Imagine this: You’re driving home on a cold rainy day and every few miles, you have to get out to clean off your windshields. Once you’re home, instead of turning on the heat, you layer up in blankets and curl up by the fireplace just to warm up before making dinner. After you eat, you’re met with a pile of dishes that you have to wash…by hand.
Not even 100 years ago, this was reality! A world without everyday appliances like windshield wipers, gas powered heating systems, dish washers and more. This would still be our reality today if not for the innovations of women engineers.
Women face daily obstacles. Add a mind fueled by science and math, and you get some of the world’s most determined problem solvers.
While we have come a long way, today women only make up less than 30% of the STEM workforce—and even fewer hold leadership roles. That’s why mentorship and representation matter. When young girls see engineers who look like them, it rewrites what’s possible. If you can see it, you can be it!
This International Women in Engineering Day, I’m honoring all of the women that have come before me to make our quality of life better. These women didn’t just invent out of convenience, they saw a need and they used science to meet it. And, they did so during times where women were often excluded from formal education or labs—the U.S. didn’t have its first female professional engineer until 1918!
I’m also celebrating myself, not just as a chemical engineer, but as the founder and CEO of CTI Environmental, a construction management and regulatory compliance firm solving some of the most pressing challenges in infrastructure and environmental safety. I’m celebrating my nonprofit DemoChicks, committed to creating real-world opportunities for middle and high school girls to explore STEM in a hands-on way by demolishing barriers, building confidence, and planting seeds for lifelong careers.
And lastly, I’m excited to see what the next generation of change makers in the field create. I know the future is bright. Let’s continue supporting the girls with big dreams, the women solving problems, and the engineers transforming the world one idea at a time.
Happy International Women in Engineering Day!