INNOVATION May-June 2019

F E A T U R E

M ost people think of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) as a single day, June 23, set aside to celebrate the achievements of women engineers around the world, and to highlight the career opportunities for girls who are exploring engineering for their future. INWED is all those things; but few people realize that INWED, which will celebrate six years on June 23, is the brainchild of the Women’s Engineering Society, a UK-based organization that will turn 100 years old on the same day. During the World War I, women in the UK had been recruited into the workforce so that men could fight abroad. Women filled, among other things, technical and engineering positions, like heavy or precision machinery jobs, war supply factory jobs, munitions assembly jobs, and so on. The government, desperate to maintain the flow of war supplies and keep the economy functioning at home, had invested heavily in the recruitment and training of women. But, when the war ended in 1918, women were pressured back to their homes to allow men to return from the armed forces and resume their technical and engineering jobs. A group of women, many of whom had already been working for women’s right to vote in the UK, formed The Women’s Engineering Society (WES), just over seven months after the end of World War I. The formation WES was a way to resist the pressure to vacate their jobs, and to promote engineering as a satisfying job for both women and men. WES is responsible for a couple of spinoff events. It launched National Women in Engineering Day in 2014 (which was given coveted UNESCO patronage status in 2016), and then International Women in Engineering Day—INWED. In an interview with Innovation , Elizabeth Donnelly, CEO of WES, says that the displacement of women out of their jobs ROOTS OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN IN ENGINEERING DAY STRETCH BACK 100 YEARS

P hotos : W omen ’ s E ngineering S ociety and IET A rchives

that companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21 percent more likely to outperform on profitability and 27 percent more likely to have superior value creation. That’s one of the reasons that Engineers and Geoscientists BC has embraced the 30 by 30 goal, which aims to raise the percentage of newly licensed engineers who are women to 30 percent by the year 2030. In June, Engineers and Geoscientists BC plans to recognize INWED by hosting webinars, professional development opportunities, and networking events. The “Path To Professional Licensure” webinar will be held on June 17; an “Own Your Career” event will be held on June 19; and a professional networking event will be held on June 19 (in conjunction with Engineers and Geoscientists BC’s Women In Engineering and Geoscience Division). Donnelly says that WES’ lengthy history is proof that the idea that women belong in engineering is not recent. “This is nothing new. One look at the history of women in engineering, it’s clear that women have made fantastic and important advancements in engineering for a long, long time.” “I’ve got very high hopes,” she said. “When [our founders] they created WES, they had no idea of the possibilities. Women engineers are the people who are going to solve climate change, make driverless cars, design things that are going to save lives. Young women today are going to be among the people that are able to solve these problems.”

at the time wasn’t just unfair; it also didn’t make economic sense. “The government had invested over 100 million pounds [$173 million Canadian dollars] in training during the war, and then sent the women home when the war ended. A lot of women …felt that the training and experience they had was a fantastic opportunity, and they wanted that to continue,” she said. The arguments in favour of a more gender- diverse workplace have changed since 1919, and they apply directly to BC. Studies show that firms that have a gender diversity also have better financial performance and value creation. One recent study revealed

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