Women in Engineering and Science

Jill S. Tietjen

Engineering Women:
Re-visioning
Women’s Scientific
Achievements and
Impacts
Women in Engineering and Science

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15424

Jill S. Tietjen

Engineering Women:
Re-visioning Women’s
Scientific Achievements
and Impacts
Jill S. Tietjen
Technically Speaking, Inc.
Greenwood Village, CO, USA

ISSN 2509-6427 ISSN 2509-6435 (electronic)

Women in Engineering and Science
ISBN 978-3-319-40798-2 ISBN 978-3-319-40800-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40800-2

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In memory of my parents—Manuel
and Bernice M. Stein
Preface

For almost 40 years, I’ve said “I’m an engineer” when asked about my career. As to
what I do, I explain: when I am traveling on an airplane and I look down and see the
lights—that is what I do. I help ensure that this country has electricity. It has been a
tremendously satisfying career choice for me.
Did I always know that I wanted to be an engineer? Absolutely not. I entered the
University of Virginia (UVa) in the fall of 1972 as a Mathematics major. No one, not
even my Ph.D. engineer father, had suggested engineering as a career for me. And
there weren’t very many female role models in my hometown of Hampton, Virginia,
or at UVa. UVa had only admitted women as undergraduate students in the fall of
1970 (under court order). I was in the third class of women admitted and the first
class that didn’t have a cap on the number of women that could be admitted. Shortly
after the start of my college career, however, I did discover engineering, and I trans-
ferred to the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
After I graduated I found out that there weren’t very many women in the engi-
neering field. Of course, there hadn’t been many women engineering professors,
undergraduate women engineering students, or graduate women engineering stu-
dents at UVa, but I thought that was a function of the exclusion of women at the
University prior to 1970. I didn’t know it was a characteristic of the engineering
field in general.
Fortunately for me, my first employer, Duke Power Company (today Duke
Energy), sent me to do on-campus recruiting. At a card table in a gymnasium at
North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, at a career fair, I found
the Society of Women Engineers. Through that organization, I began to research
historical women in engineering and science and nominate technical women for
awards. One thing led to another led to another. Twice, I have been at the White
House as my nominees received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation
from the President. Today, I tell the stories of great women across all fields of
endeavor, but my first love is telling the stories of technical women and, particularly,
women in engineering.
This book provides an overview of the development of the engineering field and
describes women’s contributions. In most history books (not just history books

vii
viii Preface

about engineering), women’s accomplishments are invisible or marginalized. Not

here. I firmly believe that a culture that values women and recognizes their accom-
plishments is a better society for all of its members.
Come join me and discover engineering history and women’s engineering
history.

Greenwood Village, CO, USA Jill S. Tietjen, P.E.

Acknowledgements

As with any undertaking of this sort, many people provided support, assistance, and
encouragement. A huge thank you to the following and I apologize in advance for
any errors or omissions.
To Alexis Swoboda, who planted the original seed. I am forever indebted.
To all of my Society of Women Engineers colleagues (whom I consider a family
unit), especially Beth Boaz, Yvonne Brill, Sherita Ceasar, Jane Daniels, Patricia
Eng, Jamie Ho, Gina Holland, Helen Huckenpahler, Suzanne Jenniches, Peggy
Layne, Dorothy Morris, Islin Munisteri, Anne Perusek, Mary Petryszyn, Carolyn
Phillips, Ada Pressman, Nancy Prymak, Mary Rogers, Meredith Ross, Anna
Salguero, Sandra Scanlon, Kristy Schloss, Nanette Schulz, Jackie Spear, Alexis
Swoboda, Mary Ann Tavery, Robin Vidimos, Kitty Wang, and Jere Zimmerman.
A debt of gratitude to Betty Reynolds, Kendall Bohannon, Wendy DuBow, Carol
Carter, and Sande Johnson, for paving the way.
In particular, Tiffany Gasbarrini and Rebecca Hytowitz at Springer US, for their
belief, support, and encouragement.
To my village (Enid Ablowitz, Anna Maria Larsen, Glo Martinez, Nancy Mayer,
Pam McNish, Colleen Miller, Marie Sager), without whose love, support, guidance,
and at times, redirection, are appreciated more than they know.
To David, who supports all of my many endeavors.

Jill S. Tietjen, P.E.

ix
Contents

1 The Early Days of Engineering................................................................ 1

A Short History of Engineering .................................................................. 1
1700s ........................................................................................................... 4
The 1800s Prior to the Civil War ................................................................ 4
Key Historical Women ................................................................................ 6
Si Ling-Chi or Lei-Tzu or Xilingshi (c. 2640 B.C.E.) ................................ 6
Miriam the Alchemist (First or Second Century A.D.) .............................. 6
Cleopatra the Alchemist (c. Third Century) ............................................... 7
Hypatia (Circa 360–415)............................................................................. 7
Queen Sonduk (or Sondok) (Seventh Century) .......................................... 7
Emilie de Breteuil du Châtelet (1706–1749) .............................................. 7
Laura Bassi (1711–1778) ............................................................................ 8
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799) ........................................................... 8
Sophie Germain (1776–1831) ..................................................................... 9
Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780–1872) ....................................................... 9
Ada Byron Lovelace (1815–1852) .............................................................. 10
References ................................................................................................... 11
2 Women Can Be Engineers, Too! .............................................................. 13
Engineering Education in the Nineteenth Century ..................................... 13
Professionalization ...................................................................................... 14
Professional Societies ................................................................................. 15
Early Twentieth Century ............................................................................. 17
Key Women of This Period ......................................................................... 18
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911) ........................................ 18
Emily Warren Roebling (1844–1903) ......................................................... 19
Edith Judith Griswold (1863–Unknown) .................................................... 20
Kate Gleason (1865–1933) ......................................................................... 20
Bertha Lamme (1869–1954) ....................................................................... 21
Nora Stanton Blatch de Forest Barney (1883–1971) .................................. 22
References ................................................................................................... 23

xi
xii Contents

3 War’s Unintended Consequences ............................................................ 25

World War I ................................................................................................. 25
Great Depression ......................................................................................... 27
World War II ............................................................................................... 28
Engineering Aides, Engineering Cadettes and Engineers........................... 30
Faculty......................................................................................................... 32
After World War II ...................................................................................... 32
Society of Women Engineers ...................................................................... 34
Key Women of This Period ......................................................................... 35
Mary Engle Pennington (1872–1952)......................................................... 36
Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878–1972) .......................................................... 36
Edith Clarke (1883–1959)........................................................................... 37
Olive Dennis (1885–1957) .......................................................................... 38
Elsie Eaves (1898–1983) ............................................................................ 38
Eaves’s List of Firsts and Awards Are Extensive.................................... 39
Elsie MacGill (1905–1980)......................................................................... 40
Beatrice Hicks (1919–1979) ....................................................................... 40
References ................................................................................................... 41
4 Suburbia and Sputnik............................................................................... 43
The Korean War .......................................................................................... 43
Off to Suburbia............................................................................................ 45
Sputnik Is Launched ................................................................................... 46
1960s Activism ........................................................................................... 47
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women ..................................... 48
Equal Pay Act ............................................................................................. 48
Civil Rights Act: Title VII .......................................................................... 49
The Dawn of Affirmative Action ................................................................ 49
Recognition of Sex Discrimination ............................................................. 49
1970s Progress ............................................................................................ 50
Education Amendments Act ....................................................................... 50
Key Women of This Period ......................................................................... 50
Maria Telkes (1900–1995) .......................................................................... 51
Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992) ........................................................... 51
Mary Ross (1908–2008) ............................................................................. 52
Yvonne Brill (1924–2013) .......................................................................... 53
Thelma Estrin (1924–2014) ........................................................................ 53
Jewel Plummer Cobb (1924–)..................................................................... 54
Yvonne Clark (1925–) ................................................................................ 55
Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930–) ................................................................. 55
Y. C. L. Susan Wu (1932–) ......................................................................... 56
References ................................................................................................... 57
5 Bridges to the Future ................................................................................ 59
Moving Forward in the 1980s ..................................................................... 59
The 1990s .................................................................................................... 60
Contents xiii

National Academy of Engineering.............................................................. 61

The Commission on the Advancement of Women
and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology ........................... 61
Establishment of Women in Engineering Programs ................................... 61
Minority Women in Engineering ................................................................ 61
Trends for the Future of Engineering .......................................................... 62
Engineering Opportunities ...................................................................... 63
Biotechnology ............................................................................................. 63
Nanotechnology .......................................................................................... 63
Materials Science and Photonics ................................................................ 64
Information and Communications Technology .......................................... 64
Logistics ...................................................................................................... 65
Engineering Challenges .......................................................................... 65
Infrastructure ............................................................................................... 65
Information and Communications Infrastructure........................................ 66
Environment ................................................................................................ 66
Key Women of This Period ......................................................................... 66
Ada Pressman (1927–2003) ........................................................................ 66
Sheila Widnall (1938–) ............................................................................... 67
Mary-Dell Chilton (1939–) ......................................................................... 68
Eleanor Baum (c. 1940–) ............................................................................ 68
Donna Shirley (1941–) ................................................................................ 69
Gail de Planque (1944–2010) ..................................................................... 70
Shirley Jackson (1946–) .............................................................................. 70
F. Suzanne Jenniches (1948–) ..................................................................... 71
Judith Resnik (1949–1986) ......................................................................... 72
Bonnie Dunbar (1949–) .............................................................................. 72
Eve Sprunt (1951–) ..................................................................................... 73
Mae Jemison (1956–).................................................................................. 73
Kristina Johnson (1957–) ............................................................................ 74
Alma Martinez Fallon (1958–) ................................................................... 75
Ellen Ochoa (1958–) ................................................................................... 76
Sherita Ceasar (1959–) ................................................................................ 76
Padmasree Warrior (1961–) ........................................................................ 77
Kalpana Chawla (1962–2003) .................................................................... 77
Sandra Begay-Campbell (1963–) ................................................................ 77
Kristi Anseth (1968–) ................................................................................. 78
References ................................................................................................... 78

Index ................................................................................................................. 83
Chapter 1
The Early Days of Engineering

Abstract Although the formal profession of engineering originated in the fifteenth

century as a military endeavor, scientific concepts applied in the form of engineer-
ing projects have been in existence for many thousands of years. By the eighteenth
century and with the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, engineering moved
away from purely military applications, into the civilian sphere (hence the term
“civil engineer”) and began to resemble the various types of engineering we now
know. This expansion was made possible by the realization that common principles
applied not only to the building of catapults, but to the building of roads and bridges
as well. At first, engineering resembled the craft traditions where daughters and
wives had been welcomed as apprentices and unpaid artisans. However, as the
Industrial Revolution spawned mass production and increased demands for techni-
cal education, the sphere became almost entirely male. European universities did
not admit women. The engineering schools established in the U.S. in the 1800s also
did not admit women. In spite of these barriers, women did manage to contribute to
engineering and science. Profiles are provided for scientific and engineering women
from the early centuries through the 1800s.

A Short History of Engineering

Although the formal profession of engineering originated in the fifteenth century as

a military endeavor, scientific concepts applied in the form of engineering projects
have been in existence for many thousands of years [1, 2]. The pyramids of ancient
Egypt were begun as early as 2630 B.C. [3]. The Great Wall of China was built prior
to 200 B.C. [4]. The Incas at Machu Picchu were excellent civil engineers. During
1450–1540, they designed extensive irrigation and other water-handling systems
[5]. The Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy, crosses the Grand Canal and was built in the
sixteenth century [6].
Although not many records of historical women scientists and engineers survive
to the present, we know that they did exist throughout antiquity. Early women engi-
neers and scientists include Tapputi-Belatekallim, an early chemical engineer and
perfume maker in Babylon circa 1200 B.C.; Pythagoras’s wife Theano (c. 500
B.C.), who ran the school after his death; botanist Artemisia of Caria; physicist and

