In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re sharing a series of posts highlighting the significant contributions of women in shaping the energy industry and changing the face of STEM.
Yewande Akinola, Engineer, Professor and Champion for Women in STEM
As a chartered engineer, innovator and public speaker, Yewande Akinola has set out to change the face of STEM professions.
Throughout her career, Yewande has been fascinated with engineering’s potential to bring creativity to life through physics and mathematics. She holds a bachelor’s in engineering design and appropriate technology from the University of Warwick and a master’s in innovation and design for sustainability from Cranfield University. She is currently a visiting professor at the University of Westminster.
Yewande is as passionate about bringing greater diversity to STEM as she is about engineering and sustainability. She is the founder of the GlobalEMIT Project, which provides engineering support and research services to social well-being projects in developing and developed countries and mentors young people who are interested in engineering. She strongly encourages girls and women interested in sustainability to pursue energy engineering because it forms a basis for many other sustainability activities.
Her advocacy highlights the benefits of diverse teams in developing better real-world solutions, but also looks to educate people about and overcome biases based on race or gender. In articles by Forbes and the Royal Academy of Engineering, Yewande discusses her own challenges as well as the concerns she hears from young girls, especially those of color, about the lack of representation in STEM. Within the renewable energy industry – a STEM-heavy sector – women represent only 32% of the workforce versus the 48% they represent in the global workforce (IRENA, 2019).
For women of color, the numbers are even lower. In her interviews, Yewande addresses the negative effects of tokenism and unconscious bias, and suggests women counter those effects by reminding themselves of their robust qualifications and the value of their diverse experience. She invites girls and women to learn as much as they can and immerse themselves in the wonders of engineering, focusing on the happiness that their passion brings to help overcome challenges. Confidence can also come from receiving grants like those managed by the GCRF Africa Catalyst program. In collaboration with the Institution of Engineers Rwanda, the proportion of female internship applicants has increased from 5% in 2018 to 25% in 2019.
Accomplishments
Yewande has received significant recognition for her work, including:
- Serving as a UK Ambassador for Clean Growth and Infrastructure
- Being awarded the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of her services to Engineering and to Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Design and Innovation
- Winning the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award, PRECIOUS Award for Outstanding Woman in STEM and Exceptional Achiever Award by the Association for Black Engineers (AFBE-UK)
- Being named to Management Today’s top 35 women under 35 list
- Presenting television programs for Discovery Channel, Channel 4, Yesterday TV and CBBCEnginee, and being featured in several podcasts.
- Receiving the UK’s Society of Public Health Engineers Award for Young Rising Star
In her personal life, Yewande enjoys literature and music.
The Energy Spotlight Series in Honor of Women's History Month
- Post 1: Neha Misra
- Post 2: Mária Telkes
- Post 3: Yewande Akinola