In 2016 the Women's Engineering Society (WES), in collaboration with the Daily Telegraph, produced an inaugural list of the United Kingdom's Top 50 Influential Women in Engineering,[1] which was published on National Women in Engineering Day on 23 June 2016.[2][3][4] The event was so successful it became an annual celebration. The list was instigated by Dawn Bonfield MBE, then Chief Executive of the Women's Engineering Society.[5] In 2019, WES ended its collaboration with the Daily Telegraph and started a new collaboration with The Guardian newspaper.[6]
Since 2016 a new theme has been used each year to showcase the variety of roles within the engineering industry and champion even more women engineers. The themes have been as follows: