South West Illinois News

Each year on June 23rd, International Women in Engineering Day is celebrated to recognize the efforts of women in engineering. This year marks the eleventh official celebration of the observance and encompasses a worldwide audience of women engineers. The tradition began in 2014 in the United Kingdom by the Women’s Engineering Society to raise awareness about the lack of diversity in engineering and serve as a campaign to promote the field, hoping to recruit more women to pursue engineering.

The observance started as National Women in Engineering Day, specific to the United Kingdom until 2017. June 23, 2014, was chosen for the first annual celebration because it also marked the 95th anniversary of Women’s Engineering Society’s establishment.

The first woman to earn a degree in engineering in the United States was Edith Clarke, who earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1918 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to her engineering degree, Clarke earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and astronomy. During her career, she worked on designing and building hydroelectric dams for the Hoover Dam. Her contributions laid the foundation for modern-day turbines still used there today. Her best-known invention was the Clarke calculator, which helped solve electrical engineering problems.

In Illinois, Mary Thelma Miller became the first woman to obtain a Bachelor of Science in engineering when she earned her civil engineering degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in 1933. Miller was described as “enjoying the freedom of a man’s world” by Illinois Magazine Staff. Of her 61 classmates, Miller was the sole woman earning an engineering degree that year.

Nancy Brazell Brooks was Illinois' first woman to receive a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in 1953. She received her M.S. in Civil Engineering after earning her undergraduate degree from Alabama Polytechnic Institute. While earning her master’s, Brazell Brooks served as the first woman on the department’s research staff and worked on several structural research projects. She pioneered bringing computers into engineering and later co-founded a small research and development firm.

As of 2023, approximately 17% of the global engineering workforce comprises women. In STEM fields overall, women make up roughly 31% worldwide. Many colleges and universities have tailored their programs to help recruit and retain women students.

This year’s theme for INWED is “#Enhancedbyengineering.” On INWED's website, sign-ups are available for Women's Engineering Society's annual seminar along with steps and accounts for joining celebrations through social media.