Next Sunday, June 23rd, will mark the 11th International Women in Engineering Day (INWED). Initially, popularity and enthusiasm for the day expanded the celebration from its concentrated origin in the United Kingdom to become a worldwide event.
Originally launched in 2014 by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), INWED sought to recognize and celebrate the presence and importance of underrepresented women in engineering. WES’ own mission is to be active supporters of women, motivate women to pursue careers in engineering, collaborate with government agencies and policymakers, and challenge stagnant cultures, which merge into the yearly celebration of INWED.
This year’s theme, #EnhancedbyEngineering, will focus on highlighting the incredible work that female engineers perform every day to improve their families and livelihoods around the globe. INWED encourages all supporting groups, globally, to organize events in support of INWED. There are many ways in which the supporting groups can collaborate and/or get involved during INWED. WES encourages that everyone can get involved by either becoming STEM ambassadors; hosting networking, mentoring, career, or social events; signing up for the INWED newsletter and following their social media accounts, such as Twitter and Instagram at @INWEB1919; joining WES as a corporate partner; and/or promoting this year’s theme with the #EnhancedbyEngineering and #INWEB24 hashtags. Last year, all supporting groups made a huge impact globally, potentially reaching more than 782 million people. INWED highlighted that only tweets using @INWED1919 had over 87k impressions. Additionally, INWED had nearly 30K visitors, and the webinar had over 700 attendees. Together, we can make significant change and expand awareness of the importance of women in engineering.
For more information about INWED and how you or your organization can participate, visit www.inwed.org.uk.
