A Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering
24-hour engagement of organizations and individuals around the globe

Click here for archived master schedule and attachments

Starting at noon, U.S. Eastern Standard Time on March 24, 2005, and concluding at noon on March 25, 2005, at any and all times during this 24-hour period there was a “conversation” taking place. The Global Marathon was a combination of live Internet chats and teleconferences. The National Engineers Week Foundation served as the central “booking agent” and keeper of the day’s calendar.

The goal was to heighten awareness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) issues among pre-college, college, and young career women, and to address issues of concern such as retaining women in college engineering programs and the workplace.

The day consisted of 48 half-hour segments which originated from points around the globe. The event kicked off from San Francisco, California, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Throughout the marathon, engineers from the United States, Middle East, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and China hosted sessions.

Participants had the chance to talk with the first woman in space, American engineers working in Qatar and in Scotland , and a reporter from TIME Magazine who had written recently about women in science and technology. Each segment was “sponsored” by anorganization or partnership of organizations, with no sponsorship fee and no fee for participants.

Topics ranged from mentoring female college students to strategies for success in engineering studies to running a large engineering firm.

Click here to view the archived “Connecting the World” forum topics and comments.

Background

In keeping with Engineers Week’s volunteer outreach priority, thousands of women engineers – along with their male peers - reach out annually to young students at the local level. They help them understand how engineers make a positive difference in all lives, explain the excitement of engineering careers, and encourage young students to consider pursuing engineering in college and beyond. Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is the Engineers Week focal point to bring attention to issues and solutions affecting women in the engineering profession. Typically engineers reach more than one million girls. Recently, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day has begun to take root in countries outside the U.S. , notably the Middle East and India . A Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering is part of this expanding outreach effort.