Cat Savage: how to get women building ships

Catriona Savage, the first female president of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, is redefining maritime and STEM by championing diversity and inclusion. With women comprising just 12% of engineering roles and 2% of seafarers, Cat’s support on initiatives – from hands-on STEM workshops to STEM Returners – aims to bridge this gap, inspiring a new generation and forging a more inclusive future for maritime innovation.

She tells Mewburn Ellis about her plan to help women in the maritime industry.

Written for Mewburn Ellis by Charles Orton Jones.

Catriona Savage is an infectious talker. She rhapsodises about naval architecture in a way that draws in even total newcomers.

The first step of designing a ship becomes a romantic moment. ‘I don’t know if this is weird,’ she says, ‘but I like to use pen and paper for the first draft. I have notebooks and sketch things. There’s a different mental process when drawing freehand rather than using a computer. It is the same when I write. I use a fountain pen. On a computer you can delete and edit. With pen and paper, you need to think before you make a mark.’

Savage is president of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, serves as technical adviser to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and is an honorary professor at the Marine Group at University College London having previously been the Ministry of Defence chair of Naval Architecture.

But she’s not only involved in academia. Her day job is programme director at BMT, working on UK Royal Navy auxiliary ships.

‘I love solving problems,’ says Savage. ‘It’s why I got into naval architecture. The challenges are complex and there are conflicting demands to get to the best solution.’

Currently Savage is addressing a serious issue in the industry, namely the persistent shortage of women in STEM and maritime industries.

‘The new numbers have come out,’ she says, ‘and the numbers of women in engineering are going down. That’s what is so disappointing. They were very, very slowly creeping up, which is why it is so difficult to see these new statistics.’

The current strategy of encouraging young women into STEM careers is not working – only 12% of engineering professionals are women. Men hold three jobs in four in STEM. This at a time when 57% of university students are women.

In the maritime industry, 29% of the workforce and only 2% of seafarers are women.

‘We host events and ask girls whether they’ve considered engineering as a career, and they say: ‘I’d never thought about it before, and now yes.’ And it’s not making any difference! We are not even making incremental progress.’

Cat’s manifesto

What is the answer? One of the joys of a mind like Cat Savage’s is that she’s interested in details. So of course she has a set of solutions ready to go.

‘The first thing is to start young. I have two nieces who are four and five. I don’t expect them to be maritime engineers. But the one thing I’ve done is make sure they know it’s interesting, that it’s a choice. They have submarines for babies. Engineering books for toddlers. They get toys to build their knowledge. There are some great books out there such as Rosie Revere, Engineer, and Ada Twist, Scientist. I want to ensure kids get a breadth of understanding of what is available. So they may choose to become an accountant or an artist, but they know what the options are.’

‘The second is to develop more apprenticeships while continuing to provide the options already open to people today. People learn in different ways. Apprenticeships enable people to learn while working. We are too focused on exams and this isn’t reflective of our working environment regardless of whether you are an analyst, designer, fabricator, operator or anything else.

The centrepiece of her plan is to completely reinvigorate the reputation of the maritime industry in Britain. After all, this is the land of Drake and Nelson, of clipper ships and dreadnoughts, of Olympian Ben Ainslie and Dame Ellen MacArthur, who broke the world record for the fastest nonstop solo navigation of the globe.

Cat Savage speaking at The Royal Institution of Naval Architects

'We are a seafaring nation!’ she exclaims. ‘Most people forget that most of our goods are transported by sea. We are an island! When we talk about maritime careers, people may think of ships, but we are also talking about oil rigs, wind turbines, submarines and all of the infrastructure that goes along with those. The breadth of careers is huge! You can do anything. There are hands-on jobs like welding and surveying, through to analysts doing computer modelling. Even people who learn a skill that isn’t specifically engineering will find a role for them. We just don’t hear about it. We don’t have a good brand.’

She points out that British television occasionally runs a show on engineering or maritime subjects, but normally on an obscure channel and often late at night. ‘‘More likely, the industry will only be featured if there has been a disaster such as the Costa Concordia.’ For many Brits the sea is the backdrop to a holiday on the coast or source of seafood, rather than a global industry.

The final item in her manifesto is the practical measures the maritime industry could take to help women stay in the profession: ‘We need to help women return after career breaks and maternity leave. Those who do take time away find it hard to come back. There is a great programme called STEM Returners, founded by a terrific woman called Natalie Desty, which does paid placements with organisations, which more often than not lead to a job. Programmes like that are so important for women who take breaks [in their] early and mid-career.’

Role model

Savage is too modest to put herself forward, but it’s hard to think of a better candidate to demonstrate to young women what a wonderful career they could have in the maritime world.

‘When I went to Southampton University in 1992, there were very few women in maritime leadership roles,’ she recalls. She was a pioneer, becoming the first female president of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects as well as the first female chair of Naval Architecture at University College London, making her way to the top of a male-dominated sector.

She recognises that even with her strategy there will be a lag. ‘When we influence primary school children, it will still be a long time until they get into the workforce.’

Until there are more visible female characters leading the industry such as Catriona Savage, it will be a slog. ‘It is much easier to go into an industry or career if you can see someone like yourself and think: “If that person has done it, so can I.” Gender is not the only issue in maritime from a diversity perspective, just the one that is currently key to me.’

As Programme Director at BMT, Cat Savage works on UK Royal Navy auxiliary ships

There are some outstanding maritime figures to inspire young women. Savage rattles off examples who inspire her such as Dr Rachel Pawling, who runs naval architecture courses at UCL and taught her the importance of sketching; Dr Helen Czerski, the oceanographer who gave one of the 2020 Christmas Lectures and is such a great communicator of scientific principles; and Sarah Kenny OBE, CEO of BMT and a mentor.

Savage is not alone in her quest. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard recently launched the SHE SEES exhibition, showcasing women in the marmite industry, such as Betzy Shell, a builder of traditional wooden boats working in Portsmouth; and Emily Ball, a young assistant boatkeeper.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French author of The Little Prince, had a memorable line about effecting change: ‘If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.’

Cat Savage personifies this ethos. She has the plan to boost women in her industry. But more than that, she has the heart and instinct to ignite the same passion in others. ‘You’ve got to love what you do,’ she says.

Surely an eager new cohort of young women will feel the same about ships and submarines, turbines and rigs, in no small part because of her.

Achieving success at the very top of possibly the most male-dominated of all engineering fields

Simon Parry, Partner and Patent Attorney at Mewburn Ellis, comments:

"I studied Naval Architecture with Cat at Southampton University, so it has been particularly fascinating to follow her career path since then, and inspiring to see her achieve such success at the very top of possibly the most male-dominated of all engineering fields. Diversity and inclusion is very important to us at Mewburn Ellis, and whilst so much still needs to be done to turn things around and encourage more women into STEM careers, we can take comfort that leading figures like Cat have their minds focussed on change."

Written by Charles Orton-Jones