EDEM's logo
Practice: EDEM - Greek Women's Engineering Association
Established: 1995
City: Athens
Country: Greece
www.edem-net.gr
[email protected]
EDEM's members are qualified Greek women engineers (members of the Technical Chamber of Greece). Women students at Greek technical universities can be 'baby members' of EDEM and full members when they graduate. EDEM has approximately 1500 active members. Its aims include:
- promoting the principles of and creating provisions for equality between women and men in employment, education and society in general;
- researching the problems women engineers face and seeking solutions;
- improving terms and conditions for women practising engineering as a profession;
- encouraging community awareness of employment opportunities for women in the traditionally male-dominated engineering professions;
- acting as an information point for women engineers on employment opportunities. This will be related to training and development programs aimed at enhancing women engineers' chances of employment;
- encouraging and promoting activities of women engineers beyond their professional sphere; e.g. cultural and artistic events.
EDEM - Greek Women's Engineering Association
WOMENTOR
EDEM is member of the board of the European Federation of Mentors for Girls and Women - WOMENTOR. The last meeting of the board was hosted in Athens in April 2010.
| How does diversity of people reveal itself at work? | People might think: 'Diversity has no place in engineering (architecture included), because solutions are based on strict rules (for building construction, energy production ...)'. In our era societies realise that there is more than one solution to a technical problem. Solutions depend on identifying the main parameter of a technical problem: cost-benefit, environmental impact, employment or ...? Diversity of the people involved is a necessary quality in a successful synthesis. |
| Do you think our profession is diverse enough? | Diversity is not present in engineering in Greece, apart from some isolated examples. Most women in the profession are dominated by established concepts. This counts for women architects too, although nowadays they are in the majority in the Greek profession. Women engineers do not reveal their diverse ways of thinking in their wor, perhaps because of inappropriate training, clients asking for cheap constructions, well-established professionals dominating the market, etc ... |
| What do you find most rewarding in your area of work? | The first rewarding quality in engineering (including architecture) is that it is a creative and complex occupation, which can affect environment/people/societies. Engineers have to provide solutions: prototypes that must also be practical and affordable. These characteristics require imagination and discipline from professionals but in the end they are rewarded by the feeling of creating something which - in most cases - survive for a long time, sometimes for longer than its maker. |