In today’s blog John Bradbury, Vice Chair of InterEngineering and Continuous Improvement Manager at Amcor, gives his perspective on the recent London Pride celebrations and why inclusivity in engineering is so important in the 21st century.
Name: John Bradbury, AMIChemE
Job Title: Continuous Improvement Manager, Amcor
Rainbows, bubbles and glitter featured heavily in the joint InterEngineering, IChemE, Wood and Murphy group Pride In London march last Saturday (7 July 2018). We started off with a breakfast, provided by Wood, at the IChemE offices at One Portland Place. More than 80 engineers gathered – and enjoyed seeing the parade out of the sun – before we joined the parade on the Murphy and InterEngineering float. Bubbles, sunglasses and stickers were popular with the millions who gathered to see the parade, showcasing LGBT+ inclusion in engineering.
Pride is not only a celebration, and a protest, but a way for the world to see that engineering is inclusive and that anyone, no matter what background, can be an engineer.
Engineers who are ‘out’ in the workplace not only have personal benefits, such as decreased stress levels, but are 30% more productive. It is suggested that a potential contribution to GDP of £11.2 billion a year is currently lost due to bullying and pressures on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) engineers in the workplace, and that a whopping 62% of current graduates who are ‘out’ at university go back in the closet when they start their first graduate job.
InterEngineering is a free and inclusive organisation for everyone who believes that LGBT+ diversity and inclusion within engineering is important. We have regional groups all over the UK and are aiming to have complete UK coverage by 2020. Our mission is simple – to connect, inform and empower LGBT+ engineers and their peers to foster greater inclusion in engineering.
We would like thank Wood, Murphy, IChemE and all of the attendees for supporting and making the day a success. We cannot wait to make 2019 bigger and better! Hopefully we’ll see you there…
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If you are interested in joining the InterEngineering mailing list or finding out more please visit: www.interengineeringlgbt.com
To find out more about IChemE’s Diversity and Inclusion work please visit: http://www.icheme.org/media_centre/technical_strategy/diversity.aspx
IChemE 