In launching the Year of Women in Engineering campaign earlier this year, Engineers Australia revealed that of its membership base of 80,000, just under 10% of those were female.

Walker Technical Consultants managing director David Walker said the results were no surprise to the business as it was a statistic they encountered each day.

He said to effectively encourage and engage females, recruitment needed to start before they reached tertiary level.

"With 2007 being the Year of Women in Engineering, it's the perfect time to evaluate engineering initiatives in schools such as subject content and promotion, teacher skills and resources available to introduce the concept of engineering to female school students," he said.

"While the attraction of an engineering career may kick off in the classroom, these efforts should then be matched by tertiary institutions."

According to Walker, in 2006 only 5000 females were studying engineering at a Brisbane tertiary institution compared to 103,000 males.

He said with female and male engineers successfully entering into employment in similar proportions after graduation, 85% and 89% respectively, there was no question about the availability of jobs.

However, it seems as women's careers progress and they hit the 30 - 39 age bracket, more and more are leaving the profession.

Engineers Australia national deputy president Julie Hammer said more than half the women in the engineering workforce were less than 30 years of age, and only 15% of women over 40 were still in the profession.

Walker said some of the reasons for this trend were attributed to women opting for more maths and science oriented roles rather than engineering.

"We really need to make sure that women recognise the outstanding opportunities available to them in our sector and that businesses are really out to attract and retain good staff, whether they are male or female," he said.

Engineers Australia is currently working to increase the number of female engineers by targeting school-age girls, right across the education system, and promoting engineering as a career using successful role models.

The organisation said the move to retain more women engineers in the workforce would highlight that engineering offered women both full-time and project-based opportunities, and employers were increasingly accepting that it was imperative to offer flexible arrangements and support frameworks that allowed women a work/life balance.

Walker is calling for a more human values approach including policies and programs that promote both cultural change in engineering organisations and behavioural changes at the individual level of managers.