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2017 1

J.S. Tietjen, Engineering Women: Re-visioning Women’s Scientific Achievements
and Impacts, Women in Engineering and Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40800-2_1
2 1 The Early Days of Engineering

philosopher Arete of Crete; marine zoologist Pythias of Assos; Miriam the Alchemist
(also called Mary or Maria) circa 200 B.C. who invented laboratory equipment
including the three-armed still and waterbath (still found in modern laboratories and
known in French as bain-marie and in Spanish as baño de Maria); and Hypatia
(A.D. 370–415). One of the best remembered of the early women scientists, Hypatia
invented the astrolabe (a device for measuring the positions of celestial bodies), an
apparatus for distilling water, a hydrometer (a device for measuring the density of
liquids), and a planisphere [1, 7]
When the term “engineering” first came into use, it described the design of
mechanical devices for warfare. Universal scientific principles were applied, for
example, in launching projectiles and determining approximately where they would
land. The use of scientific principles, whose development was significantly enhanced
during the Industrial Revolution, proved far superior to the previous methods, which
were basically trial and error [1].
By the eighteenth century and with the emergence of the Industrial Revolution,
engineering moved away from purely military applications, into the civilian sphere
(hence the term “civil engineer”) and began to resemble the various types of engi-
neering we now know. This expansion was made possible by the realization that
common principles applied not only to the building of catapults, but to the building
of roads and bridges as well [1].
Engineering continued to evolve as the physical world became better understood.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was led to his greatest discovery—the theory of
gravity—by the fall of an apple in 1666. His theory is crucial to physics (a building
block of engineering) and forms a key basis for mechanical engineering. His many
discoveries affected almost every area of the physical world, with special emphasis
on experimental and theoretical physics, as well as chemistry and applied mathe-
matics. Newton invented virtually the entire science of mechanics, and most of the
science of optics. He also invented the mathematics he needed, including what is
now known as calculus—a basic requirement for all engineering students [8, 9].
Using the mathematical foundation laid by Newton, other key principles under-
lying the various disciplines of engineering were discovered during the 1700s,
1800s, and into the 1900s. The Bernoulli equation, which described the motions of
fluids, was developed around 1730 [10]. The law of electromagnetism, which
describes magnetic forces exerted by electrical currents, was formulated in 1820.
Many of the basic principles of thermodynamics came into being in the 1820s and
1830s, and precipitated the development and enhancement of steam engines.
Electricity and electrical engineering were significantly advanced with electrical
generation machinery (1884) and the transformer (1891), which allowed our system
of electrical power to develop. Radioactivity was discovered in 1896 and the theory
of relativity was put forth in 1905, allowing the development of nuclear power and
a wide range of medical applications, including X-ray machines [9, 11, 12].
At first, engineering resembled the craft traditions. Craft and merchant guilds in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had established rules for training apprentices
to take over what were usually family businesses, and traditionally had welcomed
A Short History of Engineering 3

daughters as apprentices and wives as unpaid artisans. Often women carried on the
business in the case of a husband’s death until a senior journeyman could take over.
Sometimes she carried on the business herself indefinitely [1]. However, once the
fields that had traditionally been “crafts” were upgraded and transformed into “sci-
ence,” women were no longer welcome. In addition, the Industrial Revolution
spawned mass production and increased demands for technical education [1]. Mass
production needed large numbers of engineers—apprenticeships did not turn out
large numbers nor was it suitable for complex technical training. In addition, home-
based crafts could not compete with mass production in price or quantity [13]. As
mass production took place in public, it became almost completely male. Women
were expected to exist in their own sphere, which was invariably personal, private,
and domestic [1].
Furthermore, as the engineering discipline evolved, formal schools were estab-
lished to teach the needed curriculum. European universities, however, did not
admit women. Most European universities had been founded to teach theology,
medicine, and law; these professions were all closed to women. So women, with
very few exceptions, were denied access to a university-level education. The École
Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (National School of Bridges and Roads) was
established in 1747 in France as the first formal school of engineering [1]. In the
nineteenth century, the practice and focus of engineering was significantly expanded
with the development of Newtonian mechanics and the development of the steam
engine. These developments led to an even greater need for formal education [14].
Male French engineers assisted the colonies during the American Revolution,
stayed to construct the new nation, and provided the foundation of engineering fac-
ulty for the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point [2]. When it was estab-
lished in 1802 to educate engineers, the USMA did not admit women. The Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, established in 1824 in Troy, New York, now the oldest surviv-
ing non-military engineering school in the U.S. also did not admit women [1, 13].
Prior to the Civil War, there were only six schools of engineering across the entire
U.S.; none admitted women [13]. Despite the odds, a few women did manage to
attend engineering schools. The first woman to graduate from an engineering degree
program in the U.S. was Elizabeth Bragg, who completed a B.S. in civil engineering
at the University of California at Berkeley in 1876 [14].
Elizabeth Bragg was a true pioneer woman in the field of engineering. In many
professional fields, talking about the “pioneers” means talking about people who
lived in the 1800s. In the field of engineering, however, many of the pioneering
female engineers lived and worked in the 1900s. And, most of the earliest female
engineers were not formally educated as engineers. Pioneering female engineers
needed two advantages to achieve lasting recognition: outstanding achievements
and strong personal ties with men in their field [15]. Close personal relationships
with husbands, fathers, or other family members enabled women engineers to reach
a level of professional acceptance that most other women were denied; it also gave
them access to knowledge of particular fields [1]. Let’s explore the history of engi-
neering education for women in the early years of the U.S.
4 1 The Early Days of Engineering

1700s

A young woman cannot and ought not to plunge with the obstinate and preserving strength
of a man into scientific pursuits, so as to forget everything else. Only an entirely unwomanly
young woman could try to become so thoroughly learned, in a man’s sense of the term; and
she would try in vain, for she has not the mental faculties of a man.—Author unknown [15]

There is little historical data concerning women in engineering during the

Colonial period in the U.S., possibly because there were so few of them and because
the discipline itself was so young. Women who might have aspired to an engineer-
ing career were likely to come across a number of stumbling blocks, much the same
as women in other male-dominated professions did. Chief among these stumbling
blocks was a fundamental lack of access to formal education. However, the stereo-
types about gender-appropriate occupations seems to have been even more sharply
defined in science and engineering than in other fields [14].
Exclusion of women from education—and particularly any type of higher educa-
tion—fit with the mores of the Colonial period. The laws and customs that took hold
first in the original thirteen colonies were based on English common law. According
to English common law, women’s social status was acquired either by birth or mar-
riage. Women had many duties befitting their station but few, if any rights; they were
trapped in a condition known now as “civil death [16, 17].” Women were deemed
subordinate to men and were expected to play a subservient role, first to their fathers
and then to their husbands [16]. Women’s sphere was narrowly defined as domestic,
and the female role specifically defined as wife and mother—roles later character-
ized as the “cult of true womanhood.” Women were expected to be submissive and
possess the values of piety, purity, and obedience. At this time in U.S. history, pursu-
ing any form of rigorous education was considered inappropriate for women; they
might harm their reproductive capabilities—especially if they filled their heads with
radical ideas [18].
While minority women were no doubt involved in some form of “science” and
“technology” long before, during, and after the Colonial period, there is scant docu-
mentation to confirm their contributions. With the exception of limited reports of
African-American women who engaged in medical practices on the plantations,
there is little else to suggest that scientific pursuits were within the purview of
minority women until long after the Civil War [1].

The 1800s Prior to the Civil War

Education was not a widespread privilege (or requirement) for many years after our
nation’s founding. During Colonial times, education beyond the elementary level
was denied to females. Formal education was rare, public schools as we know them
today did not exist, and what education was available was not free. In fact, to be
formally educated—especially beyond the high school level—was a rare privilege
The 1800s Prior to the Civil War 5

throughout most of Western history and exclusively granted to affluent males.

When the Constitution was adopted, few colonials had attended school; the literacy
rate for white women was about 40 % and for white men, about 80 % [17, 18].
By the end of the eighteenth century, ideas about female education reform were
beginning to draw attention. Judith Sargent Murray, an early advocate of educating
women as well as men, protested the lack of equality in education between boys and
girls in her 1790 tract On the Equality of the Sexes [16, 17, 19]. Female private schools,
female seminaries or “dame schools,” had begun to spring up in the 1780s, although
attendance was usually limited to the well-to-do. Most of these schools focused on
domestic subjects to ensure that their graduates would attract proper suitors [20].
Women needed to lead the charge to ensure that education was available to
women. Two of the more prominent of these women were Emma Willard and Mary
Lyon. Credited with being the first person to make secondary education available
for women, Emma Willard was able to inspire the citizens of Troy, New York to
raise enough money to build the Troy Female Seminary in 1821. More than anyone
else, Willard wrought the basic revolution in the nation’s attitude toward the educa-
tion of women between 1819 and the 1830s [15, 21]. Education reformer Mary
Lyon established Mount Holyoke Seminary (later College) in 1837. She success-
fully endowed a school for women that not only exists today, but flourishes, and
stands as a testament to her efforts [15, 21].
Also in 1837, Oberlin College set a milestone in education by becoming the first
institution of higher education to admit women and students of all races. Oberlin
had been established in 1833 as a seminary for men, but later became a college.
Women were viewed as a “civilizing influence” on the men and, at first, were actu-
ally not allowed to take the same course load as their male colleagues due to their
“smaller brains.” By 1841, however, women were allowed to obtain the same bach-
elor’s degrees with the same coursework as the men [16, 18].
During the 1840s through the 1860s (the so-called “Age of Reform”), women
fought for change in many areas. During this period, female activists sought aboli-
tion, the right to vote, equal rights, and educational opportunities [16]. Soon, their
efforts began to yield results.
By 1850, most cities had public schools—at least one for girls and several for boys.
The state of education for minorities did not yet measure up to even these standards.
And it took the better part of the nineteenth century to expand the free education sys-
tem for males from elementary schools though high school. By 1860, there were only
about 40 schools that qualified as high schools in the entire country [16, 18].
Colleges had been established as early as the 1600s in the Colonial states, and by
the 1800s were fairly common in the eastern U.S. Young men had an opportunity to
attend Harvard College and other Eastern all-male institutions. Although some of
the early female seminaries called themselves “women’s colleges,” they did not
measure up academically to these Eastern all-male institutions. However, they did
lay the foundation for the establishment of Antioch in 1852, Vassar in 1865, Smith
and Wellesley in 1875, and Bryn Mawr in 1885 [15, 16, 18, 21]. None of the wom-
en’s colleges had an undergraduate engineering program [2].
6 1 The Early Days of Engineering

The picture was a little different in the Western U.S., where most colleges were
state-supported and usually coeducational from the time of their founding because
males were not enrolled in sufficient numbers to support them, and taxpayers would
not support them unless their daughters could enroll. Many of these institutions
came about as a result of the Morrill Act of 1862 that has been credited with democ-
ratizing higher education and providing colleges for the industrial classes. It also led
to more schools that offered engineering education and more engineering programs
open to women [13]. By 1870, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas,
Indiana, Minnesota and California had established coeducational state universities.
The number of women going to college increased dramatically between 1860 and
1920, as educational opportunities became available and women saw the economic
and personal benefits of becoming educated [18, 22].

Key Historical Women

The contributions of those few engineering and scientific women of whom we have
knowledge anywhere in the world prior to the Civil War are fascinating and in many
cases, enduring. The following brief biographies provide a flavor of the lives they
led, the accomplishments credited to them, and the difficulties they encountered.

Si Ling-Chi or Lei-Tzu or Xilingshi (c. 2640 B.C.E.)

This Empress of China is credited with discovering how to remove silk threads
from silkworm cocoons, thus spawning the silk manufacturing industry in
China. Si Ling-Chi directed the development of the silk cultivation and weaving
industries [23].

Miriam the Alchemist (First or Second Century A.D.)

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Miriam was also known as Mary, Maria, and Miriam the
Prophetess or Miriam the Jewess. Her major inventions and improvements included
the three-armed still or tribikos, the kerotakis, and the water bath. The original pur-
pose of the inventions was to accelerate the process of metals transmuting into gold,
but now they are used extensively in modern science and contemporary households.
The tribikos was an apparatus for distillation, a process of heating and cooling that
imitated processes in nature. Sponges formed a part of the mechanism and served as
coolers. The kerotakis was an apparatus named for the triangular palette used by
artists to keep their mixtures of wax and pigment hot. The water bath, also known
as Marie’s bath (bain-marie), is similar to the present-day double boiler [24].
Emilie de Breteuil du Châtelet (1706–1749) 7

Cleopatra the Alchemist (c. Third Century)

Cleopatra was an alchemist who probably lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Her two sur-
viving papers include drawings that show a two-armed still and a type of chemical
apparatus. These are believed to be the earliest surviving drawings of chemical
apparatus. Cleopatra was interested in weights and measurements. Today, the work
of the alchemists is recognized as the forerunner of modern chemistry [25].

Hypatia (Circa 360–415)

The daughter of Theon, a well-known mathematician in Alexandria, Egypt, Hypatia

was raised by her father to be a “perfect human being”—in spite of the fact that she
was a daughter and not a son. Raised to seek knowledge, she was educated in the arts,
sciences, literature, philosophy, and all manner of sports. After her mathematical
knowledge surpassed that of her father, she was sent to Athens to study. When she
returned to Alexandria, she became a teacher of mathematics and philosophy.
Hypatia wrote a number of treatises in algebra including significant information on
cones being divided by planes. Her inventions included a plane astrolabe, a device
used for measuring the positions of the stars, planets and the sun, and to calculate
time and the ascendant sign of the zodiac; an apparatus for distilling water, a process
used for distilling sea water that is still used today; a graduated brass hydrometer for
determining the specific gravity (density) of a liquid; and a hydroscope, a device used
to observe objects that lie far below the surface of the water. Her brutal murder led to
the end of the formal study of mathematics in Alexandria for over 1000 years [7, 26].

Queen Sonduk (or Sondok) (Seventh Century)

The Queen of the Silla Kingdom (Korea) for 15 years (approximately 632–647),
Queen Sonduk ruled while the oldest observatory in East Asia was built. Located in
Kyongju, South Korea, the Ch’omsongdae observatory represents the advances
made during the Silla era that included new inventions and discoveries in astron-
omy, meteorology, engineering, printing, and ceramics [25].

Emilie de Breteuil du Châtelet (1706–1749)

The Marquise du Châtelet was tutored as a young woman because her parents
thought her homeliness would prelude her being suitably married and wished to
make her single life more tolerable with a good education. However, Emilie, grew
into a beautiful young woman of intelligence and wit who not only married, but had
8 1 The Early Days of Engineering

a well-known series of lovers including a very long-standing relationship with

Voltaire. Her significant intellectual interests were in physics and mathematics.
In collaboration with Voltaire, she wrote Eléments de la philosohie de Newton
(1738), which explained Newtonian physics for a French audience. Institutions de
physique, published in 1740, originated as a physics textbook for her son and
included principles from Newton and German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz. By
now, students were arriving to study with Châtelet and she began the culmination of
her life’s work, a two-volume translation of Newton’s Principia into French. It was
published in 1759, 10 years after her death, which occurred a few days after the
birth of her fourth child [7, 26].

