Celebrating women in engineering

Earlier this semester Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering hosted a fantastic evening event to celebrate some of the great work being done by women in the School, as well as some inspirational female graduates. The event was open to all, and was well-attended by male and female students and staff alike.

The number of female professional engineers in the UK is around 11% and the number of women in technical level roles, where job growth is greatest, is much lower*. Therefore there is still much work to be done to change this, and it is crucial that we continue to raise the profile of female engineers, encourage girls to study STEM subjects and inspire women to realise their potential in engineering.

This event is just one of the small ways that we are proactively celebrating and supporting gender diversity and inclusion in engineering here in the School. The ‘Celebrating Women in Engineering’ evening showcased some of the many talented female engineers we have here and aimed to tackle some of the misconceptions in engineering, and explore how female engineers can overcome potential barriers and further the diversity agenda in engineering.

We warmly welcomed a panel of female engineers from MACE- including academics, researchers, technical staff and two recent alumnae- to share their thoughts and experiences of their journey into their role in engineering, which sparked some great questions from the audience. Following the keynote speeches from the panel, there was an opportunity for attendees to network over some refreshments and get to know each other a little better.

The event was a great success, but don’t just take our word for it- watch our short video of highlights from the event to hear more!

*data from Women’s Engineering Society