Upfront

摘要

As Past President and recent OBE recipient, Sarah Buck, commented in an interview with the Institution last month , one of the biggest challenges facing the structural engineering profession - and engineering as a whole -is to recruit more female engineers. Women currently make up only around 7% of the engineering workforce in the UK, and only 15% of university engineering students are female - figures which put us to shame among our European counterparts. With the UK facing a shortage of engineers, there is an urgent need to change the perception of engineering as a male career and to make the profession more inclusive. It is therefore fitting that, in the month marking International Women's Day we turn our attention to one of the first occasions on which a woman played an integral role in the building of an iconic structure. On page 28, Sean Brady begins the story of the Brooklyn Bridge and the tragedies that befell its chief engineers - John Augustus Roebling and Washington Roebling - leading to the involvement of Washington's wife, Emily, in the project. The story - and the inspirational achievements of Emily Roebling - will be concluded next month.