Women’s Engineering Society - National Women in Engineering Day

Winner of the WISE Campaign Award 2015

12 November 2015

Women’s Engineering Society - National Women in Engineering Day

National Women in Engineering Day was launched by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) in 2014 to highlight the work of women in the industry, and the amazing career opportunities available. Ownership for events is taken by the participants, to encourage support at grass roots level, with volunteers at WES co-ordinating the campaign. Over 750 copies of a resource pack were sent out for NWED 2015, which saw 350 events in the UK and five abroad, making it the largest campaign of its kind. It has huge buy-in from major engineering companies, over 150 media reports, and acknowledgment in the UK and Scottish parliaments.

The campaign reached over 1 million people through a Twitter 'Thunderclap', while the official hashtag #nwed received over 90 million impressions, trending for around nine hours on Twitter which put it top in the UK and fifth worldwide. Dawn Bonfield, president of WES, says: “This year we were absolutely amazed by the uptake of the day. We’re unlocking something here. The whole is much bigger than the parts.” Dawn hopes winning the WISE award will help the day to become self-sustaining and take on a life of its own, similar to International Women’s Day.

The judges commented: The winning campaign reached a huge audience with significant buy in from major engineering firms. It has created fantastic outreach opportunities and social media messages which have gone viral.