We’re supporting Engineers Canada’s “30 by 30” goal – here’s why

30 by 30 is an Engineers Canada-promoted goal to raise the percentage of newly licensed engineers who are women to 30% by the year 2030. As Engineers Canada notes, women make up more than half of the Canadian population but are significantly under-represented in the engineering profession; less than 12 per cent of practicing licensed engineers are women.

“EWB has always been deeply committed to gender equality,” said Boris Martin, EWB’s CEO. “However, we recognize that there’s much work left to be done and it’s important that key organizations and leaders commit to ambitious shared targets and work together. We’re excited to see how EWB’s community will contribute to this collective action toward gender equality to help ensure we meet 30 by 30 together.”

Both Alexandra Conliffe, EWB’s VP Operations, and Annelies Tjebbes, EWB’s Community Team Leader, were featured as role models in the Chair for Women and Science in Engineering’s #30in30 series for National Engineering Month, celebrating women in the profession. They have both applied their engineering skills to technical challenges as well as deeply ingrained social challenges.

Role models have played a huge role in my own path within the engineering profession and I’m proud to be able to pay this forward.

“I am excited for a time when there is an abundance of female engineers as role models for young impressionable male and female engineering students and prospects, and proud that EWB is contributing to this work,” said Tjebbes.

Several prominent engineering organizations and regulators have already endorsed this commitment and pledged to play their part. UBC Engineering has set a goal of reaching gender parity in its enrolment by 2020, while Engineers Canada recently released a guide to the initiative that outlines how organizations can increase diversity and inclusion in the profession.

Engineers of Tomorrow is an EWB-supported venture that catalyzes outreach to help shape the conversation around engineering. “There’s been great progress made, but there are systemic barriers that still prevent women from participating equally, such as gendered language and activities, stereotype threat and misconceptions about who engineers are and what they do,” said venture leader Erica Lee Garcia, herself a P.Eng. with a background in manufacturing and process improvement. “So we are missing contributions from nearly half the population—would-be innovations, designs, products that will never become reality. Solving underrepresentation of women and visible minorities in engineering is not only a matter of fairness but also a matter of capturing the profession’s capacity to deal with complexity, improve continuously, and create a world that works for everyone.”

She added, “We’re proud of the progress we made this year with the National Engineering Month team in Ontario with PEO, OSPE, and OACETT. Over 300 events were run this March under the theme ‘There’s A Place For You,’ which invites youth and the general public to participate directly. They get to see the connections to their everyday lives and picture themselves in a career in engineering and technology: solving important problems, helping people changing the world, and turning their ideas into reality. Our strategy is directly centred around creating a more diverse and inclusive engineering profession, and we are proud to support the 30 by 30 goal.”

“Engineers Canada has had a long partnership with EWB and we’re excited that they have  formally endorsed 30 by 30,” said Kim Allen, MBA, FCAE, FEC, P.Eng., Chief Executive Officer of Engineers Canada. “We’re looking forward to working with EWB and other organizations to ramp up our collaborative efforts to ensure this goal becomes a reality.”

Getting involved with an EWB chapter is a great way to contribute to the 30 by 30 goal and to the broader evolution of the engineering profession to ensure that it lives up to its full potential to contribute to society.  Please contact Erica Lee Garcia of EoT (ericaleegarcia@ewb.ca) or Julia Semenchenko of Engineers Canada (julia.semenchenko@engineerscanada.ca) if you’re interested in getting involved.