Diverse career possibilities inspire students on International Women in Engineering Day

International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), celebrated annually on 23 June, is a global initiative aimed at recognising and celebrating the outstanding achievements of women in the field of engineering. INWED serves as a powerful platform to highlight the diverse contributions that women make to this sector, while also encouraging young girls and women to aspire to a career in engineering.

INWED 2024 was marked with a “Design Your Future City” event hosted by Aurecon, The Diversity Agenda and the University of Auckland’s Women in Engineering (WIE). The event aimed to promote engineering careers to young girls and women and attracted a mix of high school students, university students and industry professionals.

STEM Alliance was there to facilitate a mixed-method event evaluation, drawing on participant interviews, surveys and bean polls. Our evaluation highlighted the event's success in reinforcing positive attitudes towards engineering and showing the diversity of engineering careers. It also provided actionable insights for future events. Here’s a snapshot of what we found:

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STEM Alliance supports organisations to deliver effective, inclusive outreach & engagement initiatives. One area of expertise is our robust outcomes mapping and outcomes harvesting framework, which was used to complete this evaluation.

The University of Auckland Women in Engineering supports secondary school students to see the opportunities that engineering presents. They help students transition to tertiary studies through outreach activities, university open days, mentoring, tutoring and more.

Aurecon is an international design, engineering and advisory company. They bring ideas to life and are committed to working with their clients to co-create a better future for people and the planet.

The Diversity Agenda is a movement that aims to help engineering and architecture firms become more diverse and inclusive through awareness, empowerment and action.