International Women in Engineering Day
International Women In Engineering Day is commemorated every year on June 23rd.
The day is created by the Women's Engineering Society and supported by UNESCO with the intention to recognize women who work in the engineering sector and encourage more women to take up engineering.
How Did The International Women In Engineering Day Happen
The event was first observed in the UK by the Women's Engineering Society in 2014 to celebrate its 95th anniversary.
In the UK it was called National Women in Engineering Day.
It was a success with over 80 events taking place over the UK in universities and museums, including conferences, workshops, debates, engineering competitions, and webcasts.
The day was well publicized in national newspapers and trended on Twitter.
The main aim of the day was to highlight the low percentage of women in Engineering jobs, which, according to INWED material at the time, was approximately 6%.
National Women in Engineering Day began to grow and capture more international attention.
The following year there were over 200 official events and whilst most of these were in the UK, organizations and speakers from America, Europe, and Asia also took part.
In London participants successfully broke the Guinness World Record for the most number of people to perform a jumping high five at the same time.
The event continued to grow in 2016 and 2017 introducing a theme for the year, the first one being 'Raising Profiles'.
The day also gained the patronage of UNESCO and renamed itself International Women in Engineering Day.
The Theme
In recent years the event has grown in popularity and social media presence. However, many of the events have had to take place online due to COVID-19.
The theme of the day for 2023 is 'Make Safety Seen'.
