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Women at Work - Engineer

For Toni Sorensen, her decision to seek a career as a mining engineer was a result of having a mind attuned to science and the desire to see the practical outcomes of her work.

In a profession in which men vastly outnumber women, Sorensen has forged a successful career ranging from getting her hands dirty in the rough and tumble world of remote mining sites, to working in head offices on planning and strategy. In her latest role, the 34-year-old is the only woman on the technical staff of Coffey Mining’s Brisbane’s office.

For Sorensen it was never the case of wanting to be a pioneer. She just knew it was the career for her since she graduated with a bachelor of engineering (mining) from the University of Queensland in 1995.

"I loved physics at high school, and followed that track. But when I got to uni I thought it was a bit too theoretical for me, and I really didn’t know what I was going to do with it,’’ she says.

"I looked at something that was more practical, but still within science and one of the obvious choices was engineering. I had a look at all the streams in engineering and I didn’t know much about mining-but I knew some people doing it, and that seemed pretty good. There is a practical hands-on aspect to mining which I love, a lot of jobs available and it’s a big industry in Australia.’’

After graduation Sorensen’s first job was a fly-in, fly-out position in a remote West Australian mine where she had a strong grounding in a number of different positions.

She returned to Queensland in 2000 and had a child, returning to work at the University of Queensland before working for mining consultancy firms off-site and on-site.

At Coffey, Sorensen is currently working on a coal mine scheduling project in the Bowen Basin in Queensland and a heat leach re-mining project in Western Australia.

With Coffey’s international profile she could be asked to contribute to projects around the world.

Sorensen says the lure of her job is the variety and the chance to work with "good and expensive toys-multi-million dollar trucks and excavators, as well as explosives’’.

"I enjoy the practical aspects of the work and I do quite a variety of things, but basically I plan the best way to extract the minerals and schedule it to fit into the timeframe and the available equipment productivity,’’ she says.

"It’s a job where there is always something interesting. You come up with ideas, plan things and see the outcome from your work.’’

Sorensen says she was one of four women in a class of 40 at university, but believes over the past decade there have been more women taking up mining engineering, although men still vastly outnumber women.

Overall there are 250,000 professional engineers in Australia, of which about 10 per cent are females. It remains a profession for younger women, with more than half those in engineering less than 30 years of age. Only 15 per cent over 40 are still in the profession.

Engineers Australia national president Julie Hammer says the low proportion of females probably stems from an image of the profession as something mainly for males.

"It reflects an image of engineers as being sturdy figures in hard hats and safety boots on a dusty construction site,’’ she says.

"A more accurate but less common image of engineers is of young men and women who are working with people and with technology to improve our quality of life. It is no longer the domain of males; it is an outstanding career for both females and males.’’

Looking back over her career, Sorensen admits there has been the odd negative aspect to being a woman at a mining site.

"You have a couple of people with a problem with it, but overall most people are quite supportive,’’ she says.

"But if women are truly enthused by the industry and looking for a job then they should go for it. I don’t think they should feel threatened or be afraid of it. It has the reputation of a being a male-dominated industry, but really, there are a lot of opportunities there and it offers a great career path.’’

Engineers Australia has initiated a long-term strategy to recruit and retain a greater number of women into the engineering profession. The campaign includes getting young female school students interested in an engineering career and ensuring that they undertake the necessary subjects to qualify for tertiary studies in engineering.

At the industry level, the campaign highlights that, more than ever, engineering offers women both full-time and project-based opportunities, and that employers are increasingly accepting the imperative to offer flexible arrangements and support frameworks that allow women a work/life balance.

Hammer says there continues to be a great demand for engineers. "Australia cannot afford to have half of the population so under-represented in the engineering profession.

Through a significantly increased representation of women, the engineering profession and community will benefit from a more diverse team of talent.’’