Laura Bassi (1711–1778)

Laura Bassi, an Italian physicist, was fortunate to live in Bologna, Italy, a city that
prided itself on being a leading center for women in education. At the age of 20, she
was presented with membership in Bologna’s Academy of Sciences, which was part
of the Institute of Sciences. Shortly thereafter, she received a doctorate in philoso-
phy from the University of Bologna. Although she was offered a chair in philosophy
at the University and named a university professor, because she was a woman, she
was allowed to give public lectures only by invitation. She was able to overcome
significant resistance from various circles in Italian society as her career advanced
via the support of her husband as well as members of the academic community,
church leaders, and political figures.
She published scientific papers as a result of some of her research. Topics
included: air pressure (1745), solutions for problems in hydraulics (1757), the use
of mathematics to solve trajectory problems (1757), and bubbles formed from liq-
uids in gas containers (1791). Much of the rest of her research, which did not result
in publications, involved fluid mechanics, Newtonian physics, and electricity.
Because of her social position in Bologna society, she was also required to write
poetry for community events and contribute to literary publications [24].

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799)

In 1748, Italian Maria Agnesi published a two-volume, 1020-page manual titled

Analytical Institutions that significantly enhanced the mathematical and scientific
knowledge of the day. The volumes, intended as a textbook for her younger broth-
ers, included analysis of finite quantities (algebra and geometry) in volume one, and
differential and integral calculus (analysis of variable quantities and their rates of
change) in volume two. Her clarification of the work of the best known mathemati-
cians and scientists of the day, including Leibniz, Newton, Kepler, Galileo, and
L’Hopital, was recognized for its importance around the world and translations were
Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780–1872) 9

sought by scientists and mathematicians. All of this from a woman born in Milan,
Italy, into a society where most young women, even in the upper classes, were not
even taught to read.
The French Academy of Sciences described her work on infinitesimal analysis as
“organized, clear, and precise” and authorized translation of her second volume
from Italian into French in 1749. The English translation was published in 1801. In
1750, she was named honorary chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at the
University of Bologna, although she never lectured. After her father’s death in 1752,
she gradually withdrew from mathematical and scientific activities, apparently
because she associated those activities with him and the strong encouragement and
support he had provided to her in her endeavors [7, 26].

Sophie Germain (1776–1831)

A young woman so determined to study mathematics that she persevered even after
her parents made sure her bedroom was without light or fire and was left without
clothes so that she would have to stay in bed, Sophie Germain was not allowed into
the École Polytechnique at 18 years of age to continue her studies because she was a
woman. Her parents had finally relented and allowed her to study mathematics dur-
ing the day, and she was ready for more advanced education. Undeterred by the
refusal of the École Polytechnique to admit her, she studied on her own through
notes obtained from other students. She wrote to French mathematician Joseph Louis
LaGrange under a pseudonym, and he was so impressed with her comments that he
met with her and commended her observations. She later also communicated with
German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss who was so impressed that, in 1831, he
was successful in having the University of Göttingen award her an honorary degree.
In 1816, it happened that vibrations and their patterns was the subject of a com-
petition for the French Academy of Sciences as the mathematical theory to explain
them had never successfully been developed. Germain’s work, the only entry in the
competition, was awarded the grand prize. The mathematics for the vibration pat-
terns are used in the construction of tall buildings, such as skyscrapers, today. Now
that she had a prize, she was allowed to attend sessions of the Institut de France. In
the 1820s, Germain became interested in number theory and developed a theorem
in support of Fermat’s Last Theorem, her most important work in number theory.
Her theorem has since been generalized and improved, but not replaced [26].

Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780–1872)

One of the first honorary women members of the Royal Astronomical Society
(Great Britain), Mary Somerville was responsible for “popularizing” science—
writing books and papers that explained science to general readers, many of them
10 1 The Early Days of Engineering

women. After spending a year at a boarding school when she was 10 years old,
Somerville developed a thirst for reading and arithmetic. She taught herself Latin,
and then algebra, after seeing strange symbols in a ladies’ fashion magazine. When
her parents found out about her interest in mathematics, her father forbade her to
study, worried that mental activity would harm her female body. After her first hus-
band died and left her with a modest inheritance, she openly educated herself in
trigonometry and astronomy. Most of her friends and family did not support her
educational efforts.
Somerville married her first cousin in whom she found someone to support her
pursuits of educational and intellectual matters. In fact, her husband encouraged her
to expand her studies beyond mathematics and astronomy to Greek, botany, and
mineralogy. In 1834, she published On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences
which presented a comprehensive picture of the latest research in the physical sci-
ences. Her 1831 book, Mechanism of the Heavens, contributed to the modernization
of English mathematics. Sommerville was occasionally criticized for her “unwom-
anly” pursuit of science. Nevertheless, she was referred to, both in England and
abroad, as “the premier scientific lady of the ages” [24].

Ada Byron Lovelace (1815–1852)

The daughter of the English poet Lord George Byron, Ada Lovelace now has a
computer language named (Ada) after her. A somewhat sickly child, Lovelace was
tutored at home and was competent in mathematics, astronomy, Latin, and music by
the age of 14. Totally enthralled by Charles Babbage's Difference Engine (an early
computer concept), at 17 years old, she began studying differential equations. As
proposed, his second machine, the analytical engine, could add, subtract, multiply,
and divide directly and it would be programmed using punched cards, the same
logical structure used by the first large-scale electronic digital computers in the
twentieth century.
In 1842, the Italian engineer, L.F. Menabrea published a theoretical and practi-
cal description of Babbage’s analytical engine. Lovelace translated this document,
adding “notes” in the translation. Her notes constitute about three times the length
of the original document and, as explained by Babbage, the two documents
together show “That the whole of the development and operations of analysis are
now capable of being executed by machinery.” These notes include a recognition
that the engine could be told what analysis to perform and how to perform it—the
basis of computer software. Her notes were published in 1843 in Taylor’s Scientific
Memoirs under her initials, because although she wanted credit for her work, it
was considered undignified for aristocratic women to publish under their own
names. Ada Lovelace is considered to be the first person to describe computer
programming [7, 26].
References 11

References

1. Ambrose S, Dunkle K, Lazarus B, Nair I, Harkus D (1997) Journeys of women in science and
engineering: no universal constants. Temple University Press, Philadelphia
2. Barker A (1994) Women in engineering during World War II: a taste of victory, unpublished,
Rochester Institute of Technology
3. Rediscover Ancient Egypt with Tehuti Research Foundation. www.Egypt-tehuti.com/phyra-
mids.html. Accessed 26 Sept 2000
4. All About the Great Wall of China. www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/greatwall/Allabout.
html. Accessed 26 Sept 2000
5. Wright K, Kelly J, Zegarra A (1997) Machu Picchu: ancient hydraulic engineering. J Hydraulic
Eng 123:838–840
6. Grand Canal (Italy). http://Encarta.msn.com/index/conciseindex/. Accessed 26 Sept 2000
7. Alic M (1986) Hypatia’s heritage: a short history of women in science from antiquity through
the nineteenth century. Beacon, Boston
8. Sir Isaac Newton and chronology. pp 1–2. www.reformation.org/Newton.html. Accessed 1
July 1999
9. Wolfson R, Pasachoff JM (1987) Physics. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, MA
10. Daniel Bernoulli and the making of the fluid equation. http://pass.maths.org.uk/issue1/bern/
index.html. Accessed 1 July 1999
11. A gallery of electromagnetic personalities. www.ee.umd.edu/~taylor/frame8.htm, frame3.htm,
frame4.htm, and frame7.htm. Accessed 1 July 1999
12. Tesla N. www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/bio.htm. Accessed 1 July 1999
13. Turner EM. Education of women for engineering in the United States 1885-1952. (Dissertation,
New York University, 1954), UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, MI
14. Kass-Simon G, Farnes P (eds) (1990) Women of science: righting the record. Indiana
University Press, Bloomington, IN
15. Rossiter MW (1992) Women scientists in America: struggles and strategies to 1940. The Johns
Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
16. Flexner E, Fitzpatrick EF (1996) Century of struggle: the women’s rights movement in the
United States, Enlargedth edn. The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
17. Baer JA (1996) Women in American Law: the struggle toward equality from the new deal to
the present, 2nd edn. Homes & Meier, New York, p. 15
18. Harris B (1978) Beyond her sphere: women in the professions in American history. Greenwood
Press, Westport, CT
19. Garza H (1996) Barred from the bar: a history of women in the legal profession. Franklin
Watts, New York
20. Dexter EA (1950) Career women of America: 1776-1840. Marshall Jones Company,
Francetown, NH
21. Webster’s Dictionary of American Women (1996) SMITHMARK Publishers, New York
22. The land grant system of education in the United States. http://www.ag.ohio.state.
edu/~ohioline/lines/lgrant.html. Accessed 11 Apr 2000
23. Jones C (2000) 1001 Things everyone should know about women’s history. Doubleday,
New York, NY
24. Shearer BH, Shearer BS (eds) (1997) Notable women in the physical sciences: a biographical
dictionary. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT
25. Proffitt P (ed) (1999) Notable women scientists. Gale Group, Farmington Hills, MI
26. Morrow C, Perl T (eds) (1998) Notable women in mathematics: a biographical dictionary.
Greenwood Press, Westport, CT
Chapter 2
Women Can Be Engineers, Too!

Abstract Prior to the late 1800s, engineering education was available only to male
students. For most women whose aspirations were inclined toward science or engi-
neering, the educational system and associated opportunities would not be available
until late in the twentieth century. Thus, many of the early women “engineers” were
not educated as engineers in the sense one would expect today. In 1893, the official
records only documented three women as having received engineering degrees in
the U.S. As women did endeavor to be educated and practice as engineers, a back-
lash developed. Once educated, women wanted to participate as men did in the
engineering societies established for camaraderie, professional development, and
networking opportunities. Those societies did not welcome women. It would take
many years for the engineering societies as well as the engineering honor society to
admit women. Profiles of engineering and scientific women from the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century are provided.

Engineering Education in the Nineteenth Century

Prior to the late 1800s, engineering education was available only to male students.
While the U.S. population was centered in the East, the colleges in the West and
mid-West formally admitted women earlier than East Coast institutions, primarily
because many state-supported institutions were established as a result of the 1862
Morrill Act. But even then, the number of women formally studying engineering in
the late 1800s were very few. For most women whose aspirations were inclined
toward science or engineering, the educational system and associated opportunities
would not be widely available until late in the twentieth century.
Some women were able to slip in through the cracks that were starting to show
in the male-dominated bastions of engineering educational institutions, either as
students enrolled in engineering curriculum or in related science curriculum. Many
of the early women “engineers” were not educated as engineers in the sense one
would expect today.
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards was one of these non-traditional engineers.
Although she was not an engineer by training, she contributed much to the estab-
lishment of the forerunners of environmental and sanitary engineering and is

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2017 13

J.S. Tietjen, Engineering Women: Re-visioning Women’s Scientific Achievements
and Impacts, Women in Engineering and Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40800-2_2
14 2 Women Can Be Engineers, Too!

credited as the woman who founded ecology and home economics. When she
applied to the chemistry department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
for a graduate degree in chemistry in 1870, she was not accepted because the depart-
ment did not want its first graduate degree to go to a woman. She was not rejected,
however, (as she was at all the other universities where she had applied), but instead
was allowed to enroll as a candidate for a second bachelor’s degree. She was classi-
fied as a special student who did not have to pay tuition (she had already received a
bachelor’s degree from Vassar College). Richards did not know that MIT had admit-
ted her without tuition so that they could deny she was officially enrolled, if anyone
complained. She completed her work for a doctoral degree, but MIT refused to grant
it to her. MIT formally admitted women in 1878 [1, 2].
Elizabeth Bragg became the first woman to obtain an engineering degree. She
graduated in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1876
[1]. Kate Gleason was the first woman to enter Cornell’s Sibley College of
Engineering in 1884, but did not stay to complete her studies, as she was called back
to help the family business [4]. Perhaps the second female engineer by education,
Elmina Wilson graduated in 1892 from Iowa State College with a civil engineering
degree and was the first female instructor at that school [3]. In 1893, Bertha Lamme
graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in mechanical engineering
with an option in electricity. She was the first woman to graduate with a degree in a
field other than civil or architectural engineering [1].
When the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education (later named the
American Society for Engineering Education) was formed in 1893, only the three
women noted above were recorded as having received engineering degrees in the
U.S. However, as women began to enter the educational system, graduate, and then
try to find work as engineers, a backlash developed [3].

