Women in Engineering Commissioning Roles: A Neglected Frontier for Learning and Inclusion

Purpose: This conceptual paper introduces a framework explaining how commissioning culture influences women's workplace learning in engineering. Despite its intensity as a learning environment, commissioning—the phase where engineered systems are tested and brought online—remains largely unexamined in workplace learning scholarship, and women's participation in these settings is particularly under-researched. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on workplace learning theory, situated learning, and gendered organisational research, the paper synthesises existing scholarship to position credibility negotiation as the central mechanism linking commissioning culture to learning outcomes. The framework incorporates psychosocial pressures and organisational supports as key moderators. Findings: The framework reveals how gendered norms shape women's access to experiential learning, tacit knowledge, and the formation of professional identity in high-pressure commissioning environments. Credibility negotiation emerges as the critical process determining whether women gain central or peripheral participation, with significant implications for capability development and inclusion. Practical implications: The paper provides actionable strategies for engineering organisations to redesign commissioning as inclusive learning environments, including mentoring structures, team composition approaches, and leadership development interventions. These recommendations support both gender equity and organisational capability development. Originality/value: This is the first paper to theorise commissioning as a workplace learning environment and to examine how gendered dynamics shape learning opportunities in this critical but overlooked phase of engineering work. The framework provides new directions for workplace learning scholarship and establishes foundations for empirical investigation.