Royal Navy engineers celebrated International Women in Engineering Day at HMS Sultan.
Young engineering apprentices were invited to lunch to meet experienced mentors from the Naval Service Network.
They were joined by Captain Sophie Shaughnessy, the Head of People Operations in the Royal Navy and Full Time Reservist, on what was also Reserves Day, and Chief Petty Officer Dawn Jennings from the Rejoiners & Interservice Transfer Team, who was among the first group of female engineering ‘Artificer’ apprentices to join the Engineering Branch in 1990.
Capt Shaughnessy, who as a senior engineer at Sultan, served as the base’s executive officer and regularly attends passing-out parades.
She said: “I am always unfailingly impressed and inspired by the ingenuity, imagination and enthusiasm of the Women Engineers I work with in the Navy. They are absolutely engineering heroes, working as part of Naval teams to maintain Naval capability both at sea, in the air and ashore”
The highest-ranking female engineer in the Royal Navy, Commodore Sharon Malkin delivered a special video message to those in attendance.
She said: “It’s important that we focus and celebrate what’s behind the strength of our Royal Navy maritime power, carrier strike and the defence enterprise as a whole and that’s people like you, engineers like you, who can work with aircraft, ships, submarines, really complex integrated mission systems, data analytics, cyber systems, complex propulsion systems and new weapons systems.
“I’ve loved all the jobs I’ve done so far, from launching Sea Harriers off HMS Invincible in the middle of the ocean, to leading technology and innovation and becoming the type authority on the F-35.
“All of our jobs are challenging, but engineering underpins everything that the Royal Navy does and, when it comes to being a female in the Royal Navy, I believe that all individuals recognise the value that we bring.”