Professionalization

Professionalization of engineering began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth

centuries. As women were finally able, at least in small numbers, to gain an engi-
neering education and engineering employment, they also endeavored to join the
engineering societies. These organizations, however, did not welcome women and
developed a strict hierarchy of requirements for each of several levels of member-
ship. They were already in the midst of upgrading themselves and the entrance of
women into the profession was not seen as a positive development by most of the
men involved in the leadership positions of these organizations [2].
Professionalization, in this case, meant upgrading the membership or image of
a profession by excluding or diminishing the influence of persons who could be
perceived to be “amateurs.” Professionalization in engineering included deliber-
ately creating barriers between engineers with college degrees and relevant pro-
fessional experience and those other “engineers” who had learned their jobs by
experience and lacked the “professional” credentials. In professional societies,
Professional Societies 15

professionalization often meant raising the standards of membership and led to

great concerns about the perceived prestige of the organization. As most engi-
neering schools did not admit women (and thus women could not get the desired
“professional” credentials), the most significant impact of professionalization
was to exclude women [2].
Professionalism was probably also a by-product of the state of engineering edu-
cation. Engineering educational standards in the late 1800s and early 1900s were
not yet at a level necessary to earn a college education. As a consequence, engineers
were not invited to serve on national scientific advisory boards, nor were engineers
recognized as part of the established scientific community until 1916. And not until
1932 was the Engineering Council for Professional Development (ECPD), now
known as ABET, created to provide accreditation of engineering degree programs,
in partial response to reports sponsored by the engineering societies [4].

Professional Societies

By the end of the nineteenth century, civil and mechanical engineering were firmly
established as engineering disciplines, with electrical and chemical engineering fol-
lowing closely behind [1]. Engineering societies were forming. Organizations, such
as these engineering societies, are deemed the hallmark of a profession. These soci-
eties define intellectual style and norms of conduct and generally act to promote the
interests of their members. The early engineering societies placed a high value on
free enterprise, individualism, hard work, ambition, and success—characteristics of
a rugged male culture, with concepts of prestige, status, and professionalism closely
intertwined with masculinity [4].
The “Founder” societies, the five original engineering societies that founded the
United Engineering Society in 1904 (which later became the United Engineering
Foundation) included the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American
Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) (now called the Society for Mining, Metallurgy
and Exploration), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE—a predecessor organization to the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers—IEEE), and the American Institute
of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) [5–7]. A brief look at their history and their admit-
tance (or more accurately, their lack of admittance) of women shows the impact that
professionalization and the associated membership requirements had on the recogni-
tion for and advancement of women in the engineering profession.
ASCE, America’s oldest national engineering society, was founded in 1852.
Twelve founders met at the Croton Aqueduct in New York City on November 5,
1852, and agreed to incorporate as the American Society of Civil Engineers and
Architects (later the ASCE) [8, 9]. Emily Warren Roebling, probably the first
woman field engineer, became the first woman to address the ASCE in 1892, when
she argued that her husband should not be replaced as the formal director for the
construction of the Brooklyn Bridge [1]. In 1909, Nora Blatch de Forest, a graduate
16 2 Women Can Be Engineers, Too!

of Cornell University in the top five of her class, was admitted as a “junior member”
of the ASCE but was unable to advance any higher. When her junior membership
expired in 1916, ASCE refused to promote her to full membership, in spite of her
meeting the stated requirements, and instead, dropped her from the rolls. She
brought a lawsuit against the Society, but did not prevail [2]. Elsie Eaves became an
associate member of ASCE in 1927 and later the first female member (1957), first
female life member, first female Fellow, and the first woman elected to honorary
membership (1979) [1, 10].
AIME was founded in 1871 by 22 mining engineers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
[7, 11]. The first woman member was Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards, who
became the first woman member of any engineering society when she was elected a
full member of AIME in 1879. Richards was aided by her MIT degree, her publica-
tions in mineral chemistry, and the fact that her husband was a vice president of the
organization [2]. In 1917, the Woman’s Auxiliary to the AIME was established and
is still active today as the WAAIME [11, 12].
By 1880, 85 engineering colleges had been established in the U.S. and most
offered a full mechanical engineering curriculum. Thirty engineers met in New York
City in February 1880 and decided to form the ASME. In April, a formal organiza-
tional meeting was held with 80 engineers at the Stevens Institute of Technology in
Hoboken, New Jersey. The first annual meeting of the organization was held in
November 1880 [13]. The first woman member, Kate Gleason, was admitted to full
membership of the ASME in 1914 [14]. Lydia Weld, a 1903 naval architecture
graduate of MIT, became an associate member of ASME in 1915. She was allowed
to become a full member in 1935, when the ASME finally granted full membership
status to women [3].
By 1884, twenty-five prominent figures in electrical technology signed a “call”
to establish an American electrical national society, mindful that civil, mining, and
mechanical engineers had already established their own national societies. Twenty-
five electrical engineering practitioners met in the headquarters of the ASCE on
April 15 to devise an organizational structure for what became at first the AIEE. The
first general meeting was held on May 13, also at ASCE headquarters [15]. In 1926,
Edith Clarke, who would later become one of the first AIEE female fellows, was the
first woman to address the AIEE [16]. As late as 1942, there were only three women
in the AIEE and over 17,000 men [16]. The Fellow grade was established in 1912
for engineers who had demonstrated outstanding proficiency and had achieved dis-
tinction in their profession. It was not until 1948, however, that the first women were
elected AIEE Fellows [17]. These three distinguished women were Edith Clarke,
who significantly contributed to knowledge about and modeling for electric utility
systems; Vivien Kellems, the founder of Kellems Company, a manufacturer of cable
grips and shell lifters; and Mabel Rockwell, who significantly contributed to electri-
cal control systems [18–20].
AIChE was founded in 1908 at the Engineers’ Club in Philadelphia by 19 men.
Chemical engineering was just coming into its own and was somewhere between
chemistry and mechanical engineering. The founding of AIChE helped to establish
chemical engineering as a separate discipline. At the time, the founding members of
Early Twentieth Century 17

AIChE believed that about 500 people were practicing chemical engineering across
the country [21]. The first female member of AIChE, Margaret Hutchinson
Rousseau, the first woman to receive a Sc.D. in chemical engineering from MIT and
who made significant contributions to the field, was not admitted until 1945 [17].
In addition to the Founder Societies, an engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi,
was established. The engineering equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa (which had been
founded at the College of William and Mary in 1776), Tau Beta Pi, was established
at Lehigh University in 1885. It was founded to:
. . . mark in a fitting manner those who have conferred honor upon their alma mater by
distinguished scholarship and exemplary character as undergraduates in engineering, or
by their attainments as alumni in the field of engineering, and to foster a spirit of liberal
culture in engineering colleges.
Membership in Tau Beta Pi was limited to men until 1969. Women’s badges had
been authorized in 1936 as an alternative to membership for women. Only 619
Women’s Badges had been awarded by 98 chapters until women were admitted to
full membership in 1969, 84 years after the founding of the organization [22–24].
Other engineering societies, in addition to the Founder societies, came into exis-
tence in the early to mid 1900s. However, these organizations also excluded women
from membership or often relegated them to lower membership status. Marie Luhring
was elected as an associate member of the American Society of Automotive Engineers
in 1920 [14]. That same year, Ethel H. Bailey became the first full female member of
the organization [14]. The American Society of Safety Engineers, founded in 1911 in
New York City with 62 members as the United Society of Casualty Inspectors,
admitted its first female member, Vera Burford, in 1946 [17, 25]. The first time a
woman was elected as a junior member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine
Engineers was 1946 [26]. The first female fellow of the Illuminating Engineering
Society, Gertrude Rand, a researcher on the way color perception is affected by illu-
mination and on color blindness, was elected in 1954 [16, 17].
Lillian Gilbreth, “the first lady of engineering” and the co-founder of the field of
industrial engineering, was made an honorary member of the Society of Industrial
Engineers in 1921 (as a personal favor to her husband, Frank Gilbreth), but not
admitted to regular membership [2, 27]. She was, however, the first woman elected
to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), an event that occurred in 1965,
only one year after the founding of the NAE in 1964 [28, 29].

Early Twentieth Century

The struggle for women to enter the engineering profession made some little prog-
ress in the early twentieth century. Women are known to have graduated in engineer-
ing from some universities, even if only in ones or twos. Finding a job was the next
problem. Attaining the credentials necessary for recognition as even a junior or asso-
ciate member of one of the professional engineering societies was a further obstacle
faced by most women. And then, if a woman married, she was expected, except in
18 2 Women Can Be Engineers, Too!

very rare cases, to become a wife and mother and abandon all thoughts of a career.
The situation was so dire that American Men of Science, 1921 edition, lists zero
women as employed in engineering [2]. The 1920 Census, however, reports that of
130,000 engineers counted, 41 were women, up from 21 in the 1890 Census [30].

Key Women of This Period

The key women in engineering whose most significant contributions occurred after
the Civil War and prior to World War I, were generally not educated in “engineer-
ing.” With admission to engineering programs prohibited for women in almost
every instance, most of the women who impacted the engineering profession either
were educated in other scientific fields or gleaned their “engineering” knowledge
through on-the-job training.

Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)

Ellen Swallow was admitted to MIT as a “special student” and earned a bachelor’s
degree there in chemistry in 1873 (the first woman graduate of MIT) after having
graduated from Vassar (as one of its first graduates) in 1870. She was denied an
earned doctoral degree from MIT, as the school did not want a woman to be the first
person awarded a doctorate in chemistry. While a graduate student, she executed a
complete survey of Massachusetts drinking water and sewage for the Massachusetts
Board of Health (1872), taking more than 40,000 samples. Through this work, she
warned of early inland water pollution. She also contributed the first Water Purity
Tables and the first state water quality standards in the U.S. From 1873 to 1878, she
taught in the MIT chemistry department without a title or salary as the first women
teacher. She also did extensive research in mineral analysis.
After her marriage in 1875 to Professor Robert H. Richards, head of the depart-
ment of mining engineering at MIT, she persuaded the Women’s Education
Association of Boston to contribute the funds needed for the opening of a Woman’s
Laboratory at MIT. As assistant director to Professor John M. Ordway, an industrial
chemist, Richards began her work in the laboratory by encouraging women to enter
the sciences and to provide scientific training to women. In 1879, she became the first
woman member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. She was certainly
technically qualified for this membership classification; however, her husband’s sta-
tus of vice president of the organization contributed significantly to her selection.
By 1883, the laboratory had proved so successful that MIT allowed women to
enroll in regular classes and closed the laboratory. Richards’ work in the laboratory
had resulted in several books and pamphlets including the seminal Food Materials
and Their Adulterations (1885). This publication influenced the passage of the first
Pure Food and Drug Act in Massachusetts. Her work included analysis of air, water,
Emily Warren Roebling (1844–1903) 19

and food and led to national public health standards and the new disciplines of sani-
tary engineering and nutrition. The interaction between people and their environ-
ment, her areas of study, have led to Richards being called the founder of ecology.
In 1884, she was instrumental in setting up the world’s first laboratory for study-
ing sanitary chemistry. She served as assistant to Professor William R. Nichols in
the new laboratory and held the post of instructor on the MIT faculty for the rest of
her life. From 1887 to 1889 she supervised a highly influential survey of
Massachusetts inland waters.
Since 1876, Richards had been on the forefront of promoting education for
women, especially in science. In 1881, Richards helped found the Association of
Collegiate Alumnae (later renamed the American Association of University
Women). In 1882, she helped to organize the science section of the Society to
Encourage Studies at Home.
After 1890, she concentrated most of her efforts on founding and promoting the
home economics movement (at first it was called domestic science)—an achieve-
ment for which she is primarily noted (and frequently criticized for its detrimental
effect on women’s equality). Home economics was given definition by a series of
conferences held in Lake Placid, New York, organized and chaired by Richards
starting in 1899. She was involved in the formation of the American Home
Economics Association (1908) and was appointed in 1910 to the National Education
Association [1, 2, 16, 31–34]. Richards has been inducted into the National Women’s
Hall of Fame.

Emily Warren Roebling (1844–1903)

Emily Warren Roebling, generally considered the first U.S. female field civil engi-
neer and construction manager, is remembered for her significant accomplishments
in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. The inscription on the East Tower of the
bridge reads (placed there in 1953):
The Builders of the Bridge
Dedicated to the Memory of
Emily Warren Roebling
1843–1903
whose faith and courage helped her stricken husband
Col. Washington A. Roebling, C.E.
1837–1926
complete the construction of this bridge
from the plans of his father
John A. Roebling, C.E.
1806–1869 who gave his life to the bridge
BACK OF EVERY GREAT WORK WE CAN FIND
THE SELF-SACRIFICING DEVOTION OF A
WOMAN.

Without Emily Warren Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge—one of the greatest engi-
neering projects of the nineteenth century—might not have been completed on
May 24, 1883. With the assistance of her brother and husband, Roebling learned
20 2 Women Can Be Engineers, Too!

engineering through the study of higher mathematics, strength of materials, stress

analysis, the calculation of catenary curves, bridge specifications, and the intrica-
cies of cable construction. Her engineering skills allowed her to become the princi-
pal assistant and inspector of the bridge as her husband, Washington Roebling,
could no longer visit the site because he had “Bends” disease. She was able to dis-
cuss structural steel requirements with representatives from steel mills and assisted
them with designs and shapes never before fabricated.
She said, “. . . I have more brains, common sense, and know-how generally than
any two engineers civil or uncivil that I have ever met . . .” The bridge, with a span
of 1,595 feet, was the largest suspension bridge in the world when it was completed
and remains functional today [1, 35, 36].

