It's Ada Lovelace Day, a huge global online event celebrating women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

In a normal year, it involves about 200 independent events worldwide. To date, there have been 641 Ada Lovelace Day events in 40 countries!

This year, you can take part by joining webinars and following #ALD20 on social media. Activities include five free webinars and blogging across Twitter, Facebook and founding organisation Finding Ada.

It's named after one of the first computer programmers, who is known for her visionary work in computer science in the 19th century.

We're passionate about inspiring more girls and young women to explore the excitement of STEM. Engineering offers a wide range of great careers, with many surprising jobs all around Britain's railway.

Researched published by us in June showed three-quarters of young women felt there are not enough female role models in STEM.

A survey of more than 2,000 16 to 21-year-olds in Britain, conducted by researcher Savanta ComRes, found 64% of total respondents and 77% of young women felt STEM lacked female role models. Just a quarter of women intended to pursue careers in STEM-related areas, although 27% intended to study further in STEM.

Kamini Edgley, one of our most senior engineers, hopes to see more girls pursuing STEM subjects

Meanwhile, when asked if they recognised famous names and faces of STEM figures, more than 80% of respondents were familiar with male STEM figures such as Steven Hawking and Sir Isaac Newton but just 18% knew of Ada Lovelace.

Read our interview with Finding Ada founder, Suw Charman-Anderson.

Did you know the Network Rail archive holds Ada's signature?

Watch these films to find out why working on the railway is so exciting – and full of surprises:

Just Like Me

All Change

More STEM resources …

TV's Maddie Moate

My Skills My Life personality quiz

Discover your personality type and see how your skills match up to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers.

Connect with real people in STEM careers who have the same personality type as you.What do they do? What do they earn? How did they get there?www.myskillsmylife.org

Read more:

Educational resources for children

A year in the life of an engineer

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

STEM resources – Awesome Railways

How cutting-edge track technology is reducing delays for passengers

Graduate schemes

Apprenticeships

Summer placements

Year in industry placements

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