In Spain, the presence of women in engineering continues to be one of the indicators of real equality in the STEM fields. Although progress has been made in certain disciplines and educational levels, a gender gap still persists, especially visible in areas with high employability and future prospects.
We analyse the numbers, the structural barriers and the opportunities open to new generations of female engineers. For this purpose, we have the testimonies of several Enagás professionals, who speak from their perspective to draw clearer conclusions about the situation of women in engineering.
According to data from the CYD Foundation in its study ‘Women and universities: what factors influence their choice of studies? 69% of women consider that there is a gender bias in their choice of course at university. In this respect, 43% believe that women are steered from a young age towards areas such as education, health or social services.
The results indicate precisely how the courses with the highest presence of women are: education, arts, humanities and languages; health and social services; and business, administration and law. Meanwhile, there are fewer women in mathematics and statistics, architecture and construction, computer science and technology, and engineering.
43% of women feel that they are steered from a young age towards areas such as education, health or social services
“Society’s perception of engineering needs to be improved,” says Rosa Nieto, head of engineering and projects at Enagás. ” Young women want to develop their careers in fields where they perceive they have a purpose and a positive impact on society, and so more emphasis needs to be placed on communicating how engineering, in its many different fields, contributes to the energy transition and more generally to improving people’s lives,” she explains.
Marta Alonso, a technician in Enagás‘ public financing management, agrees: “We have to be very intensive in terms of outreach and telling people what our work is about, and sharing with them what we contribute to society”.
If we look at the enrolment statistics of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, only 32% of students in the fields of engineering, industry and construction were women in the academic year 2023/24. This is an improvement on the 29% in 2019, but there is still a noticeable imbalance. The situation is more accentuated in computer science studies, where the percentage of women is only around 17%.
Lorena Cuenca graduated just three years ago and is now an innovation and technological development technician at Enagás. She is very clear that, “apart from continuing to make women in engineering visible, we have to inspire. Girls need to see role models that inspire and empower them, role models that ensure they don’t doubt their potential and that will push them to pursue such a beautiful career as engineering.
The move from the classroom to the professional environment does not eliminate inequalities; on the contrary, it often amplifies them. According to the Spanish Engineering Observatory (2022), only 20% of active engineering professionals in the country are women. The lowest figures are concentrated in telecommunications engineering (12%), computer engineering (16%) and industrial engineering (19%). The disciplines with the highest proportion of women are agricultural and food engineering (33%) and civil engineering (24%).
“Nowadays, it is absolutely natural to see women engineers, and thanks to this change, it is common to see women engineers in management positions”
In leadership positions, women are gradually breaking through the glass ceiling that had systematically excluded them from strategic decision-making. Today, in Spain, women occupy 30% of management positions in all sectors, according to data from the company specialising in CV creation, CvApp.
Rosa Nieto points out that “nowadays it is absolutely natural to see women engineers, and thanks to this change it is common to see women engineers in management positions”.
Why is it difficult for more women to get into – and stay – in the engineering field? Part of the explanation has to do with gender stereotypes that persist from childhood. Ideas such as “engineering is for boys”, together with the scarcity of female role models in the field, can influence their confidence and limit their aspirations.
“The presence and role (of women) has increased notably and I would say exponentially since the time when I was at school and the role models were only male”, says Marta Alonso. Perception is also changing when you look up at the upper echelons. “There are now a lot of female faces and positions of responsibility and I hope that in the future this will have an impact on girls’ career choices.
Motherhood and childcare also come into play. According to a study by the Equality Observatory, 67% of female engineers believe that motherhood slows down their careers more than it does for their male colleagues.
In the European Union as a whole, women account for just over 40% of people working in science and engineering, according to Eurostat data. But this figure changes considerably depending on the type of economic activity, as it encompasses multiple sectors. For example, in service-related sectors – such as education, health or information technology – the female presence is higher, reaching 45.6%.
In the EU as a whole, women account for just over 40% of people working in science and engineering
Focusing strictly on professional engineering, according to the Observatory of Engineering in Spain (2022), around 20% of the 750,000 engineers in Spain are women. The figure places our country below France (22%), but slightly above Italy (18%) and Germany (17%).
Spain has more and more female engineers, and that is great news. The ecological transition, digitalisation, artificial intelligence and sustainability require diverse talent. The hopeful point, as Lorena Cuenca points out, is that “women engineers are gaining more visibility and occupying leadership positions, not only because of their educational qualifications but also because of the advantages of working in teams where gender equality and diversity of perspectives are encouraged”.
For Alba Municio, Chemical Engineer and Dispatching Operator at Enagás, “I’m lucky to be in a company with many women in positions of responsibility, and that has motivated me a lot. But not all of them have those examples so close at hand, and it is imperative to show that engineering is for us too.”
The road to more inclusive engineering involves intervention at all stages: from childhood – with stereotype-free role models and curricula – to university, employment and leadership positions. The engineering of the future must be built with all hands.
