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ited as one of the Telegraph’s Top 50 Women in Engineering, Kerrine Bryan scooped the Precious award for Outstanding Woman In STEM and was one of Management Today’s 35 Under 35 most notable businesswomen in the UK. Tell us about your career background: I’m a chartered electrical engineer. I’ve worked in the oil and gas industry for 12 years in London, after which I took a 2 year career break to have my daughter before embarking on a new role, new company and new country. I’m now a lead electrical engineer for WSP, a global engineering and professional services consultancy. Based in New York, my role is a mixture of technical, project management and business development work. I’m currently working on some exciting power generation projects including cogeneration, energy saving studies and renewable power. I love my job, but engineering definitely wasn’t something I dreamt about doing as a small child. I never really knew such a job existed or was available to someone like me, even as I grew older and was choosing my A Levels. Because I loved maths, I thought that accountancy would be the best professional fit for me. Only, at aged 17, when a teacher suggested I attend a programme at a university introducing students to different types of engineering did I really become interested in this. It was a seminal moment, as I then went on to change my course of study from accounting to finally work as an engineer. What inspired you to set up Butterly Books? I am passionate about my job and am keen for children, especially girls, to understand what engineering entails. For me, I think it blends creativity and problem solving perfectly. Having volunteered at schools to talk about my role and experiences as an engineer as a STEM ambassador, I realised how biases and misconceptions around engineering were formed at a young age, and this led me to start Butterfly Books with the help of my younger brother, Jason Bryan. He’s the lyricist and poet. The view that engineering is a hands-on, manually difficult and dirty job for older white men is far too common place, and it’s this kind of harmful misconception that is contributing to the engineering sector’s diversity issue. I know that
males; although I understand that this won’t be every woman’s story. I can see how engineering as a profession can be off-putting and intimidating to women. There was only one time when, during a placement at a manufacturing company when I was 18, that I had an uncomfortable situation where my manager and mentor said that I looked “sexy in overalls”. What do you love about your job? I love what I do. Seeing a project from initial design through to the end product is a great feeling. Sometimes when flying over Kent on a good day, I can see the LNG import terminal, and I remember when it all existed as just an idea on paper a few years back. You have two jobs - how do you manage?
if young children and young adults don’t see people who look like them doing a particular job, then they are less likely to pursue this. In a sense, I felt that there was something creative we could produce that would capture children’s imaginations and normalise women doing typically ‘male’ jobs and vice versa. We believe that this could be achieved with children’s picture books and rhyming verses. Who are your books created for? We are targeting children aged 4 to 7 years old; we want to open their imagination up to the possibility that they can be anything they want to be – firefighter, scientist, plumber or farmer – irrespective of their gender or social background. It’s important that this is communicated to children early enough, before these gender norms become too established. The resounding message is that the world is their oyster and, give and take some grit, determination and hard work, they can achieve anything. Why do you think it’s important to have books like the ones you publish? The discourse is changing for the better. Over recent years, we’ve seen a new spate of empowering children’s books that address misconceptions around conventionally male and female-led
roles, and at the same time celebrated remarkable historical figures that have innovated or changed the course of history. From Emily Pankhurst to Joan of Arc, Mother Theresa to Florence Nightingale. These kinds of books have formed part of a wider movement within children’s literature that is changing the bedtime ritual for the better. We are seeing better role models for children that break the mould and celebrate difference, diversity and bravery, and we want to be a part of this force for positive change.
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“I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never really faced too many problems being a minority, in every sense of the word, in an industry dominated by white, middle class males; although I understand that this won’t be every woman’s story.” What do you think we need to do to inspire our children’s generation in male dominated industries? We need diversity of representation of people in male dominated industries, but also in female dominated sectors too. This requires a complete cultural shift, a complete mindset change. This won’t happen overnight, and it may not happen in www.butterflybooks.uk
our lifetime. But it requires that all companies and organisations think about how they present themselves to the public, especially via advertising; because this can be used as an agent for change to redress the diversity imbalance, rather than peddle the usual stereotypes that keeps inequality in place. We also need to see more influential men become advocates of women; they can act as real enablers, smashing away glass ceilings so that more women can finally have a seat at the boardroom table. But it takes a persistent combination of education and experience to bring down barriers and dismantle antiquated systems of working that causes such inequality and bias. How have you found working in your industry? I initially worked at a large oil and gas contractor on a graduate scheme directly after finishing my 4-year Masters degree in electronic and electrical engineering with German. I had a very supportive peer group; many male colleagues had commented on how they really respected professional female engineers more for making it through all of the barriers that existed, and still do exist, for women going into STEM careers. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never really faced too many problems being a minority, in every sense of the word, in an industry dominated by white, middle class
Running a business alongside a demanding career has immense challenges, especially as you have to work on the venture outside of normal business hours. But with technology, it’s possible – and I learnt that we normally have more time to devote to our passions than we realise. Who are your role models? Baroness Karren Brady of Knightsbridge CBE. I went to a talk she was giving and her story of how she got to where she is today, as well as her work ethic, was inspiring. I also admire Sir Richard Branson. He has built a hugely successful business and is giving back to society by supporting small businesses, as well as in many other social investments. What do you hope to achieve with Butterfly Books? We’d like the books to be teaching aids at school; it will stoke some interesting classroom discussions with the children and will hopefully inspire them to find out more about the diversity of people working in amazing jobs. And of course, it would be great to get the book distributed globally. Although difficult to gauge, it would be wonderful for a child to become inspired and pursue a profession in adulthood and for Butterfly Books to have seeded or helped him or her realise that passion from the early years. And, in some small way, we will hope to have had a positive contribution to subverting misconceptions that positively impacts on equality and diversity, particularly in STEM industries.