On 23 June this year, International Women in Engineering Day 2018 (INWED18) will be encouraging participants to show the world how they are ‘raising the bar’ in pursuit of more diversity in engineering. This global awareness campaign, coordinated by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), aims to increase the profile of women in engineering worldwide and focus attention on the amazing career opportunities available to girls in engineering and related industries. In 2018, INWED aims to inspire even greater participation across the globe, both online and through physical activities, by individuals, schools, colleges, groups and organisations. The theme will be supported by the hashtags #INWED18 and #RaisingTheBar.
Another important part of the INWED celebrations is the annual ‘Top 50 Women in Engineering’ (WE50) awards, made possible through a partnership with the Women’s Engineering Society and The Telegraph. This year the awards focus on the largely untapped talent pool of returners and transferrers in the UK. The winners of these coveted 50 places will be announced to coincide with INWED18 celebrations. Nominations open on 8 March 2018 and run until 30 April 2018.
There are several early sponsors on board for 2018, including Amazon, ChapmanBDSP, Cranfield University, FM Global, Institute of Refrigeration, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, NSIRC, OPITO, QinetiQ, Royal Academy of Engineering, SSE, UK Petroleum Industry Association and Wiley. INWED can only continue to flourish with the support of forward-thinking organisations such as these.
Highlights of last year’s campaign included over 150 separate registered events (plus numerous unregistered), 18 of which were from countries outside the UK including Brazil, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Zambia. The activities followed an incredible 900 downloads of the INWED resource pack from the INWED website. This together with an online presence that included a reach of over 1.2m people on social media, with the official hashtag receiving 34,000 impressions on the day and trending at number two on Twitter (second only to ‘bring your dog to work day’), meant that the day proved to be another global success.
Kirsten Bodley, CEO of the Women’s Engineering Society says of INWED18:
“We are really pleased to have so much support for International Women in Engineering Day this year, where the theme is ‘Raising the Bar’. This chimes really well in the UK with 2018 being the ‘Year of Engineering’ and 100 years since (some) women gained the vote, whilst continuing to encourage global support and engagement in celebrating those who have visibly demonstrated their support for diversity in the engineering sector.”
If you or your organisation would like to participate in INWED18 celebrations, visit the INWED website to download the Resource Pack for ideas and help in planning your events. To keep updated with news and information about the day including the launch of the WE50 nominations you can also sign up to the INWED newsletter. www.inwed.org.uk
