Women's Engineering Society
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| Abbreviation | WES |
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| Formation | 1919 |
| Legal status | Charity |
| Location |
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| Coordinates | 51°53′46″N 0°12′09″W / 51.896062°N 0.202365°WCoordinates: 51°53′46″N 0°12′09″W / 51.896062°N 0.202365°W |
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Region
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United Kingdom |
| Fields | Engineering |
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Current President
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Benita Mehra |
| Mission | Inspiring and supporting girls and women to achieve their potential as engineers, applied scientists and technical leaders. To work collaboratively to assist educators, employers and influencers in creating a diverse engineering community. |
| Website | www |
The Women's Engineering Society is a United Kingdom professional learned society and networking body for women engineers, scientists and technologists.
The society was formed in 1919, after the First World War, during which many women had taken up roles in engineering to replace men who were involved in the military effort. There had been an attitude among employers and trades unions that denied women jobs and training in engineering. While it had been seen as necessary to bring women into engineering to fill the gap left by men joining the armed forces, government, employers and trades unions were against the continuing employment of women after the war.
This led a group of women, including Lady Katherine Parsons and her daughter Rachel Parsons, also Verena Holmes who would become the first female member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers to form the Women's Engineering Society, with the aim of enabling women to gain training, jobs and acceptance. There is a parallel with the difficulties faced by women in medicine in the 19th century.
The society has an archive documenting women's status in engineering and provides an insight into women's changing role in society. The archive is hosted by the IET.
The society celebrated its 95th year in 2014 with the launch of National Women in Engineering Day on 23 June 2014.
The Society is a company limited by guarantee 162096 registered at Companies House and it a charity 1008913 registered at the Charity Commission.
Society members have advised the UK government on evolving employment practices for women. Constituted as a professional society with membership grades based on qualification and experience, the society promotes the study and practice of engineering and allied sciences among women.
WES is represented by groups. The work of the groups focuses on:
The society's journal The Woman Engineer contained technical articles in its early years. It now contains articles which give engineers a view of work in engineering disciplines and celebrates the achievements of women.
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Wikipedia