Lancashire Women in Engineering

We will be celebrating International Women in Engineering Day on 23^rd June 2021. In the words of the Women’s Engineering Society:

This year we’ll be celebrating the amazing work that women engineers around the world are doing, and not just to respond to the pandemic but also to support lives and livelihoods every day. Women in engineering, who recognise a problem, then dare to be part of the solution.

In the collections of the Lancashire County Council Museums Service we have numerous examples of how this has been the case for generations and not just the 21^st century, especially connected with Helmshore Mills and Queen Street Mill museums. However, most of these were not high-profile women who put their names to major inventions or technological breakthroughs. No, these are the women who formed the backbone of the workforce, toiling hard to produce goods in various industries, and in so doing contributed to the smaller, practical engineering solutions that made it all possible.

^{Weavers in Burnley weaving shed c.1890.}

Take the workers in our cotton mills, doing jobs like carding, winding, and weaving. By the 19^th and early 20^th centuries many of these workers were women who occupied a crucial role in a process that had been mechanised thanks to Lancashire engineering. With mechanisation, skilled tasks such as weaving on Lancashire looms became jobs that a woman could do every bit as well as a man. The features of the hand loom that had made them the domain of male weavers, such as the physical strength and endurance needed to power the machine all day and the advantage of a long reach to throw the shuttle, were slowly designed out by the development of the power loom.

^{Training weavers in a Rawtenstall mill early 20th century.}

The industry became truly successful when the machinery fitted the labour model available in Lancashire: skilled labour could be shared between men and women, which vastly expanded the workforce available and sent productivity through the roof. Early 20^th century figures show over 60% of the workforce were employed in the mills, with production of woven cloth, at its peak in 1912/13, around 8 billion yards or 4.5 million miles per anum. That’s the equivalent of nine return journeys to the moon!

Another example of working women as the drivers in engineering came to light recently. Over lockdown we have been sorting through photographs from other areas of the industrial collections and have found some fascinating images of the ordinance factory at Chorley between the wars.

^{Filling incendiary bombs c.1920s.}

The interesting thing with these photos is that the workforce seems to be split between men and women, yet our information regarding the factory during the war was that a female workforce soon dominated. Any role that may have been photographed in 1930 being done by a man was, due to the war effort, soon to be covered by a woman, and once again the mechanised process allowed women to perform skilled labour just as well if not better than men.

^{Filling much larger shells.}

^{Handling hazardous explosives.}

As we celebrate Women in Engineering in 2021 we see that many Lancashire engineering firms are recognising the benefits of increasing their female workforce once again. In 2021 Blackburn-based nuclear firm Assystem unveiled an ambitious plan to recruit 100 women to engineering roles and is supporting this year’s Top 50 Women in Engineering Awards. In 2019 the Community Rail Lancashire ran a ‘Women in STEM’ (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiative. The engineering advantages were summed up in their own words:

A key element of the scheme was empowering women and girls from a wide range of ages and backgrounds to communicate and share their views to rail industry stakeholders, ensuring that rail genuinely embraces equality, diversity, and inclusivity as it continues to grow. CRL recognised that by promoting and championing the voices of women and girls, the project could help shape the future of rail as an attractive option for travel and employment for all women.

The opportunity to develop innovation and creativity has not been lost on our two advanced technology vehicle manufacturers Leyland Trucks and BAE Systems. In 2020 Leyland Trucks hosted sessions with Lancashire students to discuss the steps that can be taken to break down stereotypes and encourage young females to pursue a career in engineering and manufacturing. In 2015 BAE working with the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership introduced an enhanced programme of apprenticeship opportunities and STEM Ambassadors to increase female take up of engineering roles.