Edith Judith Griswold (1863–Unknown)

Renowned as a lawyer and patent expert (this is how she is listed in the Who’s Who
in Engineering in 1925), Edith Grisworld spent four years at New York Normal
College where she graduated with a license to teach in the New York Schools.
However, she took a special course in electricity at the time (with her father’s per-
mission). She felt that she gained a great deal in the course and that her best work
was always along electrical lines.
Her career as a mechanical draftsman began in 1884. In 1885 and 1886, she
worked in D.J. Miller’s office, one of the first cable railroad men, where she made
drawings for and estimated costs associated with cable railroads. All of her subse-
quent work was in patent-office drawing. During this time, she also taught geometry
and mathematics in a private school.
By 1887, she was very interested in patent law and gave up her work as a
mechanical draftsman to work as a managing clerk in a patent law office and learn
the profession. She attended lectures at New York University Law School. In 1897,
Griswold opened her own law offices as a patent attorney. She took the bar in 1898.
After 1905, her health forced her to give up regular office work.
Her engineering work was primarily in mechanics, including electrical appara-
tus, instruments of precision, and other intricate devices. Her legal work, which
came from other patent lawyers, was always (with but one exception) patents related
to articles used or worn by women [14, 37].

Kate Gleason (1865–1933)

Kate Gleason began her career in the family’s Gleason Works at age 11 when her
brother, Tom, died. Hearing her father lament the loss of his assistant, Kate simply
showed up and took his place. And, her father did not send her back home to do
“women’s” things; he taught her the family business. By age 14, she was the Gleason
Bertha Lamme (1869–1954) 21

Works bookkeeper. She became her father’s indispensable assistant. In addition to

keeping the books, she traveled around the country and the world selling the com-
pany’s products, and serving as the public face of Gleason Works.
In 1884, she entered Cornell University’s engineering program, the first woman
to so enroll. However, before her freshman year was over, she needed to return to
the family business, as her father could not afford the salary of the man that had
been hired to take her place. Although she significantly lamented the loss of educa-
tion, she was on the road by 1888, selling machines on her first road trip. By 1890,
she was the Secretary-Treasurer of The Gleason Works, and its chief sales represen-
tative, a position she held until 1913. In 1893, on doctor’s orders for rest, she went
to England, Scotland, France, and Germany, and came back with machine orders.
This was one of the earliest efforts at international marketing for any company in the
U.S. Gleason learned how to turn being a female in business into an asset. She had
also learned from Susan B. Anthony, one of the leaders of the suffrage movement,
that any advertising is good. In 1913, family tensions, caused in large part by her
being a woman in a man’s world and to a widely circulated story that credited her
with being the inventor of the Gleason gear planer (the inventor was her father), led
to her resigning from the company.
Kate Gleason became the first woman member of the ASME in 1914. Also in
1914, she was the first woman to be appointed receiver by a bankruptcy court. She
successfully undertook the reorganization of the Ingel Machine Company of East
Rochester, New York. In 1916, she was one of the first women to be elected to the
Rochester Chamber of Commerce and the first woman elected to the Rochester
Engineering Society. She also served as president of the First National Bank,
Rochester, New York, from 1917 to 1919, while its president went off to fight in
World War I.
Later, Gleason became very interested in low-cost housing and built concrete
houses in the Rochester area that are still inhabited today. She was the first female
member of the American Concrete Institute. Gleason served as the ASME’s represen-
tative to the World Power Conference in Germany in 1930. Her estate was used to
establish the Kate Gleason fund, one of whose beneficiaries was the Rochester Institute
of Technology (RIT). In 1998, RIT named its College of Engineering after her. Gleason
attributed her success to “a bold front, a willingness to risk more than the crowd, deter-
mination, some common sense, and plenty of hard work.” [1, 3, 16, 33, 38]

Bertha Lamme (1869–1954)

Bertha Lamme went to work for Westinghouse after graduating from The Ohio
State University with a degree in mechanical engineering and an emphasis in elec-
tricity. She had studied electrical engineering with her brother at Ohio State “for the
fun of it” and had no plans to pursue a career after earning her degree in 1893.
However, she received a surprise job offer from Westinghouse where her brother
Benjamin was by then employed and worked there until she married in 1905.
22 2 Women Can Be Engineers, Too!

Bertha Lamme worked in the East Pittsburgh plant for 12 years, where she
designed motors and generators. A 1907 Pittsburgh Dispatch article reports on her
tenure at Westinghouse saying that Lamme’s work in designing dynamos and
motors won her a reputation “even in that hothouse of gifted electricians and
inventors. She is accounted a master of the slide rule and can untangle the most
intricate problems in ohms and amperes as easily and quickly as any expert man
in the shop.”
In 1905, she married her supervisor and retired, as required by company policy,
to become a wife and mother. Her husband, Russell S. Feicht, also an Ohio State
graduate, designed the 2,000-horsepower induction motors displayed at the
St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, and later retired from Westinghouse as its director of
engineering. The Feicht’s daughter, Florence, had well-developed mathematical
abilities and went on to become a physicist for the U.S. Bureau of Mines.
The Westinghouse/Bertha Lamme Scholarships were established by the Society
of Women Engineers (SWE) in 1973 in honor of Westinghouse’s first woman engi-
neer [1, 3, 14].

Nora Stanton Blatch de Forest Barney (1883–1971)

Nora Stanton de Forest Barney, granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (one of

the leaders of the suffrage movement), first distinguished herself by graduating
from Cornell University with a bachelor’s of civil engineering in 1905. The
American Bridge Company employed her, as she was in the top five of her class
and a member of Sigma Pi. She became a “squad boss” after 3 weeks of employ-
ment. In 1906, she became an assistant to Lee de Forest, inventor of the radio
vacuum tube and pioneer in television. They were married in 1908 and divorced in
1912. In 1909, she joined the staff of Radley Steel Construction Company as an
assistant engineer and chief drafter. From 1909 to 1917, she was also active in the
New York State women’s suffrage movement. Then, beginning in 1912, she was an
assistant engineer for the New York Public Service Commission. She married
Morgan Barney, a marine architect in 1919. Barney also served as an architect
and engineering inspector for the Public Works Administration in Connecticut and
Rhode Island.
Besides her broad work experiences, Barney was a prolific, and widely read,
writer in her field. She was actively involved in the world peace movement and the
women’s rights movement. Despite her many achievements, she was granted only a
junior membership status in the ASCE in 1909. Nearly 14 years after being allowed
to join, she filed to have her membership status elevated to “associate member,” but
her application was denied. She filed an appeal, but her appeal was denied. And
when she attempted to regain her junior membership status, it too was denied. In her
later life she became a real estate developer. In 1944, she wrote World Peace
Through a Peoples Parliament [14, 16].
References 23

References

1. Kass-Simon G, Farnes P (eds) (1990) Women of science: righting the record. Indiana
University Press, Bloomington, IN
2. Rossiter M (1992) Women scientists in America: struggles and strategies to 1940. The Johns
Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
3. LeBold WK, LeBold DJ (1998) Women engineers: a historical perspective. ASEE Prism
7(7):30–32
4. Barker AM (1994) Women in engineering during World War II: a taste of victory. Rochester
Inst Technol unpublished
5. An overview of the United Engineering Foundation: History. www.uefoundation.org/over-
view.html. Accessed 15 Dec 2000
6. Founder societies of the United Engineering Foundation. www.uefoundation.org/fndsoc.html.
Accessed 15 Dec 2000
7. Historical highlights. www.idis.com/aime/history.htm. Accessed 15 Dec 2000
8. ASCE profile. www.asce.org/aboutasce/profile.html. Accessed 15 Dec 2000
9. 150 Years of civil engineering. www.asce.org/150/1506years.html. Accessed 15 Dec 2000
10. Elsie Eaves—pioneer from the west. SWE Newsletter, May 1959, p. 3
11. WAAIME. www.idis.com/aime/WAAIME.HTM. Accessed 19 Dec 2000
12. The woman’s auxiliary to the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum
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15 Dec 2000
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17. Rossiter MW (1995) Women scientists in America: before affirmative action 1940-1972. The
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lows.htm. Accessed 19 Dec 2000
19. Goff AC (1946) Women can be engineers. Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI
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23. Tau Beta Pi: integrity and excellence in engineering. www.tbp.org. Accessed 20 Aug 1999
24. The Phi Beta Kappa Society: a short history of Phi Beta Kappa. www.pbk.org/history.htm.
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25. Society history. www.asse.org/hsoci.htm. Accessed 19 Dec 2000
26. (1948) The outlook for women in architecture and engineering. U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, DC, p. 5–33. Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau No. 223-5
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30. Schneider D, Schneider CF (1993) The ABC-CLIO companion to women in the workplace.
ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA
31. Shearer BH, Shearer BS (eds) (1997) Notable women in the physical sciences: a biographical
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33. (1996) Webster’s Dictionary of American Women. SMITHMARK Publishers, New York
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38. Bartels N. The first lady of gearing. www.geartechnology.com/mag/gt-kg.htm. Accessed 2
Sept 1999
Chapter 3
War’s Unintended Consequences

Abstract During World War I, women were encouraged to participate in the work
force and support the war effort. Many historians believe that the vote for women’s
suffrage, which was finally ratified in 1920, was out of gratitude for women’s efforts
during the war. However, in spite of that “gratitude,” most women were not allowed
to keep the jobs they had filled during the war when it was over and made little
headway in the 1920s and 1930s. During World War II, women were encouraged to
enter the work force because the men were gone. Rosie the Riveter, the personifica-
tion of women’s contributions to the war effort, put a public face on the need for
women to fill positions to keep war materials rolling off the assembly lines. Women
were trained as engineers, engineering aides, and engineering cadettes. After the
war ended, women were displaced in institutions of higher education and were no
longer welcome in engineering careers either. But after this war, women reacted
differently. They established the Society of Women Engineers and began to encour-
age each other to pursue scientific and technical careers. Profiles are provided for
scientific and engineering women from the late 1800s through the late 1900s.

World War I

During World War I, women were encouraged to participate in the work force and
support the war effort. This “war to end all wars” has also been called the first engi-
neers’ war, as the results of military applications of scientific and technological
advances appeared as tanks, airplanes, and submarines [1]. Because of the shortage
of male engineers during World War I, women had the opportunity to work in fac-
tories and offices where they were instrumental in keeping the manufacturing indus-
try working [2]. They were drawn into tool design and chemical research, and
designed buildings and automobiles [3].
However, because the U.S. was involved in the conflict for only 19 months, the
manpower emphasis was on the emergency training of mechanics to service the new
military technology and not the education of engineers with degrees [1]. Some
women became war-time mechanics through special training; some of those women,
because of this introduction, actually graduated with engineering degrees in the
1920s. Approximately 120 women, some without any college degree, worked

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2017 25

J.S. Tietjen, Engineering Women: Re-visioning Women’s Scientific Achievements
and Impacts, Women in Engineering and Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40800-2_3
26 3 War’s Unintended Consequences

during the war in engineering jobs. The end of the war signaled the end of this
opportunity. However, prior to 1920, at least 45 women are known to have gradu-
ated from college with engineering degrees [4]. It is ironic that war, an activity that
women tend to oppose, increases women’s economic progress, as men are drawn
out of the civilian workforce [3].
Many historians believe that the vote for women’s suffrage, which was finally rati-
fied in 1920, was out of gratitude for women’s efforts during the war [5]. However, in
spite of that “gratitude,” most women were not allowed to keep the jobs they had filled
during the war when it was over. The few women who did remain in engineering after
World War I must have been nearly invisible, because according to the American Men
of Science directory for 1921, there were no women at all in engineering, although the
1920 Census reported 41 women out of a total of 130,000 engineers [5, 6].
One of these 41 women was probably Elsie Eaves, a 1920 civil engineering grad-
uate from the University of Colorado who had just embarked on what would be an
illustrious career. Eaves was instrumental in establishing a national organization for
women engineers: the Society of Women Engineers and Architects. In 1919, she and
several of her colleagues at the University of Colorado wrote to engineering schools
across the country, asking for information on women engineering students and grad-
uates. They found 63 women enrolled in engineering at 20 universities—including
43 at the University of Michigan alone! The Michigan women had organized a group
of their own, the T-Square Society in 1914. Most schools, however, did not yet admit
women to their engineering programs. One professor responded to Eaves’ letter: “I
would state that we have not now, have never had, and do not expect to have in the
near future, any women students registered in our engineering department” [7]. In
the end, there were too few women engineers around the country and they were too
scattered geographically to keep the organization alive, so it folded [7].
Women engineers made little headway in the 1920s and 1930s. Despite the eco-
nomic boom in the 1920s and the accompanying optimism and expansion, women
in the professions generally did not benefit from the strong economy. Out of 197
fellowships awarded in engineering during one period of the 1920s, one went to a
woman. However, the number of women engineering graduates did grow by 113
from 1920 to 1929, reaching 158. And 53 engineering colleges (an increase from
35 in 1920) now admitted women [4].
Those women who were able to graduate with a degree and find employment still
faced significant obstacles in advancing in their careers. After graduation, a man
would start as a junior engineer and could generally expect, if his performance was
satisfactory, to be promoted to senior engineer and then project engineer. Then, he
would move on to management, with each step representing increased status, power,
and salary. Women engineers, however, were usually limited to desk work, some-
times bordering on clerical work, and did not have access to plant or field work,
which denied them the necessary experience to move up the ladder. Many higher
level positions required travel to remote locations, behavior not acceptable for “gen-
tle women.” Women often needed advanced training—not generally required of
men. Although a few women were able to hold positions with professional respon-
sibility, many others operated on the fringes of the profession as writers, editors,
secretaries, librarians, industrial teachers, or laboratory assistants—all more accept-
able positions for women than being an actual engineer [1].
Great Depression 27

