"But once they see what you can do, all the gender issues usually disappear."Rachel Tarling, a civil engineer with engineering giant Atkins, believes her uniqueness can be a benefit. "Women do think in a slightly different way and I think a lot of men like working with women for that reason," says Tarling, who says she's never encountered any problems, whether onsite or in the office. "It's not that one sex is better than the other: we both bring our own complementary skills to the equation."And in a new business world, where collaboration, partnering and people-management are the watchwords, women with their perceived abilities in these areas, are increasingly in demand. Yet supply remains scarce - and there's a sense of increasing frustration that the demographics remain so skewed.As Professor Wendy Hall points out, engineering is fundamental to the very fabric of modern life yet 50 per cent of the population is not represented when key decisions are made."At the moment, every device, interface and software programme is designed by men - women are just not involved in that process," says Hall.

"You really do contribute something to society." However, she admits that it can be tough on women. "It does require a certain amount of guts and character," says Bayvel, who specialises in electronic and electrical engineering. "It's not every girl who will be happy to be in an all-male environment. And there is an undercurrent of having to be better to prove yourself."Anneeza Abdul-Ghani, who dropped medical studies for chemical engineering when she found she couldn't stand the sight of blood, is the only woman in her section at global oil giant Shell. She points to the medical profession, once a male bastion but which now attracts a student body that is more than 50 per cent female.

Hall says women tend to be attracted to careers such as medicine where they can make a positive contribution - and too few of them understand that engineering also fulfils that criterion.Be it rebuilding devastated communities in the wake of natural disasters, providing irrigation systems in developing countries or working on sustainable energy projects, engineering is one job that where you can make a real difference to how people live."A career in engineering is extremely rewarding," says Professor Polina Bayvel, Vice Dean of Research in the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at University College, London. She agrees it can be a challenging job for young women."You have to prove yourself and hang on in there," says Abdul-Ghani, who inspects the health, safety and environmental performance of refineries and processing plants. According to the Association for Women in Science & Engineering, the proportion of women in the Royal Society has been a mere 3 per cent for 30 years - and the proportion of women in the Royal Academy of Engineering is one tenth of this."The numbers of women are barely moving," says John Bristow of Semta, the sector skills council for science, engineering and manufacturing "Only 5 per cent of professional engineers are women. It's appalling and it doesn't seem to be getting any better."There are a whole range of factors at play here: not enough young women pick mathematics and science at A-level; too many hold out-dated and inaccurate views on engineering; there are too few role models; and, for bright, numerate students, there are more lucrative careers on offer in banking and accountancy."We need to change hearts and minds," says Wendy Hall, professor of computing science at Southampton University, who has been highlighting the lack of women in computing for some 20 years. From MI5 to politics to world-beating circumnavigations of the globe, women are excelling in pursuits once marked out as male territory. Yet, despite a wide range of initiatives to redress the present imbalance, many of which have been running for almost three decades, engineering remains a male-dominated career choice. Anneeza Abdul-Ghani, for example, is a technical health, safety and environment consultant at Shell Global Solutions International, a career that has taken her all over the world, including the UK, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Germany.