Strength in Numbers Reflections from Women in ITS UK

The Women in ITS (WITS) UK is one of the 13 ITS UK Forums, providing platforms for members to share knowledge, to exchange ideas and meet fellow members with similar interests.

In particular, WITS UK hosts regular virtual and in-person events to support greater inclusion and representation of women within the ITS industry. Everyone is welcome to join, regardless of gender, and WITS aims to empower speakers and attendees to contribute to the Forum. This can be through the sharing of technical knowledge or career-related experiences.

On Wednesday 8th March 2023, WITS UK hosted our annual webinar in honour of International Women’s Day, bringing together ITS professionals at a range of career stages. We were joined by speakers from two other highly active Women in ITS groups in Finland and Sweden.

In order to support newly formed and growing Forums, WITS UK discussed lessons learned from hosting in-person events in this hybrid-working world and how we recently updated our Terms of Reference.

Here is a summary of some of the key findings from the presentations and discussions on the day.

Why do you feel it is important to have a distinct Forum for Women in ITS?

Pia Wijk from Einride and Women in ITS Sweden – Kvinnor inom ITS (KITS) shared with us that KITS was established when women working for multiple organisations in the ITS industry felt a need to join forces and strengthen one another. As with the UK and Finland, KITS provides a platform to exchange perspectives and demonstrate what is possible during a career in this sector.

Leila Lehtinen from Women in ITS Finland (FITS) added that they are working to create a “positive spiral” by: identifying women with varying interests and skillsets; offering opportunities to create an impact, via attending / presenting at an event or collaborating through projects; building more awareness; and attracting more women to the Forum and the sector.

Women currently face significant barriers in accessing engineering and senior management roles that steer critical development in the ITS industry. There is a strong appetite for change, but this will only happen when ingrained structures shift.

What does the industry gain by attracting more women to careers within ITS?

Saara Reinimäki, Head of Automation Unit at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Finland and a member of FITS took us through the key themes of the Finnish Transport Roadmap and emphasised that women can be part of the success story. Saara stressed that no one size solution fits all. We need a transport system that is customer-orientated and supports everyone, which in turn creates satisfaction and wellbeing.

Lena Smidfelt Rosqvist, CEO Trivector Traffic

Sweden and a member of KITS added that “whilst men and women typically run the same number of errands, women tend to make more complex, chain trips” and therefore we need “a gender informed transport system”. Every person’s behaviour and attitude towards design should be considered in the planning and delivery of transport throughout the entire decision-making process.

WITS UK is fortunate to gain insight to a wide range of interesting case studies presented at the events that we host. We asked our speakers to tell us about some of the exciting ITS projects that Forum members are involved in.

We learnt about a particular scheme in Digbeth, Birmingham where street lighting is being used to give new life to a deprived area by providing both better lighting and a colour coded wayfinding design. This made people feel safer and highlighted local shops and businesses along the route; a key example of where technology is being used to improve the energy efficiency and experience for all users.

Pia Wijk shared with us the story of Tiffany Heathcott who is the world’s first remote truck driver, operating and overseeing the control of an autonomous electric vehicle. This is supporting the decarbonisation of freight and carving out what the future of trucking can look like.

Our International Women’s Day webinar ended with reflections from our current WITS UK Forum committee, Gemma Tredwell –Chairwoman and Arcadis, Olivia Cairns – Co-Vice Chair and WSP and Rebecca Bollen – Co-Vice Chair and 4way Consulting. “The last year has been exciting, positive and given the Forum new focus. Although our goals and objectives haven’t changed, we have updated our Forum Introduction and Terms of Reference, giving us a direction and vision to refer back to…and drive us forwards! We have heard from many excellent speakers, connected with early career professionals and built new relationships to raise the profile of women in this industry. It is clear that by working together we can promote a strong and representative ITS workforce, and the Women in ITS Forum provides a platform to do so.”