Great Depression

Men and women alike were forced to cope when the stock market crashed in 1929,
and the Great Depression followed. Many women had to sacrifice personal ambition
and accept a life of economic inactivity [2]. Thus many women engineers either vol-
untarily or involuntarily ceased their careers after 1929. Jobs in general were scarce,
and what jobs were available were unlikely to be given to women. And prejudices for
men in the engineering fields were obvious as evidenced in this advertisement for the
Colorado School of Mines from the 1930 Adelphian Yearbook (Fig. 3.1) [8].
However, as college enrollments dwindled, colleges began to look for women as
students. Twenty-seven more engineering schools began to admit women and the
number of female engineering graduates increased by 156 during 1930–1939. With
a new emphasis on graduate education for engineers as a result of technology devel-
opments during World War I, it is interesting that six schools that excluded women
at the undergraduate level allowed them to pursue graduate engineering degrees.
Prior to 1942, 18 women had received master’s degrees in engineering across the
entire U.S. One woman did receive an engineering Ph.D. in 1920, but no more

Fig. 3.1 1930s era

recruitment advertisement
for engineering students
28 3 War’s Unintended Consequences

Table 3.1 Distribution by branch of engineering of men and women employed as professional
engineers, 1940
Number Percent Percent women
Branch of engineering Total Men Women Men Women are of total
All employed professional 245,288 244,558 730 100.0 100.0 0.3
engineers
Civil engineers 80,362 80,171 191 32.8 26.2 0.2
Mechanical engineers 82,443 82,255 188 33.6 25.8 0.2
Electrical engineers 53,267 53,103 164 21.7 22.5 0.3
Industrial engineers 9283 9209 74 3.8 10.1 0.8
Mining and metallurgical 8813 8739 74 3.6 10.1 0.8
engineers
Chemical engineers 11,120 11,081 39 4.5 5.3 0.4

women earned that capstone degree again until three women did so in the 1930s.
However, women still accounted for only about three out of every 1000 engineers.
And no women were on the engineering faculty at any of the 20 largest doctoral
universities in the country in 1938 [1, 4].
By 1938, the percentage of women in engineering represented significantly less
than one half of one percent of all engineers. Although, it was estimated that about
1000 women engineers and architects were trained in the U.S., the 1938 edition of
American Men of Science reported eight women, representing 0.2 % of its approxi-
mately 3500 engineers [5, 9]. The 1940 Census listed 730 women employed as
engineers (see Table 3.1), less than 0.3 % of the total; but many of those are thought
not to have the education credentials [10]. And in 1938, there were zero women
engineers among the almost 20,000 engineers employed in the Federal classified
civil service [10].
The highly visible women described in our profiles either were linked with a
male relative who was making a significant impact in the engineering field, or were
so outstanding on their own that their accomplishments could not be ignored.
Female engineering students were still aliens in a man’s world and had to deal with
both implicit and explicit constraints in their educations and in their jobs, constraints
which often relegated them to the margins of the profession. In addition, the number
of women in engineering was so small, that no feminized branches of engineering
even had a chance to develop [1]. Most women were still not admitted to the
professional engineering societies in their field of expertise, and a nationwide orga-
nization for women engineers had not yet been established.

World War II

World War II, similar to World War I, presented opportunities for women to assist
in the war effort. This movement of women back into the work force is often per-
sonified by famed metalworker and poster woman “Rosie the Riveter.” Rosie is
World War II 29

portrayed as a powerful woman, pictured in a headscarf while displaying large arm

muscles (her sleeves are rolled up) with the caption “We Can Do It!” [2, 9] Although
World War I had seen the serious use of technology for airplanes, submarines, tanks,
bombs, and other equipment, technological development and organized scientific
research in the ensuing 20 years was such that the machines of World War II were
more destructive and more powerful. Consequently, they needed engineers and
technicians to design, build, and maintain them. Many of the men with the skills to
fill these engineering and technical jobs were now in the military [1].
Women were encouraged to enter the work force because the men were gone.
Indeed, they began to be invited into the good positions, not just those invisible jobs
discounted as “women’s work” (such as silk hose manufacturing) [1]. People were
needed at drawing boards; in engineering shops to keep planes, tanks, and other
essential materials rolling off the assembly line—everywhere that the war effort
needed support. The problem for the government was that with the men gone,
women and blacks, the two reserve labor forces of the country, were the only ones
available to fill these positions. But, there were not enough appropriately trained
women or blacks. In engineering, the shortages were so great that women were
vigorously recruited during World War II [9, 11].
The Office of War Information (OWI) and the War Manpower Commission began
issuing literature and propaganda glorifying women as scientists and engineers to
bolster the war effort. In 1942, a film, Women in Defense, narrated by Kathryn
Hepburn from a script written by Eleanor Roosevelt, urged women to go to work in
government or on scientific projects. In 1942, the movie Madame Curie, starring
award-winning Greer Garson, was released, further glorifying women’s contribu-
tions in science. New training programs for scientists and engineers were established
and, by 1943, women (and to some extent, blacks) were being specially recruited
and trained for jobs in industry. Bright high school students were sought out and
urged to major in science in college through the Westinghouse National Science
Talent Search (established 1943) and the Bausch and Lomb Science Talent Search
(established 1944). Both programs had women among their early winners, and the
Westinghouse program required that the percentage of women winners be propor-
tional to female entrants. Books and articles were released during the 1942 through
1945 period urging women to pursue careers in science and engineering. Edna Yost’s
book American Women of Science (1943), which lauded women’s past and current
contributions to science, painted a bright picture for women in these fields [9].
To fill the personnel gap, the U.S. government began running crash courses in
science, engineering, and management for both men and women after the war
began. Some specific courses were targeted at helping women become engineering
aides and engineering cadettes. Many engineering schools set up special engineer-
ing training courses for women sponsored by the War Department, the Signal Corps,
the Ordinance Department, and the Air Force. Twenty-nine institutions that had
heretofore excluded women including the Carnegie Institute of Technology,
Columbia University’s School of Engineering, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
admitted women engineering students for the first time between 1940 and 1945, to
train them in support of the war effort [1, 2, 9–11].
30 3 War’s Unintended Consequences

Engineering Aides, Engineering Cadettes and Engineers

In 1942 and 1943, the call went out for more women engineers. Elsie Eaves (pro-
filed at the end of this chapter), of the Engineering News-Record, warned women
that the word “engineer” was being applied to two very different career paths: Those
few women with degrees in the field could expect to be hired into professional posi-
tions. But those non-engineering college female graduates with a few additional
courses in drafting and machine testing, and those women without college degrees,
were hired into subprofessional jobs as “engineering aides” or “engineering
cadettes.” Sometimes, they were temporary assistants to men who had been pro-
moted from lower positions within the organization. Nonetheless, there were plenty
of jobs for both kinds of “engineers” at this point. Even the federal government
changed its longtime policy and began to hire women engineers in 1942 [9].
The demand was so great for the subordinate type of personnel (those classified
as “aides” or “cadettes”) that a special program was set up by the federal govern-
ment as early as October 1940 in anticipation of entering World War II. The
U.S. Office of Education administered this “defense training” program that was
funded by a special appropriation. It was one of the first federal government efforts
to increase and train scientific manpower. Manpower shortages were expected to be
severe if the U.S. entered the war—the aircraft industry on Long Island and in New
Jersey alone would require about half of all the engineering graduates nationwide.
The first Emergency Defense Training (EDT) program course was offered in
December 1940, and by June 1941, over 100,000 people (almost all men) had
received training in engineering subjects [1, 9].
At first, the Engineering, Science, and Management War Training program
(ESMWT) offered training only at 4-year technical schools. Colleges were respon-
sible for determining local training needs and developing courses to meet those
needs, but not to provide a complete engineering education nor necessarily any
academic credit for the courses [1]. As the war continued and personnel shortages
intensified, the program and the corresponding training was extended to a total of
227 colleges and universities, including several women's colleges, where courses
were taught in elementary engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and safety
engineering. The ESMWT opened doors of opportunity to many women and some
minorities [9]. In a report issued in December 1942, the ESMWT reported classes
offered at Clarkson, Cornell, the University of Rochester, Syracuse University,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Union College. Union College had, in fact,
given courses to 145 women out of 817 students, including a special course in elec-
tricity and mechanics for “girl high school graduates employed on testing work in
the Engineering Department of the General Electric Company” [1].
In 1943 and 1944, 21.8 % of the enrollees were women and minorities. By 1945,
over 1.8 million people had been trained including 280,000 women (15.7 %) and
25,000 blacks (1.4 %) [9]. About one-fifth of these women were enrolled in engi-
neering drawing, while significant numbers were learning aeronautical engineering,
inspection and testing, mapping and surveying, and engineering fundamentals; the
rest were registered for other scientific and management courses [1].
Engineering Aides, Engineering Cadettes and Engineers 31

Other departments of the federal government conducted their own programs to

recruit and train women for technical positions. The Office of the Chief of Ordnance
trained women with high school mathematics for civil service appointments as
junior engineering aides during a 3-month intensive course at the University of
Michigan. Female engineering aides for the Frankford and Picatinny Arsenals were
trained at similar programs sponsored at Rutgers University, Drexel Institute,
Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. The Signal Corps and the
Army Air Forces provided technical training to hundreds of women who were often
then assigned clerical duties, which resulted in a high turnover rate [1].
Some companies had other training requirements or couldn’t wait for the results
of the government programs to bear fruit. General Electric recruited women with
degrees in math or physics and then gave them on-the-job training so that they could
handle computations in GE’s machine-tool department. However, so few women
existed with these types of credentials, that the companies began reaching down
further, pursuing women still in college [11].
Aircraft companies started special programs for engineering aides and engineer-
ing cadettes. The Goodyear Aircraft Corporation developed a 6-month program in
aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati to prepare women as “junior
engineers” [1].
The Vega Aircraft Corporation needed aircraft design engineers starting in 1941.
In cooperation with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and the California Institute of
Technology, their engineering shortage was temporarily solved by hiring engineers
trained in other disciplines—civil, mechanical, or electrical—from other industries
and training them for aircraft work with 8 weeks of college-level instruction at Cal
Tech, followed by 8 weeks of an on-the-job apprenticeship. Other technical and
clerical employees with some experience took evening classes specially arranged
with the University of California in aircraft engineering-related subjects. But soon,
all available candidates for these programs had been trained.
Next, Vega established a full-time training program at the University of California
at Los Angeles (UCLA) to teach drafting for women. These women were not
already employees, but were guaranteed jobs if they finished the course.
By 1943, Vega established a full-time 52-week program at Cal Tech for two
groups of 20 full-time employees. The 40 students, all women, ranged in age from
18 to 49 years old, and already worked in the engineering department at Vega. They
were able to take a full college course in engineering, stripped of all non-essentials,
and earn the chance to be upgraded to higher level jobs [1].
In 1942, the Curtiss-Wright airplane company developed a plan for training “CW
Cadettes,” young women with at least 2 years of college education, including 1 year
of college-level mathematics. Seven colleges, some of which had never previously
enrolled women—Cornell, Penn State, Purdue, Minnesota, Texas, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, and Iowa State—gave over 600 women a 10-month crash
course of engineering, math, job terminology, aircraft drawing, engineering mechan-
ics, airplane materials, theory of flight, and aircraft production. After their training,
these cadettes were assigned to airplane plants to work in research, testing, and
production [1, 2, 11].
32 3 War’s Unintended Consequences

The Engineering Cadette Program in the School of Electrical Engineering at

Purdue University sponsored by Radio Corporation of America (RCA) helped con-
vince skeptical faculty that women could excel technically and academically.
Cadettes accounted for 20 % of the engineering staff in some RCA plants, allowing
women to move beyond being tokens [1].
By 1945, the number of women engineers listed on the National Roster had
increased from 144 in 1941 to 395 (an amazing increase of almost 300 % in 4 years),
mostly at the bachelor’s level. And many more engineering colleges and universities
now at least had seen women as students [9]. The number of women enrolled as
engineering undergraduates had increased to 1800 by 1945 [1].

Faculty

Women also were encouraged to become faculty members at colleges and universi-
ties, temporarily replacing men who had been called into government service or into
the military. In fact, a significant number of female scientists, including mathemati-
cians and chemists, who were not working on other war projects, moved into the
ranks of college and university faculty. In 1942, 2412 women scientists (including
50 women in engineering out of a total of 5394 engineering teachers) were on sci-
ence faculties. By 1946, the number had increased to 7746 (an over 200 % increase
in 4 years) and the number of women engineering faculty, including some women
who taught at all-male institutions, had increased to 53 [1, 9].
These women cadettes, engineering aides, engineers in industry, and faculty all
made significant contributions to the war effort, and to the advancement and accep-
tance of women in technical fields. All in all, about 45,000 women were trained for
engineering jobs during World War II [1].

