Today marks the 9th year of celebrating International Women in Day and CIHT are proud to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of women in engineering and encourage more girls and young women to pursue a career in engineering.
International Women in Engineering Day is a annual event to raise the profile of female engineers and technicians, spotlighting their achievements in engineering. INWED gives women engineers around the world a profile when they are still hugely under-represented in their professions. As the only platform of its kind, it plays a vital role in encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering careers.
Girls and women make up less than 18% of higher apprentices in engineering & manufacturing, and 7.4% of all engineering apprentices (Engineering UK 2018). To mark International Women in Engineering Day 2022, we have spoken to some of our talented and inspiring female members about their motivations, their careers and their advice on becoming an engineer. You can find their Q&A’s here.
Both CIHT’s female president Deborah Sims and Chief Executive Sue Percy have also been busy this week appearing on podcasts to celebrate INWED and discussing how we can encourage the younger generation of women to join the engineering sector.
Deborah Sims took part in a CIHT ‘Transport Talks’ podcast to discuss her career and how to inspire and encourage young women to join the engineering sector. Deborah said ‘by getting role models in front of children, feeding their curiosity and sewing them seeds, in future a large number of girls will hopefully think about careers in highways and transportation’. You can listen to the full podcast here.
Sue Percy took part in ‘Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow’; the very first episode of ‘Connecting the country’ – podcast by National Highways, the government-owned company responsible for motorways and major trunk roads in England. Leading female innovators and inventors in road transport discussed how best to support women’s leadership. Listen here.
Sue Percy Chief Executive, CIHT said: “Now in its ninth year International Women in Engineering Day (23 June 2022) plays a vital role in encouraging more women and girls to take up careers in the highways, transportation and infrastructure sector. CIHT is a staunch supporter of this initiative and along with our members we are taking part in numerous STEM activities around the country inspiring young women into the sector.”
‘The transport and infrastructure sector recognises the benefits of having a much more diverse and inclusive environment in which to work. But we can do more. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is a core theme for CIHT and the next 12 months will see us build on our new EDI strategy (Shifting the dial) and initiate several activities that will help our sector to broaden its appeal and change for the better”.
CIHT are also holding a IWED ‘Overcoming Imposter Syndrome’ webinar. CIHT’s Chief Executive Sue Percy will host this interactive webinar where speakers :
– Deborah Sims CIHT President, FCIHT, Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering at the University of Greenwich
– Helen Townend Technical Director and EDI Lead for Amey Consulting, Chair of the Women at Amey network
– Helen Samuels Managing Director, EKFB,
As the world continues to become more technologically advanced, women in engineering are playing an increasingly important role. On Women in Engineering Day, we are proud to celebrate the progress that has been made and encourage everyone to keep supporting women in this field. We hope you will join us in honoring these amazing individuals who help make our world a better place.
