International Women in Engineering Day
International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) is celebrated on June 23 annually. It is an event organized by the Women's Engineering Society and supported by UNESCO with the aim of increasing recognition of women who work in engineering, and encouraging more women to find careers in this area.
History
The event was first observed in the UK by the Women's Engineering Society in 2014 to celebrate their 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, events 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 successful 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 as International Women in Engineering Day. There were public activities and events across the world, in The USA, Canada, Peru and Brazil, whilst even more events and discussions took place behind closed doors in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Spain and Mauritius.
Still growing strong
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 in 2021 was 'Engineering Heroes'. To celebrate there were webinars, photo exhibitions and new bursary programs introduced to help fund places in courses for women.
This year the theme for International Women in Engineering day will be 'Inventors and Innovators'. Whilst many events will be happening online you will still be able to visit many in-person events hosted by universities and industry leading companies who aim to promote and recruit more women in engineering.
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