Every year on 23rd June we celebrate National Women in Engineering Day and focus on all the amazing work done by in the engineering field. These boss ladies are shattering stereotypes and proving that women really can do it all.
The day was founded by UK’s Women’s Engineering Society three years ago in an attempt to make women in engineering more visible; to highlight woman and their contribution to STEMM fields. Last year the event trended for over 10 hours on social media and the world went gaga over all the incredible female engineers from Emily Roebling (chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge) to wind screen wiper creator Mary Anderson.
In the UK alone the engineering sector turns over £800 billion a year. Only 9% of the workforce are female, whereas in Sweden women make up 26% of the engineering profession. That’s despite British girls often achieving higher results than boys at school. Maybe most annoying of all, is that when you search Google Image with the word engineer all the top pictures – bar one – are of men in hard hats.
Sadly sexism still exists engineering and in all the other STEMM industries: science, technology, maths and medicine. In fact it happens so often it’s easy to become jaded.
That’s why it is so important to take the time to celebrate all that women do for the industry and prove to girls that it’s possible for them to achieve their engineering dreams.
Last year hashtag, #Ilooklikeanengineer took social media by storm. Thousands of women logged on to Twitter and Insta to post pictures of themselves alongside the motivational hashtags. These kick ass images proved once and for all that, NEWSFLASH, what you look like actually has nothing to do with what your job is.
I monitor oil and gas processing facilities in Trinidad & Tobago: Elizabeth Horton-Atherley #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/cV0ywJO4Uo
— BHP (@bhp) October 11, 2015
From Karlie Kloss’ coding school to the #thisgirlcan campaign, we are beginning to see how simple it is to shakeup the stereotypes and prove how hardcore women are. And we need female engineers, just as much as we need males ones. In fact, the more visibility improves for woman in these areas, the better our futures become. More woman than ever are entering STEM fields – will you be joining them?
Looking for some even more insp.? This TED talk features Debbie Sterling as she discusses her desire to inspire the next generation of female engineers.