Women have played a role in engineering in the United Kingdom for hundreds of years, despite the various societal barriers facing them. In the 18th and 19th century, there were few formal training opp
Portrait of Hertha Ayrton by Helena Arsène Darmesteter
Nina Cameron Graham became the first British woman to earn an engineering degree in 1912
A woman adjusting the nuts of a turning machine at one of the Tyne shipbuilding yards, Newcastle, 1918.
In 1934, pilot and engineer Amy Johnson became the youngest president of WES
Rachel Mary Parsons
Videos
Rachel Mary Parsons was an English engineer and advocate for women's employment rights, who was the founding President of the Women's Engineering Society in 1919.
History of women in engineering in the United Kingdom
…the women who went on to be founding members of WES were also involved in the women's suffrage movement, including Katharine Parsons and her daughter, Rachel Parsons, Lady Moir, Laura Annie Willson (who was arrested twice for suffragette activities) and Caroline Haslett. The 1911 census recorded no woman listing her…
Parsons in 1923
Rachel Parsons driving a Buick in Grosvenor Square, London, 1925