Women's Contribution to Science and Technology through ICWES Conferences

This book discusses thelegacy oftheconference series TheInternational Conferences ofWomen Engineers and Scientists (ICWES), which spans thesecond half oftheTwentieth Century and thebeginning ofthetwenty-first. Thebook first discusses how, ata time when there were few women engineers and scientists, a group ofwomen organized a conference, in June1964 in New York, which attracted 486 women. They presented their scientific achievements and discussed how toattract more women in STEM. Thiseffort was carried out byvolunteers, continuing theICWES conferences over a period of59 years. Theauthors discuss theorganizers, thehosting societies, thescientific content, thechanges in issues over time, and how thecontinuity has endured. Theauthors also discuss theimportance ofglobal involvement, shown through past conferences inlocations such as USA, UK, Italy, Poland, France, India, Ivory Coast, Hungary, Japan, Canada, andKorea. Theauthors also outline how theefforts were aided bythedevelopment ofa not forprofit Canadian corporation, theInternational Conference of Women inSciences andengineering (INWES), which ensures thecontinuation of theconference series. Claire Deschênes and Monique Frize ensured that the conference database was digitalized and is now available at theCanadian Archive ofWomen in STEM, University of Ottawa Library, with the hope that researchers will continue to explore this rich database. As an important part oftheWomen in Science and Engineering book series, thework hopes toinspire women and men, girls and boys tostudy and work in STEM fields. This book is important historically because it documents a unique adventure created bywomen in STEM through vision and leadership. Their efforts established modes ofnetworking and sharing their contributions in science, technology, and ongender issues.