Historical Entry—Monday/Friday, June 23, 2014/2017
The First World War changed the social landscape in Great Britain. While women had been protesting for the right to vote, they were not gaining much traction. Technical jobs were, by law, closed to women. The drain of men due to the ongoing conflict changed that as there weren’t enough men to fill the needed roles. This led to a sudden opening of technical and engineering jobs for women. However, as the war ended, the women were, rightfully from the historical proof of times before, concerned that they would lose their jobs and be forced to return to a society where they could not work in the engineering fields. Sure enough, as the men returned from mainland Europe, the women started losing their jobs. What could they do?
Inspiration came from the recent (1908-1918) suffrage movement. The Suffragettes had managed to get laws passed to allow women to vote for the first time in England. In the hopes of keeping their jobs, women who had managed factories, worked on shop floors designing and building equipment, and done maintenance in workshops and engine sheds banded together and formed a group they called the Women’s Engineering Society (WES). In honor of the group that had inspired them, they used the Suffrage Movement’s colors (green, white, and violet) in the WES logo.
The British Parliament passed the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 on 23 December 1919. The act allowed women to join professions and professional bodies, sit on juries, and be awarded college degrees. A single day later, on 24 December 1919, Parliament legally recognized the WES. A huge win for women in technical fields.
WES’s stated mission was “to promote the study and practice of engineering among women”, “to facilitate the exchange of ideas respecting the interests, training, and employment of technical women”, and produce “publication and communication of information on such subjects”.
Flash forward to 2014. For its 95th anniversary, the WES created National Women in Engineering Day. The idea behind the day was to hold events around Great Britain to raise awareness of the achievements of women in engineering, profile those women, and create events to show that engineering held as many opportunities for women as for men.
The event went so well that WES leadership decided to make the event an annual one. By 2016, the event had continued to grow and gained the patronage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). With the additional UNESCO support, WES expanded the reach of the day to the international level in 2017.
International Women in Engineering Day
Historical Event
2014/2017
This Day in Science Fiction History examines notable events, real and fictional, concerning fantasy and science fiction in various media.
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