I see this question as connected to the earlier discussion about research into what what attracts and retains women in the profession. Specifically, I see mentorship as a key part of that, in addition to sponsorship. We must not only provide mentoring and the coaching of young women to be able to work with them throughout their careers, but also actively to look for opportunities through sponsorship for women in that area. Through research I think we can identify the key levers that can attract and retain women. I'll use infrastructure as an example.
Within the disciplines of engineering, the discipline with the most women is civil engineering. One would think, when looking at the investments of the federal government in the infrastructure sector, that this should benefit women quite greatly. However, we've all seen the research showing that women benefit to a much lesser extent than men from infrastructure investments.
Part of that is because women are not going into the infrastructure field, where there are wonderful opportunities. We see this as just another indication of the need for research to better understand the attraction and retention piece, and how mentorship plays a part, how sponsorship plays a part, and how many other areas, such as workplace culture, play a part.