Today marks International Women in Engineering Day, Engineers Ireland is calling on Ireland’s female engineering talent to take centre stage as role models to inspire future generations of engineers.

According to Engineers Ireland’s ‘Engineering 2021: A barometer of the profession in Ireland’ report, the professional body found that 84% of female engineers agreed that engineering is a rewarding career choice, with 71% of female engineers confident about job opportunities in Ireland.

However, with female engineers representing just 12% of the profession, Engineers Ireland is now calling for greater visibility of female engineering trailblazers to encourage more females into the profession.

“Although female engineers may be a minority in the profession, the impact of our female engineering leaders is noticeable on the world stage,” commented Professor Orla Feely, President of Engineers Ireland. “Many prominent positions are held by our homegrown talent, such as Dr Ann Kelleher and Ann-Marie Holmes of Intel and Professor Linda Doyle, Provost Elect at Trinity College Dublin. These engineers are making a positive impact on our lives today, and their work will continue to create a lasting impact on society for generations to come.”

Professor Feely continued: “As we look towards the Ireland of the future, greater representation by female engineers will be required to ensure that we apply all our talents and a diversity of viewpoints to the challenges and opportunities that we face in areas such as climate change and digital transformation. With greater representation and awareness of female engineering leaders as role models, school children and early career professionals will also be afforded with the opportunity to have access to a greater number of mentors to guide their career journey.”

Concluding, Professor Feely encouraged all engineering professionals to play their role in nurturing female talent: “Whether early-career engineers or senior leaders, all engineers should play their role as allies for their female counterparts. By working together, we can nurture our future engineering talent and also help female engineers create a clear pathway for progression, so they remain in academia and industry.”

Engineers Ireland’s International Women in Engineering Day events

To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day on Wednesday, 23 June, Engineers Ireland’s Women in Engineering Group will host a lunchtime panel discussion on Rethinking Work Culture. Panellists Margarete McGrath, Global Strategic Propositions Lead at Dell Technologies and Fergus Sharkey, Senior Manager at Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, will discuss how organisations are altering work practices in the post-COVID19 era and lessons learned since March 2020. More information and registration details can be found here.

Over 100 primary school students from classrooms across Ireland will also join five online workshops to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day. Hosted by Engineers Ireland’s STEPS programme, students from Kerry, Donegal, Mayo, Tipperary and Kildare will tune in to live interactive workshops such as Engineering with Paper, Creative Coding, and Engineers to the Rescue, to learn about the exciting world of engineering.

STEPS Ambassador and NASA Datanaut Fionnghuala O’Reilly will also host an intimate Q&A session with 15 Girl Guides and Brownies who took part in the STEPS Irish Girl Guide Engineering E-Badge challenge series. A Hall of Fame has been created to showcase the innovative project ideas developed by these future engineers. Check out the Hall of Fame today.