National Women in Engineering Day (NWED) will take place on June 23rd 2015. NWED was set up by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) with the aim of celebrating the work women do in engineering and showcasing the career options available to girls, as well as well as changing perceptions and inspiring more female engineers.
In 1919, once World War 1 was over, government, employers, and trades unions were against the continuing employment of women who had taken on engineering jobs to fill the gap left by men leaving to join the armed forces. A group of influential women (including Lady Parsons, wife
of Sir Charles, inventor of the steam turbine) came together to create WES with the aim of enabling women to gain training, jobs, and acceptance. Since then WES have been building a strong network and have made a real difference.
Last year WES launched NWED to celebrate their 95th anniversary. Organisations and schools celebrated the day by hosting their own events. After it's success WES are hoping to make this years NWED even bigger and better.
Some statistics about women in engineering:
- Only 7% of the engineering workforce is female.
(The IET 2013 Skills Survey) - The UK has the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in Europe, at less
than 10%, while Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus lead with nearly 30%
(Quote from Vince Cable says UK economy hampered by lack of female engineers, The Guradian, 4 Nov 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/04/vince-cable-uk-economy-female-engineers, accessed Feb 2013) - Almost half of all maintained co-ed schools in England (49%) sent no girls on to take A
Level physics in 2011.
(It's Different for girls, Institute of Physics, 2012)
Influential women engineers of the past:
Click here to find out about more influential female engineers.
You can read more about NWED here and more about WES here.
Get involved! Click here to see what you can do to celebrate NWED.
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