Globally, women are largely under-represented in STEM-related fields; this under-representation is especially prevalent in Africa where women represent less than 20% of the workforce in these fields. Regardless of this lack of representation in STEM-related work, there are many important female engineers from across the continent. Furthermore, a number of organizations within and out of Africa are working towards minimizing the disparity within the workforce.
Notable African women in engineering
Northern Africa
Tyseer Aboulnasr is an Egyptian electrical engineer. She received her bachelor's degree from Cairo University and her master's and Ph.D. from Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. She was formerly the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the University of British Columbia School of Engineering, as well as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa.
Akissa Bahri is a Tunisian agricultural engineer and previously a professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia. She studied at the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse to get her engineering doctorate, then obtained her Ph.D. from Lund University in Sweden in Water Resources Engineering.
Najla Bouden is a Tunisian geoscientist and current Prime Minister of Tunisia. She earned her Ph.D. in geological engineering from École des Mines de Paris. The president named her prime minister, and she took office on October 11, 2021, becoming the first woman to be a prime minister in the Arab World.
Zeinab Elobeid Yousif was a Sudanese aircraft engineer. She obtained her master's degree in aeronautical engineering from Kingston University in 1995. She was the first woman to receive this degree.
Awatef Hamed is an Egyptian aerospace engineer. She is currently a researcher at the University of Cincinnati, studying jet-engine technology. Dr. Hamed is the first woman to head a college aerospace department. She began as the head of the University of Cincinnati's Aerospace Systems School in 2001 after studying there herself in 1968. She has received international recognition for her research examining turbine fan blades and their erosion due to air particles. She received over 25 million dollars in funding with the Ohio Research Scholar awards in 2008.
Eastern Africa
Nasra Agil is a Somali-Canadian civil engineer. She obtained a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Ryerson University, marking one of the first recorded instances of a woman of Somali descent getting a degree in engineering in Canada.
Dr. Gertrude Mwangala Akapelwa is a Zambian IBM Systems Engineer. She obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics and education from the University of Zambia, a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University, and a doctorate in higher education from the University of Liverpool. She helped establish and currently serves as Vice-Chancellor of Victoria Falls University of Technology.
Winnie Byanyima is a Ugandan aeronautical engineer. She obtained her bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Manchester. She became the first Ugandan woman to get a degree in this field; she received a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Cranfield University. She currently serves as the executive director for UNAIDS after being appointed in 2019.
Natalie Payida Jabangwe is a Zimbabwean computer engineer. She obtained a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Middlesex University and a master's degree in business administration from Imperial College London. A French institute named her one of the “100 Africa Economic Leaders for Tomorrow” in 2018.
Germaine Kamayirese is a Rwandan electromechanical engineer. She obtained a bachelor's degree in electrical mechanical engineering from the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and was awarded a master's in communications management by KIST and Coventry University. In 2014 she was appointed as Minister of State for Infrastructure for Energy, Water, and Sanitation; she managed sanitation efforts, power production, and other aspects of Rwanda's infrastructure.
Frannie Léautier is a Tanzanian civil engineer. She obtained her bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam, her master's in transportation, and her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From the early 90s to the late 2000s, she worked for the World Bank taking charge of the World Bank Institute in the last six years.