As World War one started the drain of men to go and fight began to affect the ability of factories to produce the ordinance and supplies that the army needed to fight. They turned to the women to work in the factories, but some would not just do the simple repetitive tasks that are needed to make simple items, they would step up and learn the trade so they could construct places and some went onto design new things.

By the end of the war though, the UK government and unions wanted to return to the previous status quo and parliament was set to pass the Restoration Of Pre-War Practices Bill which would mean that any women employed by engineering companies who had not employed women in that role would have to sack them or face a fine. This went against what was happening in wider society, as some women were just starting to get the vote and play a more meaningful role in a society that had changed after the war.

There were some women who were not prepared to take this, in particular, Katharine and Rachel Parsons and Caroline Haslett, who, in 1919 created the Women’s Engineering Society. They had several aims, but the core focus was to ensure that women's rights were protected and promoted and they really had their work cut out. The book is mostly about the two main women involved in society and how one became the leading professional engineer of her age and the other whose life ended in tragedy.

However there is much more to this book than just these two characters, there are stories of women who created their own women-only engineering businesses, improved worker safety, became marine engineers and mechanics, pilots and racing drivers and engine designers. It was really hard to make inroads against the status quo, but they stuck at it and with the impending war, they were going to become useful once again.

Henrietta Heald has written a really good book about the history of the Women’s Engineering Society and about two much-maligned sectors of society, women and engineers. It is very readable and full of details and anecdotes about all sort of female engineers and their achievements and it is very timely. My father was an engineer during his career and worked in the navy and was then an inspector for pressure vessels. I am an engineer too having studied, electronic and then mechanical engineering and have worked in defence, hi-fi and lighting industries. For me, this is an important book as my daughter is just about to embark on her apprenticeship as an engineer for a large local company and she will be accompanied by two other girls in this years intake approaching near to the 30% target they have set by 2030.

For those want to see just what women are capable of in STEM then have a look at this thread ( )