About Us
Our Vision
An engineering industry that employs the diversity of the society it serves, to solve the biggest societal issues of our time.
Our Mission
To support women in engineering to fulfil their potential and support the engineering industry to be inclusive.
Our Values
Every employee and volunteer is a custodian of our history, and a contributor to our future. We’re collaborative, empowered, and inclusive.
Our Focus Areas
- Supporting women in engineering at every stage of their career with skills and career development through webinars, collaboration with professional bodies, partner programmes, and mentoring and job opportunities
- Supporting businesses and institutions to attract and retain women in engineering by providing access to a network of talent for recruitment and raising business profiles through equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) collaboration
- Shaping the engineering gender diversity debate in industry and with government via the Woman Engineer Journal, collaborating in EDI in engineering research, and shaping campaigns to build an inclusive and diverse engineering community
- Driving innovation on sustainability in engineering through gender diversity and delivering environmental sustainability as an organisation. Read our sustainability statement here.
WES has supported women in engineering for over 100 years.
We were founded by members of the National Council of Women during the First World War to:
- Campaign for the pioneering women who worked in engineering and technical roles during the War to retain these roles when the war ended.
- Promote engineering as a rewarding job for women
Who we are now
Today, our charitable company continues to inspire and support diversity in engineering by:
- Promoting the education of women in engineering
- Raising the international profile of female engineers
- Educating the public about inclusive career opportunities
We make a difference by empowering our network of female engineers to:
- CONNECT at WES events, such as our Annual Conference
- PARTICIPATE in local events and meet other members
- GROW by becoming a mentor or mentee