The backlash over a “misogynistic article” about women in the engineering industry has led to a petition calling for the removal of Manglin Pillay as CEO of the South African Institute of Civil Engineering (SAICE).

Pillay penned an article in the July Civil Engineering magazine questioning whether South Africa should invest in women in science‚ technology‚ engineering and mathematics because they were more “predisposed” to “caring and people” careers. The article was also posted on his LinkedIn account.

In it‚ he said “most women” at a certain age “prefer to work part-time or dedicate themselves completely to child rearing or pursuing other meaningful exploits generally related to caring”‚ the Sunday Times reported at the weekend.

SAICE’s executive board distanced itself from the article‚ saying it was “horrified” and “unfortunate”. SAICE is holding an emergency board meeting on Wednesday to address the furore around the article.

WomEng‚ an organisation that deals with issues faced by women in the engineering sector‚ has started a petition on GoPetition twitter calling for Pillay to be ousted from his position.

The petition said he had “used his leadership role and public platform of the SAICE magazine to pen a misogynistic article about women in the engineering industry. SAICE has distanced itself from the article‚ subsequently retracted it and is yet to take any action in response to the article.