Sarah Hunak is SRP ’ s Director of Engagement . She has served on several SRP committees over the last 10 years .

I ’ ve been around the nuclear industry for a while now ( nearly 15 years !). Although it was pleasantly surprising when I joined Amec back in 2008 to find that the Radiological Team was more than 50 % female , I still remember those first work meetings and SRP events where my ‘ work wife ’ Steph Bloomer ( SRP Trustee since 2022 and current Chair of Outreach Committee ) and I would be the only females in the room . It was , of course , intimidating to be the only different faces in a sea of middle-aged white men , but on the upside , it did mean everyone knew or at least recognised us , and people would make the effort to talk to us and make us feel included .

Over the past 15 years , I ’ m happy to say that the demographics of the Society have changed , with much better representation . But can we be doing more to encourage this ?

In the Strategic Plan 2023 / 27 , our first Priority is the sustainability of the Society and the profession ( see page 29 ). A diverse membership is a strong membership , and the Society needs to reflect the diversity seen in the workplace . Government data ( June 2022 ) show that women make up 26.9 % of the core-STEM workforce and this is continually rising . More worryingly , however , a survey conducted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology showed that 29 % of respondents who identified as belonging to the LGBTQ + community would never consider a career in the engineering profession for fear of discrimination and that 49 % of those asked felt that STEM industries were outwardly sexist .

So how do we , as a society , shape up ? To answer this question in depth we need to do some serious data gathering on membership and ask the right questions . The Membership Committee has some data , but not enough . So the intention is , as part of our Delivery Plan for the Strategic Plan , to gather up-to-date information from members . Look out for this being rolled out soon , and please take the time to answer the questions so we can get a more accurate picture of what the Society looks like . Current data suggests that about 26 % of Society members are women , and that around 17 % are members of the Rising Generations Group ( RGG ), so we ’ re probably doing OK at reflecting the general STEM workforce in those areas .

One thing I feel that we do well is recognising the diversity of those members that we already have . By doing this , we ’ re able to provide inspirational and relatable role models to those within the scientific community or to students who may want to consider a career in radiation protection in the future . This is why we invest heavily in our outreach programme . This year , along with our usual stand at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham , we have also performed another Schools Show to Aberdeen primary schools on The Science of Superheroes . These shows have a good amount of radiation protection thrown in , in the hope that we might inspire some of the audience to pursue a career in radiation protection or science in general . We also run frequent social media campaigns to align with national and international days like International Women in Science Day , to showcase our fabulous members and their careers .

Of course , there are plenty of areas we can improve on , but on the whole , I think we ’ re getting there .

If you have any ideas on how we can get better at this , please get in touch by emailing engagement @ srp-uk . org .

20 Radiation Protection Today www . srp-rpt . uk