Women engineers in the last century had two problems: first, the struggle to gain training, jobs and acceptance and second, how to use engineering to lighten women's domestic burden.
We tell the two threads of this story in this online exhibition using material from the Women's Engineering Society (WES) and the Electrical Association for Women (EAW) collections held in the IET Archives.
Continue the story
Women engineers visiting a factory c1930s, IET Archives ref NAEST 92/07/01/14
Other resources of interest:
- The Woman Engineer Journal - complete digitised volumes 1919 - 2014
- Caroline Haslett biography
- What was a girl to do? Article on Rachel Parsons, founder of WES, by Henrietta Heald
- WES Centenary Trail Map - click on pins on the map to find out about historical women engineers
Event registration will be unavailable from 6pm on Thursday, 24 September 2026 until 9am on Friday, 25 September 2026.
We’re making upgrades to our event registration system.
On Thursday, 24 September 2026 from 6pm, our registration system will be temporarily unavailable while we upgrade our systems. For any urgent enquiries during this time, please email events@theiet.org and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience.