National Engineering Month "There's a place for you in Engineering".

Laughter and chatter filled P.E.I Brewing company as 11 women talked about their experiences as P.E.I. engineers.

It was part of a networking event organized by Engineers P.E.I Women in Engineering (WIE) committee on March 13 in honour of National Engineering Month. 

At the event, the women sat in a circle and interacted with each other while enjoying hors d’oeuvres with drinks. 

The goal was to network, said Marianne LeBlanc, President of Engineers P.E.I and chair of the WIE committee.

“We did it last year, it was a success and people liked the fact they were forced to talk to everyone, especially if you came alone,” she said.

Last year, the WIE committee hosted a speed mentoring event where every woman was given time to talk to one another before switching to another person.

The speed mentoring is under the WIE and the IDDEA committee’s mentorship program, where an Engineer in Training (EIT) or a student is paired with a Professional Engineer (PEng).

For the WIE committee,  the mentorship is only for females in engineering and for the IDDEA committee, their mentorship covers all under-represented groups.

The networking event is one of many initiatives to encourage and make females feel they have a place in engineering, said LeBlanc.

“We do not have that many women engineers on PEI and we do have a Canadian-wide initiative to get 30 per cent engineers by 2030, so we push for them to build that network and make our EIT and student members feel supported,” she said

  Engineers Canada started the “30 by 30” initiative, aiming for 30 per cent of newly licenced engineers to be female-identifying by 2030. 

Also, for National Engineering Month 2024, Engineers Canada is promoting the theme “There’s a place for you in engineering”.

Rose Shokunbi is an engineering student who found the event useful.

“I do enjoy this event because I’m here to learn. I signed up for this,” she said.

Shokunbi would like to see a club for Women in Engineering at UPEI, to link female students to the Women in Engineering Committee, connect them to mentors, encourage and teach them networking skills.

“I know there’s a lot of clubs but there’s not one for women in engineering in UPEI, maybe that could be a chapter started,” she said.

In the future, the WIE committee plans to host more social and educational events with guest speakers with the hope of increasing the number of female engineers on PEI.