Student to join ‘drain’

Press, 11 January 1986, Page 1

Student to join ‘drain’

PA Auckland Auckland University’s top engineering student for 1985 will join the “brain drain” one month after she graduates. Miss Rebecca Keen is the first woman to top the engineering school’s graduating class and she believes her sex counted against her future in New Zealand. She sought work in the oil industry but was not offered a job. “Some companies are frightened of taking women on, not because of their abilities but because the engineer has to direct workmen,” she said. Miss Keen, aged 22, was first in chemical engineering and will graduate in May at the head of the school’s 200 fourth-year students in all disciplines. She will leave for the Netherlands in June because she has not been offered a job in New Zealand. She had hoped to work on a “think big” project and refused to look at anything less. She tried for jobs with fuel exploration, synthetic fuel and chemical companies and was about to leave for a working holiday in Australia when Shell International invited her to the Netherlands for interviews.

As a result, Miss Keen will take up a post in The Hague as a process engineer.

Associate Professor Roy Sharp, deputy dean of the engineering school, defended New Zealand companies. He said many took on women graduates — it depended on what work was available.