International Women in Engineering Day 2025
The theme for this year’s International Women in Engineering Day (INWED 2025) is "Together We Engineer". Today, we celebrate the voices, experiences, and achievements of women within the SUSTAIN Hub community, as well as stories from those who have been inspired by, or supported by, remarkable women in their lives, showcasing the powerful impact of allyship and collaboration. We invited our community to share short reflections, stories, and thoughts, highlighting both successes and areas where progress is still needed. As we reflect on how far we’ve come in supporting women in engineering, we also reiterate our commitment to addressing the challenges that remain.
Dr Maryam Ghalati, University of Leicester
As an applied mathematician working closely with engineers, my interest in STEM was sparked in high school when I learned that an Iranian girl had won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. That girl was Maryam Mirzakhani, who later became the first woman to receive the Fields Medal — often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics. Sharing both her name and cultural background made her achievements feel especially personal and inspiring. Her story showed me that excellence in mathematics and engineering is possible for an Iranian girl. Today, I’m proud to contribute to interdisciplinary research and to support the next generation of women in engineering and science. Together, we help more girls everywhere see themselves as future engineers, scientists, and change makers.
Dr Iris Carneiro, University of Birmingham
What inspired you to pursue engineering?
Engineering was a natural choice for me because I've always been interested in how the world works, even as a young child, constantly asking questions and trying to take things apart to understand all their mechanisms. The fascination with materials engineering stems from the notion that they are the foundation of everything and that without knowledge of them, no invention could be made. I discovered the enormous variety that we can produce and that already exists. Their diverse behaviours and our ability to modify them to spur global innovation and advancement are amazing.
What are your experiences working as a woman in engineering?
I recall doing an outreach event on physics during my final year of school. One of the activities we demonstrated was a small robot that was programmed to follow a path that was drawn. The fact that "girls can like robots too!" surprised the elementary school students. Even though it's a very small event, I believe it serves as a small illustration of the value of representation in science, particularly for younger audiences.
During my undergrad, I did an internship at a ductile iron foundry dedicated to the production of components for the automobile industry. I worked mainly on the industry floor where the environment was male predominant and where the same surprise of women being interested in engineering and able to work in this industry, which once again shows the need to have more female representation in engineering.
What are your hopes for the future of women in engineering?
Although there is still much work to be done, I think that women's representation in STEM fields, particularly engineering, has been improving over time. I hope to see in the future an engineering picture with higher diversity and inclusion, not only in gender but involving all the minorities, especially in leadership roles. This would greatly enrich the engineering field and inspire more people to chase their science passion feeling included in all science fields.
Dr Khalil Khan, Swansea University
Inspired by My Mum and Grandma: A Legacy of Strength, Strategy and Stewardship
This International Women in Engineering Day, I find myself reflecting not on a famous inventor or a celebrated academic — but on two women from my own family whose influence quietly but powerfully shaped how I think, lead and solve problems: my mum and my grandmother.
I grew up in a small village in Pakistan, surrounded by dusty roads, wells, livestock and acres of farmland. But to me, it was a world full of wonder, where every corner held a lesson — especially when you watched closely enough. And no one taught me more than my grandmother.
She had no formal education, no certificates or qualifications, just wisdom handed down from her mother and years of experience carved into her hands and her spirit. By day, she was the village’s unofficial vet, doctor and midwife — tending to cows, goats and people alike. With herbs she grew herself and remedies she learned through tradition, she eased pain and saved lives. People came from miles around, never once asked to pay. “Help others today,” she’d say with a calm certainty, “and someone will help you tomorrow.”
But she wasn’t only a healer, she was a strategist. A true systems thinker. As a farmer, she knew exactly when to sow seeds, when to water, how to ration supplies and how to manage farm hands through the toughest harvests. She understood how to make the land work efficiently, how to draw life from scarce resources and how to care for both crops and people with the same attentiveness. In every sense of the word, she was an engineer — just never called one.
My mum, on the other hand, held a Master’s degree in Literature. She wasn’t a scientist or a technician, but she was a strong believer in education — all education. She ran our home with grace and precision, managing limited finances with care and balancing family life with community expectations through quiet strength. She gave me the freedom to explore, ask questions and tinker. I remember radios dismantled across the floor, magnets stuck to plates and walkie-talkies made from scavenged speakers and old electronics. Not once was I told to stop. She made learning feel like freedom.
Her cooking, too, was chemistry in action. Watching her combine ingredients with such control and intuition often felt like watching a scientist at work — balancing the exact measure of spice, time and heat to create something magical. She never claimed to be a role model, but to me, she embodied consistency, logic, care and a kind of everyday brilliance that builds strong foundations in others.
Even beyond my home, the lessons of these women stayed with me. Watching them adapt, solve and lead taught me that engineering isn’t always about equations or machines. It’s about creating solutions that improve lives. It’s about systems, timing, resources and responsibility. It’s about care.
So no, my journey into STEM didn’t begin in a lab or with a textbook. It began in a kitchen, on a patch of farmland — in the hands of a grandmother healing a goat and a mother stirring a pot. Their presence still echoes in every decision I make — as a materials engineer, a project manager and a son, brother, husband and father shaped by the quiet brilliance of two women who engineered without ever needing the title.
This year’s theme, Together We Engineer, couldn’t be more fitting. Because long before I knew what the word “engineering” meant, I had already seen it lived, every single day.
