EPC Chief Executive, Johnny Rich, marks #INWED26 by celebrating the moves towards gender equality in engineering academia and the EPC itself and inviting all academics to contribute to our efforts.
I have been delighted to work alongside so many fantastic women engineers at the Engineering Professors’ Council. During the last ten years, three of the six Presidents it has been my honour to work with have been inspiring women – Prof Steph Haywood, Prof Sarah Spurgeon OBE FREng, and the current president Professor Georgina Harris. Three of our four current directors are women and nearly half our executive board.
At this year’s Annual Congress, 48% of the speakers were female and around 40% of delegates. In the past 9 years, we have not held a single event with an all-male panel. We were delighted to establish an ongoing partnership with WES (the Women’s Engineering Society) a few years ago.
I believe the male-dominated face of engineering is changing and academia is trying to lead the way. I’m not saying this in order to boast about the EPC’s achievements – partly because the achievement belongs to the women themselves and because the EPC still has a long way to go – but to celebrate the fact that greater diversity in our community has improved it for all and giving space to more women’s voices has enriched the conversation for everyone.
Engineering exists to serve everyone and how can it possibly succeed if not everyone is included.
On that note, I am delighted that the EPC is working with Royal Academy of Engineering to create an Inclusive Engineering Toolkit, which will be launched toward the end of the year. The invitation to contribute is now open.
