Diversity-Inclusion and Membership News
Membership news for 2021 as a response to COVID-19 pandemic
Given the perturbations of the ESB services to the community caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Council has decided that all paying members (Active, Students and Corporate), in good standing in 2020, will have their 2021 membership automatically renewed at no cost.
New committee new name
With a name change of the former Membership Committee the ESB is launching a renewed emphasis on diversity in our society. As engineers and scientists addressing the challenges society faces, we know that diverse teams are the most effective and the most creative in providing solutions. As humans we know that it is right that talent is recognised and promoted wherever it is to be found, and as humans we acknowledge that certain backgrounds do have more privileges than others.
Our initial actions in this area will be to assess how well the diversity of researchers within our field and context is reflected by the diversity within the ESB council and membership, within the presenters at conferences and within ESB awardees and honorands. We will undertake a review of our policies and procedures and may also survey members to understand their perspectives on this issue. These steps will inform future pro-active campaigns.
Current status in September 2020 is that the ESB has a total of 1551 regular members, of whom 841 Active Members, 634 Student Members, 8 Corporate Members and 68 Senior and Honorary Members. These numbers show some small increases from October 2019 (total was 1529), demonstrating that even in the current extraordinary situation and without our normal in-person congress, the society remains highly relevant and important for our profession.
As an initial insight into gender balance here are approximate figures of the current make-up of the society. This reflects a wider under-representation of women in senior positions in science, engineering and technology (e.g. ASSET 2016, Equality Challenge Unit).
| Category | Male : Female |
| Student | 59% : 41% |
| Active | 72% : 28% |
| Senior/Honorary | 94% : 6% |
Mark Thompson, Chair of the Diversity-Inclusion and Membership Committee
