In 1919 at the end of the First World War the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) was founded to support women who had been employed as engineers. A change in the law to return women engineers to the home just as their sisters were admitted into the civil service and legal professions, led to the establishment of WES by pioneering and influential women.
WES has worked tirelessly for over a hundred years to ensure equality for women in engineering. Today WES’ mission is to support women in engineering to fulfil their potential and support the engineering industry to be inclusive. WES does this by:
- Supporting women to achieve their potential as engineers, applied scientists and leaders and to reward excellence.
- Encouraging and promoting the education, study and application of engineering.
- Working with organisations and influencers to promote gender diversity and equality in the workplace and sustain the historic legacy and future effectiveness of the Women’s Engineering Society.
However, research from EngineeringUK in 2021 has shown that only 16.5% of those working in engineering are female. Analysis of trends in women in the engineering workforce between 2010 and 2021 shows a six percentage point increase in the proportion of women in the engineering workforce, but is this good enough?
In 2023, International Women in Engineering Day, #INWED, will celebrate its 10th year and will be promoting the amazing work that women engineers across the globe are doing. INWED gives women engineers around the world a profile when they are still hugely under-represented. As the only platform of its kind, it plays a vital role in encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering careers.
At CC Ground Investigations we are proud to announce that the gender balance in our Engineering team is 42% women. Our women engineers have over 75 years of experience between them covering many different technical roles including Engineering Geologists, Geotechnical Engineers, Project managers, Site Managers and Design Engineers. Alongside these roles they also act as educators, provide careers advice and mentor colleagues, all of which we hope will encourage young people of all genders to enter the engineering profession.