On June 23, 2019, Engineers Canada teamed up with Ingenium to host its first Women in Engineering Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in celebration of International Women in Engineering Day.
On June 23, 2019, Engineers Canada teamed up with Ingenium to host its first Women in Engineering Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in celebration of International Women in Engineering Day.
More than a dozen participants joined us at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum for a crash-course in Wikipedia editing, and to then create and edit new and existing Wikipedia articles about women in engineering.
" International Women in Engineering Day is an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of women in engineering, and what better way to do that than to increase the number of articles about engineers who are women on the largest and most popular reference work on the internet? » said Jeanette M. Southwood, Vice-President of Corporate Affairs and Strategic Partnerships at Engineers Canada. « I’m heartened to see these participants who have given their time on a sunny summer Sunday to help us raise the profile of women engineers and their accomplishments on Wikipedia."
Women are not only underrepresented in the engineering profession, but also in the number of Wikipedia STEM articles. As the engineering community and others work to attract and retain more girls and women in engineering, it’s important to recognize, document, and celebrate the accomplishments of the many women who have had a lasting impact on the engineering profession and on Canadian society through their engineering work.
"We hope that with their crash-course in Wikipedia editing here today at the Edit-a-thon, that participants will keep the momentum going to continue to create and edit Wikipedia pages about women in engineering beyond today’s event," Southwood added.
Engineers Canada extends its thanks to Ingenium for partnering with us to make the Edit-a-thon a success as both organizations work towards making the STEM professions more diverse and inclusive.
