Meet the female engineer looking to empower the North West’s women in industry

A female principal engineering geologist for professional services and engineering consultancy WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff is taking steps to empower women working in engineering in the North West.

As part of WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff’s drive to address the ongoing gender disparity in the sector, 34-year-old Athena Livesey directed with colleagues the company’s inaugural Empowering Women event in partnership with the Institute of Civil Engineers North West (ICE NW).

Athena said she conceived the event to tackle the disproportionate number of women in senior engineering positions.

The first Empowering Women was held at the St James Building in Manchester city centre last week (March 23) and attended by over 50 women working in engineering.

Athena commented: “We hope that this will be the first in a series of events which establish a platform where women can come together to network, be inspired and gain the confidence and wisdom to pursue more senior roles and plan their careers.

“I know from experience that this is a male-dominated industry; I recently worked for 14 months on a construction project where I was the only permanent technical woman in the 1,200-strong on site team.”

Athena Livesey works in WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff’s civil, bridge and ground engineering team

She continued: “As a minority, I think women are often overlooked because they lack the know-how and confidence to put themselves forward for leadership roles.

“I hope that our fantastic speaker line-up of inspirational female technical directors and business owners will send out a call to action to the attendees to reflect and realise their potential.”

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