Molly Fergusson Room Unveiled at King’s Buildings to Mark International Women’s Day

The dedication took place on Monday, 9 March as part of ISG’s International Women’s Day programme, organised in partnership with the Molly Fergusson Initiative and the College of Science and Engineering, and formed part of wider conversations about visibility, recognition and the historical underrepresentation of women in engineering.

Molly Fergusson was the first woman to graduate with honours in Civil Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, achieving this in 1936. She later became the first female Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. She broke barriers for women in STEM and helped pave the way for future generations. The Molly Fergusson Initiative honours her legacy by promoting diversity and inclusion within engineering, creating opportunities and support for women and underrepresented groups in the field.

At the naming ceremony, EDI Convenor and Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Services, ISG Melissa Highton spoke about the history of women doing important work while not always being the ones whose names appear on doors. The naming was framed not as a grand statement but as a practical step to recognise Fergusson’s achievements, acknowledge the barriers women have faced, and create more spaces across the university named after women who helped shape it.

Chair of the Molly Fergusson Initiative, Desen Kirli, also gave a talk, highlighting key milestones in Molly’s career and the work the Initiative undertakes through visibility, community, and opportunities to make the field more inclusive.

Seeing a woman’s name on a space dedicated to science and engineering does something subtle and seismic at the same time. It nudges the imagination and redraws the mental sketch of who designs, who calculates, who holds the blueprint. For students booking a study space, staff leading meetings, or early-career engineers mapping out a future, the Molly Fergusson Room becomes part of the landscape of possibility.

Celebrating women like Molly is not about elevating them into untouchable icons. It is about restoring proportion. Engineering has always relied on women’s intellect and labour. Recognition has simply lagged behind reality.

Why celebrate these women? Because history edits ruthlessly. Because when contributions go unnamed, belonging quietly erodes. Because somewhere down the line, a young engineer might glance up at the gorgeous graphic designed by Gillian Kidd, and discover a lineage she did not realise she had.

Progress is not always cinematic. Sometimes it is a name mounted beside a door that expands the blueprint for everyone who walks through it next.