Women's Engineering Society
"The Women's Engineering Society was formed 'to promote the study and practice of engineering among women...'"[1]
1919 The society was formed after the First World War, during which many women had taken up roles in engineering to replace men who were involved in the military effort. There had been an attitude among employers and trades unions that denied women jobs and training in engineering. While it had been seen as necessary to bring women into engineering to fill the gap left by men joining the armed forces, government, employers and trades unions were against the continuing employment of women after the war.[2]
1919 Founding directors were Margaret Rowbotham, Eleanor Georgiana Shelley-Rolls, Rachel Parsons, Katherine Parsons, Janette Mary Ormsby, Margaret Moir, Laura A. Willson. Rachel Parsons became the society's first president.[3]. Others taking a part in the Society from an early stage included Verena Holmes and Dorothee Pullinger; Margaret Partridge joined in 1920.
1920 A Conference was held in London under the presidency of Lady Parsons. Reference was made to the hostile attitude of the trade unions to the employment of women in engineering factories. The society demanded that all technical colleges should be open to girls as well as boys.[4]
1924 Miss C. Griff was Chairman.[5]
1926 The fourth annual Conference of Women Engineers was held at Leeds University from September 3rd to 6th next, inclusive.[6]
The WES joined forces with the International Labour Office’s Women’s Employment section and the International Federation of Business and Professional Women to get the law which prohibited the industrial employment of women at night (ratified by the Washington Convention of the International Labour Organization in 1919). In 1934 there was a partial relaxation, so that supervisory-grade women could work at night, but full repeal was not achieved until the 1950s.[7]
1966 Miss Rose Winslade became president.[8]
Presidents
- 2015-present Benita Mehra
- 2014-2015 Dawn Bonfield MBE
- 2013-2014 Carol Marsh
- 2011-2013 Milada Williams
- 2008-2010 Jan Peters MBE
- 2007 Grazyna Whapshott
- 2005-2006 Dawn Fitt
- 2003-2004 Pam Wain
- 2002 Jackie Carpenter
- 2001 Jackie Longworth MBE
- 2000 Nicole Rockliff
- 1999 Suzanne Flynn
- 1998 Petra Godwin
- 1997-1998 Philippa Ayton
- 1995-1997 Mary Harris / Sue Bird
- 1993-1995 Lynette Willoughby
- 1991-1993 Sue Bird
- 1989-1991 Dorothy Hatfield OBE
- 1987-1989 Hilda Blount
- 1985-1987 Linda Maynard
- 1983-1985 Daphne Jackson OBE
- 1982-1983 Rosemary West
- 1980-1981 Maria Watkins
- 1978-1979 Veronica Milligan
- 1976-1977 Henrietta Bussell
- 1974-1975 Gwendolen Howard
- 1972-1973 Peggy Hodges OBE
- 1970-1971 May Maple
- 1968-1969 Elizabeth Laverick OBE
- 1966-1967 Rose Winslade OBE
- 1965-1965 Cicely Thompson MBE
- 1964-1964 Dorothy Cridland
- 1963-1963 Cicely Thompson MBE
- 1961-1962 Isabel Hardwich
- 1959-1960 Madeleine Nobbs
- 1957-1958 Marjorie Bell
- 1955-1956 Kathleen Cook
- 1954-1955 Dorothy Pile
- 1952-1953 Ella Collin
- 1950-1951 Sheila Leather
- 1948-1949 Frances Heywood
- 1946-1947 Winifred Hackett
- 1944-1945 Margaret Partridge
- 1942-1943 Gertrude Entwistle
- 1940-1941 Dame Caroline Haslett
- 1938-1939 Edith Mary Douglas
- 1935-1937 Amy Johnson CBE
- 1933-1934 Elizabeth M. Kennedy
- 1931-1932 Verena Holmes
- 1929-1930 Lady Margaret Moir OBE
- 1926-1928 Laura Willson MBE
- 1922-1925 The Hon Katharine, Lady Parsons
- 1919-1921 Rachel Parsons
See Also
Sources of Information
- Women's Engineering Society [1]