June 23 was Women in Engineering Day. It was started by the Women’s Engineering Society in England in 2014 as a national event to showcase successes and achievements of female engineers. In 2017 the day received UNESCO support, making it an international event.
Each year since its founding Women in Engineering Day has been a platform to demonstrate the incredible work of women engineers worldwide and includes events and activities to raise the profile of women in engineering and empowering female engineers to reach their potential. IEEE WIE’s origins can be traced back to the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society’s ad hoc committee on women, created in 1994. A year later UFFC made a motion to the IEEE Technical Activities Board to create a committee on women in engineering, which was approved. A few months later the IEEE Board of Directors made this group one of its ad hoc committees and funded it to develop a formal program to increase the number of female members.
Saadia Khan, VP of Engineering and DevOps at Hammerspace says that, “By celebrating the remarkable achievements of women in engineering - despite the distinct hurdles many have encountered in building careers and advancing into leadership in the high-tech space - we can ignite the curiosity of the next generation of women to explore the diverse opportunities available in the STEM fields.