WISE Founder and Patron Honoured at the Royal Academy of Engineering
The WISE Campaign is 25 this year. Founded in 1984 by Baroness Platt of Writtle, WISE has been successfully challenging and changing traditional views of women in STEM for the last quarter of a century and we are busier and more active than ever.
Baroness Platt has been honoured with a photographic portrait, which was presented as a tribute to the Royal Academy of Engineering. It was taken by Robert Taylor so that it would form part of a suite of matching portraits of Women of Outstanding Achievement in Engineering which is now displayed at the Academy (read more in the Royal Academy's Inspiring Women Engineers).
LADY PLATT WITH HER PORTRAIT
AND WITH THE OTHER WOMEN OF OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
(left to right Professor Wendy Hall, Professor Julia King, Dr Joanna Kennedy and Baroness Platt of Writtle)
Baroness Platt is the Founding Chair and Patron of WISE, and a role model to all girls who are thinking of following
a career in engineering. When the young Beryl Myatt (as she was then) arrived at Girton College, Cambridge, she found herself one of only five girls amongst 250 men reading Mechanical Sciences, (which we now know as Engineering)...read her amazing story.
Things are changing - today 13% of engineering undergraduates are women, compared to only 4% twenty years ago. But there is still much to do to enourage more of the huge pool of talented young girls to pursue STEM education and careers, and to address the gender imbalance in classrooms and workplaces.
The Royal Academy of Engineering, one of the core supporters of WISE, is playing its part in helping to redress this imbalance with its commitment to encouraging diversity in Engineering. Visit http://www.raeng.org.uk/about/diversity/wise.htm to find out more about the Royal Academy's Diversity Collaborative Activities.
Back to topThe formation of WISE!
The WISE Campaign is 25 this year. As part of our celebrations, we are looking back at the formation and early days of WISE. WISE was originally a one-year project aimed at increasing the number of women in science and engineering. However, 25 years later, we're still going strong!
Click here to view the report that brought about the foundation of WISE!
Here is the first WISE leaflet, and here is the first WISE pamphlet.
Meet an Inspirational Woman who's been with WISE from the start!
Mitra was a member of WISE 25 years ago, and is still having a great career in IT!
Click here to find out more about Mitra!
WISE and WES
WISE and WES Joint Anniversary!
Not only is WISE 25 this year, the Women's Engineering Society (WES) is also celebrating its 90th anniversary!
The President of WES, Jan Peters, had the following to say on the matter:
"WES is delighted to see the WISE Campaign go from strength to strength and continue to innovate ways of engaging girls in science and engineering. That we both have joint anniversaries in 2009 strengthens the close relationship that has existed since 1984 when WES's members helped make the WISE Year and have since benefitted from WISE. We look forward to continuing to work with and support WISE activites by providing role models as, for example, many of our members did for the WISE buses."
