Come on TV bosses, make a drama about us

摘要

Much has been said about how we can attract more women into the engineering profession. But perhaps we should be looking in the corner of our rooms at our TVs and learn from the example set by the acclaimed BBC series Silent Witness. Interest in pathology and forensic science, especially for women, has been boosted by actress Emilia Fox's portrayal of Dr Nikki Alexander. And whether we like or not, other professions have also gained from the popularity of various TV series. So why not a civil engineering equivalent of Emilia who could fly the flag for us? If a good story-line could be written around a variety of aspects of civil engineering work, and to which audiences could relate, it should be relatively straightforward to write appropriate leading characters of both sexes into a script.