National women in engineering day 2015
The Faculty of Engineering is celebrating National Women in Engineering Day today to commend all of our female engineering students and alumni.
Students from engineering have chosen today to launch the Faculty’s very own Student Women’s Engineering Society. The Society has been formed by three of our students: Farah Khoury, Sophie Day and Annabel Downing. Their aims are to strengthen the link between female students in the Faculty and the women making great strides in the sector, as well as increasing employability for female students for when they graduate from Leeds.
Civil Engineering student Annabel Downing, President of the new Student Women’s Engineering Society at Leeds, details why her team have set up the Society:
“With less than 20% of jobs in the engineering sector going to women, it is important to create stronger networking links and promote the need for diversity in the engineering workplace. As a society, we aim to strengthen the bond between female students studying engineering courses at the University of Leeds as well as strengthen the bond between those students and the women who are making great strides in the sector. We have one eye on employability and the other on creating a greater conversion rate from women studying engineering to the women shaping the engineering sector.
"The Student Women’s Engineering Society will endeavour to be much more than just a social experience whilst at university, we will aim to lay foundations which will ultimately help our members get into the workplace and thrive there. The Faculty has supported us throughout the formation process and are enthusiastic about the creation of the Student Women’s Engineering Society.
"We are looking to engage and excite our members with events, workshops and Q&A sessions with a wide variety of keynote speakers, from PhD students in the Faculty to established engineers and professionals already working in industry."
In addition to the launch of the society, the Faculty, in collaboration with Women in Science, Engineering and Technology and the North Yorkshire Young Members panel of the iMechE, are hosting an event to celebrate women engineers in Yorkshire. The event will feature talks from some of our region’s most exciting female engineering mentors and role models. Speakers include Dr Pamela Liversidge – First female President of the IMechE, Prof Anne Neville – RAEng Chair in Emerging Technologies from the University of Leeds, Emily Burns – Faculty of Engineering Alumna and now Test Engineer at DePuy Synthes and Claire Rose – Senior Engineer at Bechtel Corporation. The event takes place on Tuesday 23 June at 6pm in lecture theatre A in the School of Mechanical Engineering. More details and how to book a place on the event are available here.
In further celebration of our female engineers, throughout this week the Faculty of Engineering will be featuring some of our most prominent and successful female engineering students and alumni on the Faculty's website, facebook and twitter.
National Women in Engineering Day was established by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to celebrate the work of women engineers, and showcase the great engineering careers that are available for girls. The society aims to focus attention on the great opportunities for women in engineering, at a time when it has never been more important to address the engineering skills shortage.
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