Breaking Barriers: Celebrating Female Engineers

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In a world where gender equality continues to be a pertinent issue, it’s important to shine a spotlight on the remarkable women who are paving the way in traditionally male-dominated fields. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) serves as an inclusive and supportive community. For nearly a decade, SWE has been my anchor and place of belonging in an ever-evolving world.

I am proud to be involved with Schneider Electric’s SWExSE Employee Resource Network and reflect upon my involvement in this blog.

Empowering women and inclusion for all

SWE is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women in engineering, facilitating career advancement, and recognizing their impactful contributions. With over 41,000 members worldwide, SWE offers training programs, networking opportunities, and advocacy activities to establish engineering as a desirable career for women. No matter where you are or where you’re going, there is always a SWE community to welcome and support you.

SWE’s mission extends beyond the engineering domain. It is a driving force in promoting a diverse workforce and inclusion of all. SWE actively works to create a community where the profession welcomes and respects individual, personal, and career choices among all cultures.

My introduction to SWE and Schneider

While pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at Northeastern University, I joined SWE as a student leader and eventually became president of the organization by the end of my undergraduate studies. I was proud to take on a leadership role to give back to the community that had given me so much.

I first learned about Schneider Electric through its involvement with SWE, recognizing a place where I truly fit in. My university’s SWE chapter hosted an event featuring Schneider Electric, showcasing their Development Programs. I joined the Schneider Electric Sales Development Program in Nashville in June 2020.

The Sales Development Program provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the business and technical training on our products and services. This experience laid a solid foundation for my career, opening doors to various positions within the company post-graduation from the program.

Schneider Electric and SWE’s Partnership

Since 2015, Schneider Electric has been a proud member of the SWE Corporate Partnership Council (SWE CPC). This partnership provides networking and alliances with other leading organizations to create opportunities for women engineers and technologists. Within Schneider Electric, our employee-led Schneider SWE Community is responsible for the overall conference strategy and engagement to achieve maximum brand, recruitment, development, exposure, and retention of female talent.

Our Schneider SWE Community was developed in 2020 and has grown exponentially since its inception with over 500 employee SWE members. Our mission is to build a culture of inclusion and belonging where everyone thrives, regardless of background. We see a future where our global workforce looks like the communities we operate in and allows everyone to have equal and equitable access to development and advancement opportunities.

Becoming a community leader

Eager to further hone my leadership abilities, I joined the core team of the Schneider SWE Community. This team works together year-round to accelerate our inclusive leaders and provide learning opportunities through virtual and local events, networking events, and the SWE annual and local conferences.

This role evolved into co-leading the organization as the Engagement and Advocacy lead. In this capacity, I am responsible for formulating and implementing the ERN’s long-term and annual strategies, as well as enhancing the Schneider Electric community through our engagement initiatives.

I’m proud to be involved as community lead and give back to the same communities that have brought me where I am today. In my daily role, I see my fellow employees step up every day. It is empowering to provide these same fellow employees with the spotlight to receive the recognition they deserve for their efforts. I’m inspired by their stories about how they contribute to the communities they serve. It is rewarding to accelerate the development of our attending members by providing them opportunities to become diversity partnership advocates.

Recap: SWE Annual Conference 2023

The SWE annual conference is the world’s largest conference for women in engineering and technology. Since 2015, Schneider Electric has attended 6 SWE Annual Conferences. In 2023, over 17,000 people attended the WE23 conference in Los Angeles, California. 116 Schneider Electric employees attended, our largest footprint to date.

Attendees had the opportunity to engage in over 263 unique and insightful speaker sessions to learn from and network with key industry leaders. Our employees built their personal and professional global community through the conference. The networking and special events were designed to ensure a strong sense of belonging for each member in our shared network. The conference allowed members to get inspired by sessions from leading experts, content creators, and innovators who share emerging trends, data, and best practices. Schneider boasted three speaker sessions for our employees to spotlight their careers and highlight their contributions to the industry. The conference concludes by recognizing SWE members through competitions and a formal awards program.

