Statement from Sierra Leone Women Engineers on the 6th International Women in Engineering Day
Sierra Leone Women Engineers is a special interest group of the wider Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers, focused on ensuring the ongoing and sustained participation of women in Engineering. As women engineering professionals in Sierra Leone, our aim is to increase the participation of women in engineering by highlighting and showcasing the activities of female engineers and generating sufficient awareness of engineering as a career for girls in Sierra Leone.
This month, in support of the International Women In Engineering Day – 23rd June 2019 – Women Engineers in Sierra Leone embarked on an awareness raising campaign walk across the capital city, Freetown with the theme, “Inspiring Girls into Engineering” and used the hashtags #TransformTheFuture and our own locally loved #LipstickandHardHats! Many have asked, is it necessary for Women Engineers to separate themselves from the wider engineering body and hold women-led events. In a country where women are over 51% of the population, 69.8% of females heading households have no education, according to the UNFPA Gender Thematic Report (2015). Our message of encouragement and inspiration is to those household heads – to encourage them to allow their daughters to get an education and one day contribute to this country’s development, especially if they are talented enough to be engineers! The same report highlights the fact that only 5.3% of our women have vocational or higher education and of that, 1.3% have a first degree and only 0.5% have a higher degree. The drop-off rate of girls interested in engineering from secondary school to university to the work place is too high. For many reasons, we are losing future talented engineers! In general, Sierra Leonean women face extreme gender inequality and experience high levels of poverty, violence, and exclusion, despite their very important role in our education system. As Women Engineers, we celebrate the achievements of women engineers across the globe and at home; remembering the contributions of Ing Dr Ambassador Yvette Stevens, the first Sierra Leonean female engineer.
As we join IWED to raise the profile of women in engineering and focus attention on the amazing career opportunities available to girls in this exciting industry, we also want to remember our contemporary female engineers who are leading the way for the young girls to follow in our nation; many names, such Ing Lyat Mason – Sierra Leone’s only female aerodromes engineer in the country, Ing Louise Chaytor – Managing Director of Research Centre for Development in Science & Technology SL Ltd, Ing Memuna Jalloh – the first female Director General of the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, amongst many others! I would be remiss not to include myself as I set a first on the continent by becoming the first Female Fellow from Africa of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), an honour which has humbled me and caused me to review the way I work with all engineers, especially our future female engineers.
One of our mission statements is “to expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force for improving the quality of life for all Sierra Leoneans.” Sierra Leone Women Engineers stands with IWED on this day and wishes all female engineers a global wonderful celebration!
Ing Trudy Morgan
President – SIERRA LEONE WOMEN ENGINEERS