After World War II

When the war ended, millions of veterans—primarily men—came home expecting

to be gainfully employed. Many of the women who had been employed found them-
selves no longer welcome in the work force. In fact, these women were now expected
to go home and raise babies or “go back to the kitchen” and not steal work from
returning GIs. The special educational programs were shut down. And because
many engineering schools still did not admit women, educational opportunities for
women who wanted to pursue an engineering career were once again limited. By
January 1946, 4 million women had left the labor force [1, 2].
By the time World War II ended, however, women were not quite as eager to
accept the inevitable as they were when World War I ended. They began generating
statistics and scientific data to prove they were just as capable as men and were
being treated unfairly. Still, even for those who managed to hold on to their posi-
tions, they were unable to advance as men did. Women were still channeled into less
After World War II 33

Table 3.2 Women earning Year Number of degrees

undergraduate engineering
1947–1948 191
degrees 1948–1953
1949–1950 171
1951–1952 60
1952–1953 37

challenging work, kept in lower ranks, and paid lower salaries by employers who
minimized their contributions [9].
A very significant impact of the war’s end was the GI Bill, which provided funds
for veterans’ education. Schools that had been underutilized during the war were
suddenly faced with a deluge of male students. It is estimated that 7.8 million veter-
ans chose to take advantage of the GI Bill’s educational provisions. Female enroll-
ment at some coeducational schools had reached 50 % or higher during the war, but
as the demand for slots increased, many institutions introduced or reintroduced
maximum quotas on female enrollment. Some colleges refused to accept applica-
tions from out-of-state women. Women were told that space was not available and
that they would have to attend other institutions. For a few years, women who were
already in the educational pipeline, women veterans and wartime women “engineer-
ing aides” getting engineering undergraduate degrees, contributed to a brief expan-
sion in the number of women getting engineering degrees. Through the 1950s, the
percentage of women dropped to just 25–35 % of the total college undergraduate
enrollment. The number of women graduating with engineering degrees declined as
well as shown in Table 3.2 [9].
Discrimination against women was widespread; women were systematically
pushed out of science and engineering at the undergraduate level, at the graduate
level, and as faculty. Men even took over women’s dormitories and many universi-
ties added temporary housing to accommodate the returning male GIs. Male veter-
ans replaced female staff and faculty as well as female engineering students. There
were no discrimination laws in place (these would not be enacted until the 1960s or
later) to prevent any of this behavior. The nation was also extremely grateful to its
veterans and felt there was, in many cases, a duty to make their adjustment to civil-
ian life as easy as possible. Objections or protests were few and far between and not
effective. And, society as a whole was still quite ambivalent about the proper role
for women. These ambitious women in engineering who were certainly atypical,
threatened presumed male and female spheres [9].
The Outlook for Women in Architecture and Engineering, a Bulletin of the
Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, painted a bleak picture for
women in engineering [10]:
Advancement for women in engineering is conceded to be difficult. They seldom follow the
usual line from junior engineer to senior engineer to project engineer, nor are they often
transferred to nonengineering work in sales, purchasing or administration. Usually limited
by custom to office work, as compared with field or plant work, women engineers rarely find
opportunities to obtain the rounded experience necessary for normal progression. The fact
that many of the positions representing advancement often require field work or travel to
remote locations further reduces their chances. However, a few women have broken through
these bounds.
34 3 War’s Unintended Consequences

Table 3.3 Membership in the founder societies, 1946 [10]

Total Number of
Organization membership women members
American Institute of Electrical Engineers 24,526 14
American Society of Civil Engineers 21,100 23
American Society of Mechanical Engineers 20,060 33
American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers 12,600 26
American Institute of Chemical Engineers 5788 5

Women engineers, who had been welcomed with open arms during the war
years, were now told to abandon the idea of an engineering career. The Women’s
Bureau reported that there were 950 women in engineering as of 1946–1947. These
women constituted only 0.3 % of the total 317,000 engineers in the U.S. Of course,
this was much higher than the eight women reported to be practicing engineering in
the 1949 edition of American Men of Science, which despite its title, reported on all
individuals practicing in the sciences. The U.S. Census of 1950 counted 6475
women employed as engineers, of whom only 41 % had 4 years or more of college,
and 17 % had not graduated from high school. Probably about 3600 of these women
were truly engineering professionals. There were now an adequate number of
women in engineering to finally constitute enough of a critical mass to move the
cause of women in engineering forward, both to seek more women as engineers and
to improve career opportunities for those already in the field [1, 7, 9, 12].
In fact, women seeking careers or advancement in their existing careers and stu-
dents studying engineering started to band together for mutual support and job-hunting
help. In the late 1940s, the war-support effort and the associated defense industry had
made cutbacks across the board. Employment for many engineering disciplines was
at a low. Many professional societies still excluded women, either outright or by refus-
ing them full membership, and thus had very few women among their membership as
shown in Table 3.3. But, this time, efforts for mutual support among women engineers
were enabled by a nationwide infrastructure that had not existed in 1919. Now there
was the telephone, the automobile, the superhighway, and the railroad [7].
Female engineers fueled by isolation and discrimination, and the national infra-
structure, founded the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in 1949–1950 [2].

Society of Women Engineers

SWE traces its founding back to a group of female students at Drexel University in
Philadelphia and a gathering of Cooper Union (an engineering college in New York
City) and City College of New York graduates at Green Engineering Camp of
the Cooper Union in New Jersey. The Drexel students had begun meeting in 1948,
calling themselves the “Philadelphia District of the Society of Women Engineers.”
The Camp Green meeting, held May 25, 1950, actually resulted in the official
founding of SWE. The first president, Beatrice Hicks, was elected, membership
Key Women of This Period 35

requirements were established, and dues were set. Women attending the Camp
Green meeting were also from Boston and Washington, D.C. and represented two
major constituencies: (1) the pioneers—those who had been trained and were work-
ing as engineers prior to or during World War II; and (2), the engineering aides who
had returned to college after the war to get their engineering degrees [7, 9, 13].
The objectives of the organization were:
To inform the public of the availability of qualified women for engineering posi-
tions; to foster a favorable attitude in industry towards women engineers; and to
contribute to their professional advancement.
To encourage young women with suitable aptitudes and interest to enter the engi-
neering profession, and to guide them in their educational programs.
To encourage membership in other technical and professional engineering societies,
participation in their activities, and adherence to their code of ethics [7].
One of the first orders of business for SWE was the establishment of the
Achievement Award. This award, the highest tribute given by SWE, honors a woman
engineer who has made outstanding contributions in a field of engineering over a
significant period of time [7, 14].
1952: Maria Telkes “In recognition of her meritorious contributions to the utiliza-
tion of solar energy.”
1953: Elsie Gregory MacGill “In recognition of her meritorious contributions to
aeronautical engineering.”
1954: Edith Clarke “In recognition of her many original contributions to stability
theory and circuit analysis.”
1955: Margaret H. Hutchinson “In recognition of her significant contributions to the
field of chemical engineering.”
1956: E’lise F. Harmon “In recognition of her significant contributions to the area
of component and circuit miniaturization.”
1957: Rebecca H. Sparling “In recognition of her meritorious contributions to high
temperature metallurgy and non-destructive testing of metals.”
The organization grew rapidly, numbering 350 in 1953 and surpassing 500 by
1958. The group received decent publicity too—early activities of SWE were
reported in The New York Times [9, 15–18].
Finally, there was an organization willing to accept women engineers, recognize
them for their accomplishments, and encourage other women to be engineers.

Key Women of This Period

Some of the key women in engineering whose most significant accomplishments

occurred from World War I to the early 1950s had engineering education credentials
while others were educated in the sciences or other fields. These women were a very
small fraction of the engineering workforce and their contributions came in spite of
significant discouragement and discrimination.
36 3 War’s Unintended Consequences

Mary Engle Pennington (1872–1952)

Mary Engle Pennington was the first woman member of the American Society of
Refrigerating Engineers. Her picture hangs today at its successor organization—the
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. She
later became the president of the American Institute of Refrigeration. In 1947, she
was elected a fellow of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers and a fel-
low of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Pennington completed the coursework for a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, biol-
ogy, and hygiene at the University of Pennsylvania, but at that time (1892), the
University did not grant bachelor’s degrees to women. Instead, she received a
Certificate of Proficiency in biology. She continued her studies and in 1895, received
a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
Her work in refrigeration led to her appointment as head of the Department of
Agriculture’s food research laboratory. As she used the name “M.E. Pennington,”
not everyone was aware that she was a woman. In 1916, when she had been chief of
the Food Research Laboratory for a decade, a railroad vice-president on whom she
called, instructed his secretary “to get rid of the woman,” because he had “an
appointment with Dr. Pennington, the government expert.”
Pennington developed standards of milk and dairy inspection that were adopted
by health boards throughout the country. Her methods of preventing spoilage of eggs,
poultry, and fish were adopted by the food warehousing, packaging, transportation,
and distribution industries. She has six patents associated with refrigeration and
spoilage prevention methods. The standards she established for refrigeration railroad
cars, which she developed by riding freight trains, remained in effect for many years
and gained her worldwide recognition as a perishable food expert. Pennington
received the Garvan Medal from the American Chemical Society in 1940 and was
the first woman elected to the American Poultry Historical Society’s Hall of Fame
(1947). She has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame [3, 19–21].

Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878–1972)

Lillian Moller Gilbreth, fondly referred to as the “first lady of engineering,” is best
known to the general population as the mother of 12 on whom the book and movie
Cheaper by the Dozen was based. She was a pioneer in recognizing the interrelation-
ship between engineering and human relations. Her work in industrial engineering
and time and motion studies helped encourage the development of industrial engi-
neering curricula in engineering schools. With her husband, Frank Gilbreth, who was
a pioneer in scientific management and a determined researcher, Lillian Gilbreth
showed companies how to improve management techniques, and how to increase
industrial efficiency and production by budgeting time and energy as well as money.
Her work led eventually to career suitability tests, fatigue elimination studies, and the
idea of skill transfer from one job to another (the “psychology of management”).
Edith Clarke (1883–1959) 37

The Gilbreths worked together in many areas. They provided scientific manage-
ment consulting through their firm (Gilbreth, Inc.) that advised many companies. They
wrote and researched together and authored hundreds of documents. They lectured at
companies, universities, and professional societies. They conducted the Gilbreth sum-
mer schools on management topics. And, of course, they raised 12 children. Lillian
Gilbreth, however, continued to work in the field for decades after Frank’s untimely
death in 1924 and accomplished much in the field of industrial engineering alone.
Gilbreth joined the faculty at Purdue University in 1935 as a full professor of
management after having served as a lecturer and advisor for a number of years. She
continued to serve as an academic advisor to women students from 1948 until
shortly before her death in 1972. She became head of the Department of Personnel
Relations at Newark School of Engineering in 1941 and visiting professor of man-
agement at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1955.
In 1921, Gilbreth was named an honorary member of the Society of Industrial
Engineers at a point when they still did not admit women to membership. In 1966,
she was the first woman to receive the Hoover Medal for distinguished public service
by an engineer. SWE named her its first honorary member in 1950 (her membership
number was one) and she was one of the organization’s staunchest supporters for the
rest of her life. SWE established its first scholarship in 1958 and named it the Lillian
Moller Gilbreth Scholarship. In 1965, she became the first woman elected to the
National Academy of Engineering. The recipient of 23 honorary degrees, Gilbreth
was also the recipient of the first awarding of the Gilbreth Medal from the Society of
Industrial Engineers in 1931. Gilbreth was the first engineer honored by a stamp in
the Great American series of stamps by the U.S. Postal Service in 1984. She was
inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1995 [2, 3, 7, 22–24].

Edith Clarke (1883–1959)

Edith Clarke had always wanted to be an engineer. However, in 1908, when she
graduated from Vassar, engineering was not offered nor encouraged for women.
Thus, she began 3 years of work as a teacher, then enrolled at the University of
Wisconsin where she studied civil engineering for a year. She then was employed
by American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) in New York City, where she super-
vised women who did computations for research engineers. She enrolled at MIT in
electrical engineering and received her master’s degree in electrical engineering in
1919, the first woman awarded such a degree from MIT. After graduation, she had
a very difficult time securing employment as an electrical engineer. Although she
wanted to work at either Westinghouse Electric or General Electric, neither com-
pany had an opening for a woman engineer. In 1920, General Electric offered Clarke
a job directing calculations in the turbine engine department, a job very similar to
the one she had had at AT&T.
However, since she was not being allowed to do electrical engineering work,
she left GE to be an instructor at the Constantinople Women’s College in Turkey.
38 3 War’s Unintended Consequences

When she returned from Turkey in 1922, GE offered her a job as an electrical engi-
neer in the central station engineering department. At GE, she became extremely
interested in the system of symmetrical components, which is a mathematical means
for engineers to study and solve problems of power system losses and performance
of electrical equipment. Clarke was the first woman to address the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers which she did in 1926 on the topic of “Steady-State
Stability in Transmission Systems.” She adopted this system to three-phase compo-
nents (the basis of our electricity in the United States). Clarke then wrote a textbook
Circuit Analysis of AC Power Systems, Symmetrical and Related Components
(1943) and a second volume in 1950, that was used to educate all power system
engineers for many years. Based on these significant contributions, Clarke was one
of the first three women fellows of AIEE.
Clarke left General Electric to become a professor of electrical engineering at the
University of Texas. While there, she attracted much publicity as she was the first
woman professor of electrical engineering to teach in a university in the U.S. Clarke
received the SWE Achievement Award in 1954 for “her many original contributions
to stability theory and circuit analysis.” In 2015, she was posthumously inducted
into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her invention of a graphical calculator
used in the electric utility industry [3, 22, 24, 25].

