Industry celebrates National Women in Engineering Day

Several industry bodies and clients have joined forces to celebrate National Women in Engineering Day.

Today marks the second National Women in Engineering Day, after the Women’s Engineering Society set up the event last year to celebrate its 95^th anniversary.

The idea behind the day is to encourage all target groups –government, educational groups, corporate groups, professional engineering institutions, organisations in construction, and the press – to create their own events to promote the opportunities for women in engineering.

Engineering institutions, as well as clients, have joined the celebrations and emphasised the need for greater diversity in the industry.

To mark the day, female engineers from HS2 Ltd are meeting pupils at a school in Hemel Hempstead to talk about the opportunities in engineering.

HS2 Ltd’s commercial director Beth West said its female ambassadors are spreading the message that “being a woman is not a barrier to working in the rail industry.”

HS2’s CEO Simon Kirby added: “Days like today are really important as we need young qualified people to move into these roles and drive forward our future infrastructure development.”

Director General at the Institute of Civil Engineers, Nick Baveystock, said: “Engineering solutions are best delivered by multi-disciplinary teams of men and women working creatively together, so there is a commercial as well as a social imperative to right the imbalance, and industry must make its case.”

Naomi Climer, who will become president of the Institute of Engineering and Technology this October, said engineering needs to be diverse to keep the industry “vibrant and fresh with innovative ideas.”

She added: “National Women in Engineering Day gives our industry the perfect opportunity to not only celebrate the achievements of women already working in engineering, but also to encourage and inform more women and girls about the rewarding careers on offer.”