Women’s Engineering Society’s 90th birthday

Last month I attended the Women’s Engineering Society (WES – http://www.wes.org.uk/) annual conference and it was good fun and interesting as usual. I love the fact that WES members are of all ages and stages in their careers, working in all fields and with a broad range of politics and interests – it’s not often you have a discussion about the subjunctive over breakfast with a someone who’s just written a science fiction book about a woman engineer! – http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/automatic-lover/2649880

It’s WES’s 90th birthday this year! It was set up just after WW1 to support women who wanted to continue in engineering after the war – having been encouraged into engineering work to ‘help the war effort’ they were then expected to meekly go back to their homes and kitchens, but many had got a taste for the independance and the interesting work. WES has an interesting history – Amy Johnson was President from 1935-7, and it was involved in the Electrical Association for Women (set up in 1924 to encourage women to use electrical apparatuses in the home!).

The opening speaker at the conference was Dr Wendy Schultz, a Futurist – http://www.infinitefutures.com/ - a great speaker and a fascinating talk envisoning possible futures – from the fairly inevitable to the too fantastical.

It was an interesting week of reunions for me. The conference was at Surrey University in Guildford, where I’d got my first (electrical engineering) degree and I’d gone down the previous week for a university reunion there. Why do some people love reunions and others hate them? Is it silly nostalgia or are you taking stock of your own personal, mental archive?

Lynette Willoughby