In­ter­na­tion­al Women in En­gi­neer­ing Day is cel­e­brat­ed on June 23 every year, across the globe to raise aware­ness about the women pur­su­ing en­gi­neer­ing and trans­form­ing the world with their in­cred­i­ble achieve­ments. For cen­turies, women have played an es­sen­tial role as de­sign­ers and builders of crit­i­cal struc­tures and ma­chines even be­fore the term ‘en­gi­neer’ was coined in the 11th cen­tu­ry. How­ev­er, fields, such as en­gi­neer­ing, have been large­ly kept shut from women.

His­to­ry of Women in En­gi­neer­ing Day

Up­on the es­tab­lish­ment of ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions, most uni­ver­si­ties didn’t ad­mit women un­til the ear­ly 1800s. Even then, the ad­mis­sion re­mained sec­tioned to tra­di­tion­al­ly ‘fe­male’ fields. But this has nev­er de­terred women from par­tic­i­pat­ing in the en­gi­neer­ing sec­tor. In 1876, Eliz­a­beth Bragg, un­fet­tered by the gen­der dis­par­i­ties and dis­crim­i­na­tion, be­came the first fe­male re­cip­i­ent of an en­gi­neer­ing de­gree when she got her bach­e­lor’s in civ­il en­gi­neer­ing from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Berke­ley, paving the way for thou­sands of women of the 19th cen­tu­ry who fol­lowed her lead. We al­so can’t for­get that it was a woman, Ada Lovelace, who col­lab­o­rat­ed with Charles Bab­bage to de­sign the first com­put­er pro­gram in the world.

It wasn’t un­til the Sec­ond World War that se­ri­ous at­ten­tion was paid to women’s ed­u­ca­tion in tech­ni­cal fields. Fac­ing the re­al­i­ty of the short­age of tech­ni­cal labour, quick on-the-job train­ing sched­ules were launched by ma­jor play­ers in the field. Even in the 21st cen­tu­ry, STEM con­tin­ues to be dom­i­nat­ed by men. With the grue­some gen­der gap and hir­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion, women con­tin­ue to en­dure strug­gles in this field.

Why is Women in En­gi­neer­ing Day Im­por­tant?

1. I↓t rais­es the pro­file of women in en­gi­neer­ing

Women who are chang­ing the field of en­gi­neer­ing one de­gree at a time. Sev­er­al fe­male en­gi­neer­ing pi­o­neers go un­rec­og­nized. On Women in En­gi­neer­ing Day, we cel­e­brate pi­o­neers such as Kim­ber­ly Bryant, who found­ed Black Girls Code, a non­prof­it that pro­vides free cod­ing ed­u­ca­tion to young African-Amer­i­can girls, and many oth­er lead­ers who have made tremen­dous con­tri­bu­tions in the field of en­gi­neer­ing.

2. It mo­ti­vates young girls

En­gi­neer­ing is an ex­cit­ing ca­reer choice with bound­less op­por­tu­ni­ties for growth. Such a re­al­is­tic ca­reer path re­mains over­shad­owed by the glowy vi­sions of be­ing a doc­tor or a pi­lot. On June 23, we mo­ti­vate young girls to ex­plore the world of en­gi­neer­ing and carve out a place for them­selves in this chal­leng­ing yet thrilling in­dus­try.

3. It en­ables women’s voic­es

Women in En­gi­neer­ing Day up­lifts the women who have cho­sen un­con­ven­tion­al ca­reers in STEM. The day of­fers a plat­form for women en­gi­neers to share their ex­pe­ri­ences of work­ing in a tech­ni­cal in­dus­try, and the chal­lenges they face nav­i­gat­ing a male-dom­i­nat­ed field.