fantastic time attending DataFest 2026!

A huge thank you to and everyone who stopped by to speak with us, contributed to our “Women Shaping AI in Scotland” survey, and shared such thoughtful, inspiring, and encouraging conversations. Your insights are helping shape an important piece of work.

Here’s a snapshot of what we heard from 57 respondents (55 based in Scotland):

🔹 High awareness of gender inequality
48 respondents reported being aware of gender inequality in Scotland’s AI and tech sectors — including 27 who said they were very aware.

🔹 Workplace culture is the biggest barrier
23 respondents identified workplace culture as the main obstacle to entering or progressing in AI. This was followed by:
• Lack of role models (20)
• Gender bias and discrimination (20)
• Lack of training and development opportunities (18)
• Caring responsibilities (18)

🔹 Strong concern about AI-related harms
51 respondents expressed concern about risks such as deepfakes, misinformation, and online harassment (38 very concerned, 13 somewhat concerned).

🔹 Representation matters
52 respondents believe that increasing women’s representation in AI would improve the safety and fairness of AI systems — with 37 saying it would significantly improve outcomes.

🔹 Career progression is the top priority
34 respondents identified improving career progression opportunities for women as the most important action. Other priorities included:
• Encouraging girls’ participation in STEM (26)
• Improving workplace culture (21)
• Addressing AI-related harms (15)

👉 This is just the start. We’re excited to take this further and develop deeper research into women’s representation in AI in Scotland.

We’ll be continuing this work — and inviting more people to take part in the survey — at the SICSA PhD Conference (23–24 June 2026) at . If you’re attending, come and speak to us!

25/05/2026

❓Was “girlboss” ever really empowerment❓

The idea of the girlboss was everywhere — celebrating women who worked hard, climbed the ladder, and “made it” in male-dominated spaces.

But as Holly Southwick's article on The Young Women’s Movement's Voices puts it:

“The ‘girlboss’ idea was never truly empowering, but instead a way to make existing inequalities seem acceptable.”
— Holly Southwick, Voices of The Young Women’s Movement, Why ‘girlboss’ was never empowerment – it was damage control

This framing placed the responsibility on individual women to succeed within systems that were never designed for them — rather than asking those systems to change.

In STEM, we still see this today:

🚨 Women expected to “prove themselves” in environments not built for them
🚨 Workplace cultures that reward overwork instead of inclusion
🚨Structural barriers (like bias, lack of flexibility, and inequity) left unchallenged

At Equate Scotland, we know that real progress isn’t about individual hustle — it’s about systemic change.

✔ Creating inclusive workplaces
✔ Challenging bias in recruitment and progression
✔ Supporting women at every stage of their STEM careers

Because equality in STEM shouldn’t depend on who can push hardest — it should be built into the system from the start.

Read the full article here: https://youngwomenscot.org/voices/why-girlboss-was-never-empowerment-it-was-damage-control/

💬 What do you think — has the “girlboss” narrative helped or held us back?

22/05/2026

🚗✈️ A flying car landing on a college campus wasn’t quite how we expected to spend yesterday… 🚗✈️

At Edinburgh College , we got a glimpse of the FLYVE PAL-V up close, alongside inspiring talks from Arthur van der Wees and Dr Sharon Lèmac-Vincere (PhD) on everything from to the Tartan Space Suit.

But what really stayed with us was the panel discussion.

👉 Skills matter more than qualifications.

As the conversation with Audrey Cumberford MBE FRSE, Carlo Maasbommel and others highlighted, it is becoming harder to predict jobs of the future but clearer than ever what people will need to succeed.

In a world where technology is changing so quickly, it is not just about what qualifications you have. It is about how you think, how you adapt, and how you work with others. Things like problem solving, teamwork, creativity and digital skills are what will carry people forward, not just a single qualification.

For us at Equate Scotland, this is why access to STEM matters 💜

If the future is being built now, everyone deserves the chance to be part of it and to build the skills to thrive in it.

Huge thanks to Edinburgh College and all the speakers for such an inspiring day 🙌

20/05/2026

We’re excited to be part of the 2026 — a powerful, community-driven space dedicated to women’s health, knowledge and empowerment.

Our Deputy Director, Kerstin Doig, will be speaking on:

🎤 Stepping Up: Confidence, Courage, and Women in Leadership
📅 Saturday 6 June
⏰ 16:15 – 17:00
📍 Pop-Up inside the Meadows Festival, Edinburgh
🎟️ Free – no ticket required

The Everywoman Festival brings together expert-led talks, interactive sessions and evidence-based insights to support women at every stage of life. It’s an inspiring space to ask questions, challenge myths and connect with others.

Whether you’re looking to grow your confidence, step into leadership, or simply feel inspired — we’d love to see you there.

🔗 Explore the full programme: https://www.everywomanfest.com/programme-edinburgh

18/05/2026

Artificial intelligence is advancing fast but so are the risks.

Our new blog looks at how AI is being used to enable gender-based violence, including deepfake content, impersonation, and coercive control online.

These challenges were highlighted at a recent AI and Gender conference hosted by The Young Women's Movement, where speakers discussed how rapidly these harms are developing.

At the same time, women are still underrepresented in AI. This means these technologies are often built without diverse perspectives, which can lead to harmful outcomes being missed.

This is a critical moment to make AI safer, fairer, and more inclusive.
👉 Read more: https://equatescotland.org.uk/digital-gender-based-violence-and-the-missing-women-in-ai/

📢 We are also excited to be part of DataFest 2026, organised by

Come and chat to us about women in AI and what needs to change to build a more equitable digital future.

📍 Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
📅 27 to 28 May