International Women in Engineering Day: Why Nuclear Cannot Afford to Wait

For UK nuclear, the case for those diverse perspectives has never been more urgent.

The UK nuclear sector currently employs close to 100,000 people. According to the government backed National Nuclear Strategic Plan for Skills, the sector needs to recruit 40,000 additional workers by 2030 alone, more than double the current rate of hiring.

New build programmes, SMR deployment, an emerging fusion sector, and the continued operation of our existing fleet are driving demand for engineers and technical specialists at a scale the sector has not planned for. Filling that pipeline will require something close to a wartime footing on talent. And if the sector is serious about finding that talent, it cannot afford to keep looking in the same places.

The reason women remain underrepresented in nuclear engineering is not capability. It is history.

Lise Meitner spent thirty years alongside Otto Hahn at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, building one of the most significant scientific careers in twentieth-century physics. When his experiments produced results he could not explain, it was Meitner, by then in exile in Stockholm after fleeing Nazi Germany, who worked out the theory: the uranium nucleus was splitting.

Hahn published the results. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 went to him alone. Element 109 was eventually named Meitnerium in her honour in 1997, recognition delayed by decades.

She was not an exception. She was a pattern.

The Women’s Engineering Society was founded on 23rd June 1919, the date INWED now marks every year, precisely because that pattern needed challenging. Women had proved their engineering capability during the First World War, only for the Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act 1919 to legally return their jobs to men coming back from the front.

Women have had meaningful access to engineering as a mainstream professional path for little more than fifty years. Legal protections against workplace discrimination did not arrive in the UK until 1975. The pipeline of senior female talent is not narrow because women lack ability. It is narrow because the time required to build experience across an entire profession cannot be compressed. We are still catching up with a century of lost contribution.

The reality is simple: the sector cannot meet its future workforce needs if it continues to draw from only part of the available talent pool. As specialist headhunters to the nuclear and clean energy transition, and as members of Women in Nuclear UK, PACE invests the time and effort required to find the best female leaders and engineers wherever they sit and open doors into this sector.

Our approach is deliberate: identify the strongest talent both within nuclear and from other highly regulated industries, present them with confidence, and work with clients who are committed to building inclusive teams. In 2025, 54% of our UK nuclear placements were women. That figure does not arrive without intent.

Rhonda Shergold, Quality Professional at Rolls-Royce SMR and a PACE placement, speaks directly to what that transition can look like:

“Coming into nuclear has shown me how rewarding it is to be part of a sector that plays such a critical role in delivering clean, reliable energy, while maintaining such high standards. I’d definitely encourage other women to consider a career in nuclear. It’s a welcoming environment with real opportunities to develop, make an impact, and be part of something meaningful.”

Our partner Rolls-Royce SMR is among the clients making that environment a reality. Greg Turner-Smart, Head of Culture and Inclusion, is clear on both the ambition and the progress:

“At Rolls-Royce SMR, we recognise that increasing diversity leads to more innovation and to better performance. Our most recent apprenticeship intake was 50% female, whilst more than half of our functions have already achieved the nuclear sector deal gender target of 40% women in nuclear by 2030.

“By working with our recruitment partners, delivering an impactful outreach strategy, and building an inclusive culture, we’re making change happen. This International Women in Engineering Day, we’ll be celebrating our female engineers, not just as engineers, but as leaders, role models, and trailblazers for our sector.”

Not a policy document. Not a target. A 50% apprenticeship intake. A placement rate that reflects the available talent rather than the historical assumption about where it sits.

The future of nuclear will be built by the best engineers in the world. The sector’s future depends on reaching them.

Written by Antony Harding

Co-Owner and Sales Director, PACE People Ltd