To mark International Women’s Day, we have today launched the call for entries for our 2019 Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards (YWE).
The Awards celebrate women working in modern engineering – and aim to help change the perception that engineering is predominantly a career for men by banishing outdated engineering stereotypes of hard hats and dirty overalls.
As well as highlighting female engineering talent, the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards seek to find role models who can help address the UK science and engineering skills crisis by promoting engineering careers to more girls and women. Just 12% of those working in engineering occupations are women (source: Engineering UK).
Sophie Harker, an Aerodynamics & Performance Engineer for BAE Systems won the 2018 IET YWE Award. In her role, she performs aerodynamic and performance analyses on future combat jets, as well as exploring hypersonic flight concepts and the application of emerging technologies in aviation.
New for this year, another award category has been added to the line-up. The Gender Diversity Ambassador Award will be presented to an individual who has spent a large proportion of their career committed to addressing the gender imbalance within their profession. This individual will have made a significant contribution to the engineering gender diversity arena and the work the IET encourages to address the gender diversity gap.
Jo Foster
, IET Diversity and Inclusion Manager, added: “We want to make it clear that engineering is a fantastic career for women. Outdated views and stereotypes are damaging to the industry, especially when there is a significant shortage of engineers, which poses a serious threat to the economy. It’s vital we champion engineering – it’s a diverse, creative and exciting career, which offers the opportunity to do something life – or even – world changing.
“There are thousands of female engineers doing amazing things – from advancements in healthcare technology to space exploration. The Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards showcase some of the best female engineering talent in this country, hopefully encouraging the next generation to get excited about the possibilities of an engineering career.”
Please help us spread the word about these Awards, by sharing it with your networks. You can also share this via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, using the hashtags #IETYWE.
The deadline for entry to the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards is 7 July 2019. For more information, visit: www.theiet.org/ywe.