If you’re stuck in a traffic jam caused by roadworks, it's reasonable to assume a man in a hard hat is in charge.

After all, the engineering industry is dominated by men. But in Sussex and neighbouring county Kent, it's more likely the roadworks have been engineered by Christine Allen.

She is a 35-year-old contract director for infrastructure services business Balfour Beatty and leads a team of around 350 staff who do everything from building new structures to operating tunnels, clearing incidents, being prepared for severe weather and renewing existing infrastructure.

“Believe it or not, the job is very creative,” says Christine, who works from Balfour Beatty depots across Sussex, including at Ford and Lewes.

“When I was at school, I loved both art and design technology and maths, and civil engineering was the perfect solution to my need to do something that was both creative and practical. I love coming in to work every morning because my job enables me to help keep traffic flowing.”

Her CV includes major projects including the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, or HS1, the 108-km high-speed railway between London and the Channel Tunnel in Kent, the M1 widening between Junctions 6 and 10, and the Hindhead Tunnel, which opened in 2011.

She added: “I have never had a problem as a woman working in civil engineering and diversity in any organisation helps, because it brings different skills, different experiences and different views to the job.

The most important thing for me is that you have a career you enjoy and that you can do the job well.”

Christine studied civil engineering at the University of Nottingham and has benefited professionally from the industry's determination to focus on women as a significant part of the next generation of engineers.

Her leadership skills have been developed by both her employer, Balfour Beatty, which has put her through its Developing Women in Leadership programme, which helps women further their careers by, for example, expanding their external networks and learning from senior women speakers about their careers and experiences, and the Highways Agency, which will be putting her through its Roads Academy, a new professional development programme designed to encourage innovation and best practice across the roads industry.

Balfour Beatty has also pledged its support to the Your Life campaign, which was launched by Chancellor George Osborne in May to boost the participation of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Last week, the UK’s first National Women in Engineering Day was held by the Women's Engineering Society, which is celebrating 95 years since it began to campaign for pioneering women who worked in engineering and technical roles during the First World War to keep them when the war ended.

It sent more than 200 schools resource packs to encourage girls into engineering careers because “substantial future job opportunities... have been predicted in this sector”, the society says.

The Highways Agency, which operates, maintains and improves England's roads for the Department for Transport, suggests more needs to be done to counter the stereotype of an engineer and make jobs in the industry more appealing to women.

Graham Dalton, the agency's chief executive, said: “Attracting, retaining and developing capable people to deliver our expanding programme of work is one of the challenges that as an industry we need to rise to – attracting, retaining and developing more women is part of the solution.”

And Balfour Beatty’s chief executive Nick Pollard said: “It’s no secret that women continue to be under-represented in our industry and we risk losing a wealth of talent to other industries if we don’t make a career in construction a more attractive proposition to them.”

For more information about the Women's Engineering Society and National Women in Engineering Day, visit wes.org.uk For more information about careers in civil engineering, visit highways.gov.uk and balfourbeatty.com.