30 by 30* Women in Engineering Award
The 30 by 30* Women in Engineering Award was established by a group of women engineers in Victoria, BC as a way to honour, on the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, the 14 women who were murdered at the Ecole Polytechnique on December 6, 1989. In their memory, this award is being established to encourage and show support for women pursuing an engineering education in order to become professional engineers. The name of the Award—30 by 30—is in recognition of the commitment made by Engineers Canada, in collaboration with the 12 provincial and territorial engineering regulators, to raise the percentage of newly licensed engineers who are women to 30 per cent by the year 2030. Women make up more than half of the Canadian population but are significantly underrepresented in the engineering profession; less than 12 per cent of practising licensed engineers are women. Engineers Canada and the provincial and territorial engineering regulators are dedicated to enhancing gender diversity in the engineering profession. Diversity has proven value in the workplace for innovation, creativity and economic competitiveness in a global economy.