Engineering Equity: Award wins, national recognition and how we’re celebrating International Women in Engineering Day

AWE has a lot to celebrate this International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), including several individual award wins, a collaboration with New Scientist, colleague networking events and the launch of a new internal digital collaboration safe space.

Two female AWE engineers have been honoured in the Top 50 Women in Engineering (WE50) UK awards and two others have been highly commended in the Top 100. Three others were also recently shortlisted for awards at the Women in Construction & Engineering (WICE) awards, with two going on to win their categories.

The WE50 awards were launched by the Women’s Engineering Society in 2016 and announced to mark INWED each year. This year’s theme is #TogetherWeEngineer and each of the 50 women engineers are being celebrated for their collaborative work to improve lives through engineering.  

Hear from our winners…

Anna Terry, Principal Mechanical Engineer

Speaking of her award Anna said: “I’m incredibly proud to be named in this year’s WE50! This recognition wouldn’t be possible without the brilliant engineers I’ve had the privilege to work alongside. I hope my journey shows other women that it is possible to thrive in engineering while balancing family life.”

Davina Urquhart, Welding Engineer

Speaking on her award Davina said: “I was absolutely delighted to be considered worthy of a nomination, never mind an award. It is especially a pleasure to represent the women of engineering in this year’s theme, “Together We Engineer”. I am totally elated to have been chosen and look forward to advocating the great work us women do in engineering.”

This year was a first for AWE colleagues entering the WICE awards, which aim to make the construction and engineering industries more enticing to women. Our three engineering colleagues competed against 154 other finalists selected from over 350 nominations from 12 countries across three continents, with two going on to win their categories.

Some of our female engineers took the time to speak with New Scientist’s podcast host Claire Ainsworth about their roles, to highlight the equal opportunities and flexible work-life balance opportunities available here at AWE.

You can listen to Helen and Stacey talk about their interesting career paths, current roles, and their shared insights into fostering inclusivity in STEM on the New Scientist Colab Podcast series. You’ll also pick up some top tips and advice for women looking at careers in STEM, and more specifically nuclear security here with us at AWE.

Listen here.

Keep an eye out next month (July) when Lorna and Jenny from our engineering team also share their stories in the upcoming episodes of our collaboration with the New Scientist podcast.

Creating space for new ideas

Today, across our sites, women and allies will participate in a range of networking events and panel discussions, plus the trial launch of an internal digital collaboration space for women in our engineering team. This will be a safe, virtual environment where female engineers can connect, discuss, suggest, and share knowledge – with the ultimate goal of engineering a secured future together. You can read more about working at AWE and how we’re bucking the trend for the nuclear industry’s image here.

We know our people are the best of the best, delivering excellence and innovation in nuclear science and technology. These remarkable award wins and inspiring stories recognise the outstanding contributions of our female engineers in delivering our extraordinary mission.