International Women in Engineering Day is a campaign from the Women’s Engineering Society that began in 2014 to celebrate and highlight women in engineering around the world. Although women are still under-represented in their professions today, the campaign also encourages more women to work in the sector. You can find more information at https://www.inwed.org.uk/about/
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Over the years, women have made an important contribution to engineering particularly during the industrial revolution and to the war efforts by delivering many technical elements. Examples include munitions work and manufacturing respirators.
Here are some amazing women pioneers in engineering that have and are inspiring future generations of women to work in the engineering profession:
- Victoria Drummond was the first British marine engineer and was awarded a war medal for her bravery at sea during World War Two. Drummond also worked on the Caledon Ship Works in Dundee. You can find a trail in Dundee on women that have contributed to engineering: https://www.dundeewomenstrail.org.uk/
- Christina Koch is an engineer and NASA astronaut who contributed to scientific instruments on several space missions.
- Kimberly Bryant is an electrical engineer and founded the Black Girls Code to change the face of technology and introduce girls of colour to computer science https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/kimberly-bryant/
Did you know that today it is also estimated that only 25% of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) are women? This shows that girls are often stereotyped from an early age in the classroom, as boys are more likely to pursue these subjects such as Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, and Computing. The sector needs to be more diverse, and Equate Scotland also works with women to be more inclusive: https://equatescotland.org.uk/
At Edinburgh Napier, 20% of our staff and students in the School of Engineering & the Built Environment are female. You can find more information about our engineering courses here:
BEX students in the Seven Hills complex for the ‘Student Stories’ series. 4th year Civil Engineering students who took part in international beX work experience during summer 2019. Louise Amy Rogers pictured.
23 questions were answered by women in Engineering at Edinburgh Napier and why more women should take the leap https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/our-schools/school-of-engineering-and-the-built-environment/international-women-in-engineering-day-2019
If you want to read more try this article.
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