Embracing my ambassador role

By attending the conference, I have embraced my role as an ambassador for our organization. The experience has afforded me the leadership development necessary to stand up and represent our group’s values, vision, and achievements to a broader audience. It has allowed me to foster my networking skills as I worked to forge new partnerships to drive future growth and success. Yet the most important aspect of my involvement to me remains in how it impacts those around me. I’m inspired to witness my peers prepare to coach and care for their teams with transparency, just as they care for our Schneider SWE Community members, allowing us all to achieve together.

Schneider Electric’s partnership with SWE enables us to recruit top talent in support of our communities. Our WE23 Campaign directly connected us with over 2,200 talented individuals expressing interest in Schneider Electric and over 1,000 individuals applying for open positions. Through a concerted effort, we brought a sea of Schneider Electric green to the career fair. Our employees stood out as they shared their personal experiences with prospective talent highlighting what “Life is On” means to them.

Schneider Electric highlights at WE23

Speaking opportunities at SWE conferences serve as strong professional development opportunities for our employees. Through these high-profile speaking platforms, we educate our industry partners on Schneider Electric’s commitment and execution of sustaining a culture of inclusion and belonging, evolving our industry. Sessions included:

• Career Information Session about Schneider Electric featuring Molita Sloan (Lean Office Project Leader), Shannon Baldwin Davis (VP, National Accounts), Taylor Donegan (Financial Analyst for Sustainability Sector) and moderated by Angie Buchanan (VP, Human Resources)
• The Power of Microgrids: Community Resilience for a Changing Climate featuring Samantha Childress (Microgrid Partner & Strategy Leader – Sales)
• Leading with Inclusion: Empowering from Shop Floor to Top Floor featuring Mai Lan Nguyen (SVP HR)
• Schneider Electric also hosted a technical tour of the Intuit Dome, providing both Collegiates and Professionals an inside look at our Building Automation System (BAS) and Integrated Building Management System (iBMS) which control various mechanical equipment throughout the stadium such as the air handling units, fan coil units, boilers, chillers, pumps, and valves. Our tour provided the opportunity to increase brand awareness with future talent, customers, suppliers, and business owners.

Our Schneider SWE Community also received some great recognition at the event – we won the annual Mission Award for the second year in a row. The Mission award is an esteemed national award recognizing the programs, events, and resource accessibility our group provides for our employees. Alongside the Mission Award, we had the thrill of celebrating one of our very own employees, Alyssa Tham, for her Patent Recognition Award highlighting her contributions to the engineering and technology field.

Building a more inclusive world

SWE, both within and outside of Schneider Electric, is a welcoming community to everyone. SWE has been my constant and a place of belonging for me for nearly a decade, in an ever-changing world. You, too, are welcome in SWE as a member or an ally as we strive to create a world with gender parity and equality in engineering and technology together.

For any Schneider employees reading this blog, I invite you to reach out and connect with our Schneider SWE Community. Connect with each other, share your voices, and empower one-another just as SWE has empowered me.

Here’s to looking forward to WE24 in Chicago: Together We Rise!

Update (November 2024): Our #SEGreatPeople had an incredible time at the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) annual conference WE24! It was a fantastic opportunity to connect, recruit diverse talent, and engage in insightful sessions. Over 140 Schneider Electric employees attended, including three inspiring speaking sessions showcasing our team’s significant contributions to the industry. Let’s keep inspiring and promoting a culture of inclusion and belonging!

Make an IMPACT with your career

At Schneider Electric, our values and behaviors are the foundation for creating a great culture to support business success. We believe that our IMPACT values – Inclusion, Mastery, Purpose, Action, Curiosity, Teamwork – start with us.

We are looking for IMPACT Makers; exceptional people who turn sustainability ambitions into actions at the intersection of automation, electrification, and digitization. Apply today!

Search job opportunities on our careers website and join our talent community.