June 23rd is International Women in Engineering Day (#IWED22), a time to celebrate all the women who have made an impact on engineering. Now in its ninth year, the theme for 2022 is Inventors & Innovators.

“This year we’ll be celebrating the amazing work that women engineers around the world are doing to support lives and livelihoods every day,” states the website. “We’re profiling the best, brightest and bravest women in engineering, the inventors and innovators who dare to be part of the solution and are helping to build towards a brighter future.”

Making up just 14.5% of engineers, there are too few women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). A major reason why so few women enter STEM is a lack of mentors during their school years. When girls don’t see themselves represented in STEM, they often don’t see STEM as being a feasible path for them. #IWED22 is changing that. 

Since 2014, International Women in Engineering Day has raised awareness about the importance of women in engineering. For decades, women engineers have been pushing boundaries. Among many notable examples are Mary Jackson, who became the first Black female engineer to join NASA in 1958, and Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, who together received the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry for inventing CRISPR, a revolutionary gene-editing technology.

To learn more about women’s contributions to innovation, check out these famous female inventors who changed the world.

How Can You Celebrate #IWED22?