Olive Dennis (1885–1957)

Olive Dennis first studied mathematics and science at Goucher College. After sev-
eral years as a teacher, she completed a degree in civil engineering from Cornell
(1920), with a specialization in structural engineering. That fall, she went to work
in the bridge department of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. However, the presi-
dent of the B&O railroad had other ideas about how she could contribute to the
organization. After 14 months in the bridge department, Dennis was promoted to
the position of Engineer of Service for the railroad, riding the rails and figuring out
ways to make the railroad more accommodating to its passengers.
During her years with the railroad, Dennis pushed for better lighting and better
seating (cleaner, better fabrics, and lower, reclining seats) in the coach cars. She was
an advocate for air conditioning in the cars and she designed and received a patent
for an individually-operated ventilator. Dennis even designed and patented the blue
colonial china provided in the dining car. At the Women’s Centennial Congress in
New York in 1940, she was named by Carrie Chapman Catt as one of the 100 out-
standing career women in the United States [3].

Elsie Eaves (1898–1983)

Elsie Eaves was elected a Fellow member of SWE in 1980, the first year SWE
elected Fellows. At that time it was said that Eaves “always encouraged women by
her active example and participation.” A life member of SWE, she served on the
Elsie Eaves (1898–1983) 39

SWE Board of Trustees and had numerous firsts to her credit. She graduated from
the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1920 with a B.S. in civil engineering (with
honors). In her first jobs, she was a draftsman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and the Colorado State Highway Department; an
instructor of engineering mathematics at her alma mater; and an office engineer for
Col. Herbert S. Crocker, consulting engineer, and for Crocker & Fischer, contrac-
tors in Denver, Colorado.
Then she headed to New York City and began employment with McGraw-Hill,
the publishing company. Colonel Willard T. Chevalier hired Eaves (after an editor of
an undisclosed organization told her “a woman’s place, if not in the home, is in the
department store”) and created her job as assistant on market surveys for Engineering
News-Record in 1926. She became Director of Market Surveys for Engineering
News-Record and Construction Methods and Equipment shortly thereafter. In 1932,
Eaves moved to the position of Manager of Business News Department, where she
directed the activities of 100 staffers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Her career in the publishing field was a series of “firsts.” In 1929, Eaves origi-
nated and compiled the first national inventory of municipal and industrial sewage
disposal facilities—an analysis that she recompiled at regular intervals. A few years
later, she compiled statistics on needed construction, which aided the passage of the
Federal Loan-Grant legislation used to revitalize the construction industry during
the 1931–1935 depression. In 1945, she organized and directed the Engineering
News-Record’s measurement of Post War Planning by the Construction Industry
that was used by the Committee for Economic Development and the American
Society of Civil Engineers as the official progress report of the industry. This index
was unprecedented in the field of engineering analysis. Under Eaves’ direction, the
“Post War Planning” statistics were converted into a continuous inventory of
planned construction. This has become the Engineering News-Record’s “Backlog of
Proposed Construction,” an index to more than $100 billion of construction activity.
Another of her unique “firsts” was defining the limits and editing the pilot issues of
the Construction Daily, a nationwide service.

Eaves’s List of Firsts and Awards Are Extensive

– First woman to be licensed as a professional engineer in New York State.

– First woman member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (as a
corporate member in 1927).
– First woman to be a life member of the ASCE (1962, at which time there were
54 women among 48,000 members).
– First woman elected to honorary membership of the ASCE (1979); first woman
to be elected Associate Member, Fellow of ASCE.
– First and for a long time, the only, woman member of the American Association
of Cost Engineers (1957) as well as the first civil engineer.
– First woman to receive the Honorary Life Membership Award from the American
Association of Cost Engineers (1973).
40 3 War’s Unintended Consequences

– First woman to receive the International Executive Service Corporation “Service

to the Country” award.
– First woman to receive the American Association of Cost Engineer’s Award of
Merit (1967) [3, 22, 26, 27].

Elsie MacGill (1905–1980)

Elsie MacGill was stricken by polio while she was studying for her master’s degree
in aeronautical engineering at the University of Michigan. She wrote her examina-
tions from the hospital and received her degree in 1929. This was after her success-
ful receipt of a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of
Toronto (1927). For both of her degrees, she was the first woman to receive a degree
in that field at that University. After her convalescence, she worked on her doctorate
degree for 2 years at MIT.
Subsequent to earning her Ph.D., she joined the Fairchild Aircraft Company as
an airplane designer and performed experiments in stress analysis. Later, she served
as chief aeronautical engineer for the Canadian Car and Foundry Company. One of
her major projects there was to build Hurricane Fighter Planes for the British Air
Ministry. These planes had precise requirements for many of each plane’s 25,000
parts to allow them to be interchangeable between planes. MacGill was responsible
for transforming a railway boxcar manufacturer into an aircraft factory to complete
this job. Later, she engineered production of the Curtiss Helldiver for the U.S. Navy.
MacGill received the SWE Achievement Award in 1953 “in recognition of her
meritorious contributions to aeronautical engineering.” She was also recognized for
her accomplishments in Canada where she was the first woman member of the
Engineering Institute of Canada and the first woman to read a paper before it. She later
became the first woman to serve as a technical advisor to the UN’s International Civil
Aviation Organization, where she helped draft international air-worthiness regulations
for commercial aircraft. She was inducted posthumously into Canada’s Aviation Hall
of Fame and is profiled in the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame.
MacGill was also an outspoken advocate of equal pay for equal work before the
concept became popular. In 1967, she became a member of the Royal Commission
on the Status of Women in Canada [3, 28, 29].

Beatrice Hicks (1919–1979)

One of the founders of the Society of Women Engineers, Beatrice Hicks served as
its first president. She was committed to the organization because of her belief that
there was a great future for women in engineering. Because of her interest in math-
ematics, physics, chemistry and mechanical drawing in high school, she decided to
become an engineer. In fact, her interest had been sparked at age 13 when her engi-
neer father had taken her to see the Empire State Building and the George
Washington Bridge, and she learned that it was engineers who built such structures.
References 41

Her parents didn’t actively discourage her, although her high school classmates and
some of her teachers tried to discourage her, pointing out that engineering was not
a proper field for women.
After her high school graduation in 1935, she entered the Newark (New Jersey)
College of Engineering. Since it was during the depression, she needed to earn
money for her expenses. In 1939, she received a B.S. in chemical engineering and
took a position as a research assistant at the College. In 1942, she got a job with the
Western Electric Company, becoming the first woman to be employed by the firm
as an engineer. She worked first in the test set design department and later in the
quartz crystal department. An early award citation stated “the quality of her work
became legend.” She studied at night while employed and, in 1949, earned an M.S.
in physics from Stevens Institute. Subsequently, she undertook further graduate
work at Columbia University.
When her father died in 1946, she became vice-president and chief engineer of
the company he had founded, Newark Controls Company, a firm specializing in
environmental sensing devices. In 1955, she bought control of the company and
became president. One of the major products of the company at that time was low-
water cutoffs and other devices to protect people from their own forgetfulness, often
sold through mail-order companies. Here, Hicks was also involved in the design,
development, and manufacture of pressure- and gas-density controls for aircraft and
missiles. In 1959, she was awarded patent 3,046,369 for a molecular density scan-
ner or gas density switch. This type of switch is a key component in systems using
artificial atmospheres. After 1967, when her husband died, she became the owner of
his firm, Rodney D. Chipp & Associates, a consulting firm.
In 1952, she was named “Woman of the Year in business” by Mademoiselle
magazine. In 1961, she was the first woman engineer appointed by the U.S. Secretary
of Defense to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Sciences. Hicks
received SWE’s Achievement Award in 1963 “In recognition of her significant con-
tributions to the theoretical study and analysis of sensing devices under extreme
environmental conditions, and her substantial achievements in international techni-
cal understanding, professional guidance, and engineering education.” She was the
first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(1965). She also received an honorary Sc.D. from Hobart and William Smith
Colleges and from the Stevens Institute of Technology (both in 1978). In 1978, she
was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the sixth woman to be elected.
In 2001, she was inducted posthumously to the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In
2013, Hicks posthumously received the Advancement of Invention Award from the
New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame [24, 30–32].

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dictionary with annotated bibliography. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
21. Read PJ, Witlieb BL (1992) The book of women’s firsts. Random House, New York
22. Kass-Simon G, Farnes P (eds) (1990) Women of science: righting the record. Indiana
University Press, Bloomington, IN
23. Perusek A (2000) The first lady of engineering. SWE: Mag Soc Women Eng 82–83
24. Proffitt P (ed) (1999) Notable women scientists. Gale Group, Farmington Hills, MI
25. Edith Clarke I. http://invent.org/inductees/clarke-edith/. Accessed 24 May 2015
26. (1980) SWE’s first fellow members: their achievements and careers. U.S. Woman Eng 9
27. Elsie Eaves scores again: is first woman honored with ASCE Life membership. p. 6. McGraw-
Hill, News-Bulletin. Accessed 15 Mar 1962
28. Elizabeth Muriel Gregory MacGill. https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/030001-
1409-e.html. Accessed 24 May 2015
29. Queen of the Hurricanes. http://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP14CH3PA2LE.
html. Accessed 24 May 2015
30. Candee MD (ed) (1957) Current biography. The H. W. Wilson Company, New York, NY
31. Beatrice Hicks recognized by New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame, SWE Magazine, Winter
2014. http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/swe/winter14/index.php#/22. Accessed 24 May 2015
32. Stanley A (1995) Mothers and daughters of invention: notes for a revised history of technology.
Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ
Chapter 4
Suburbia and Sputnik

Abstract With the start of the Cold War, and then the Korean War in 1950,
American women were once again asked to contribute to the nation’s defense.
Young women were even encouraged to study science and engineering, particularly
after the Russian lunch of Sputnik. Similarly to the experiences after World War II,
however, women were expected to be compliant about being discarded and replaced
when a national crisis had passed. After the middle of the twentieth century, with
higher levels of education and training among women and the general population,
such treatment began to prove unacceptable for women. But it would still be several
decades, and take federal legislation and Presidential actions, before significant
progress was made toward even a semblance of equal opportunity for scientific and
engineering women. Profiles are provided for scientific and engineering women
from the mid 1900s through the early twenty-first century.

The Korean War

With the start of the Cold War, and then the Korean War in 1950, American women
were once again asked to contribute to the nation’s defense. Young women were
even encouraged to study science and engineering. In 1951, President Harry Truman
was seeking a standing army of 3.5 million men and highly trained human resources
at home—scientists and engineers, not only for Korea but anywhere necessary for
the foreseeable future. The shortage of these resources was especially acute because
of low birth rates during the 1930s and a drop in engineering enrollments after
World War II because of highly publicized unemployment in engineering in 1949
and 1950 [1, 2].
A need for technical manpower was growing out of the increasingly complex
machines and processes used by society. A 1951 report describing the differences
between a B-47 jet bomber and earlier models demonstrates the higher levels of
complexity [3].
The B-47 jet bomber, now entering volume production, required 2 years for design, 2 more
years to reach test flight stage, and 2 more years to start assembly line production. A B-47 is
made up of some 72,000 parts exclusive of nuts, bolts, and rivets. The B-47 requires 40 miles
of wiring compared to 10 miles for the B-29. A B-47 contains over 1500 electronic tubes.

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2017 43

J.S. Tietjen, Engineering Women: Re-visioning Women’s Scientific Achievements
and Impacts, Women in Engineering and Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40800-2_4
44 4 Suburbia and Sputnik

The wing skin must be tapered in thickness throughout its entire length from five-eighths inch
at the body joint to three-sixteenths inch at the wing tip. The first B-47 plane required
3,464,000 engineering man-hours compared to 85,000 man-hours for the first production
model of the B-17.

A 1951 survey by the National Society of Professional Engineers reported that

65 % of employers canvassed would hire women engineers if they were available,
45 % had found it feasible to use them, and 23 % actually employed women at that
time. Although women were being sought as engineers again— at least by some
employers—the women engineers in the work force were paid less than men, and
their advancement was restricted, often by official company policy [3].
The Office of Defense Mobilization, in its Defense Manpower Policy No. 8
(September 1952), published a statement advocated by Arthur Flemming, assis-
tant to the director for manpower of ODM and a strong supporter of women. The
statement read: “Throughout this document all references to scientists and engi-
neers make no distinction between the sexes or between racial groups; it being
understood that equality of opportunity to make maximum effective use of intel-
lect and ability is a basic concept of democracy.” In addition, the policy’s elev-
enth of 12 recommendations was for employers of scientists and engineers “to
reexamine their personnel policies and effect any changes necessary to assure full
utilization of women and members of minority groups having scientific and engi-
neering training.” Flemming was expressing what was increasingly becoming the
official view that women were needed as scientists and engineers. However, full
and equal opportunity for women in the engineering field had yet to be realized
as the Committee of Specialized Personnel from ODM reported on December 9,
1953 [1, 3].
For the most part, the female graduate [i.e., in engineering and the sciences] has been
held down as far as advance in classification and remuneration is concerned. Such action
on the part of management is totally unrealistic, and in order to promote the development
of our high potential of female scientists and engineers, this unrealistic sex barrier must
be broken.

The federal government’s official policy throughout the 1950s was to encourage
women to enter scientific and technical fields and to urge employers to hire them
and utilize them fully (including the federal government itself). However, no federal
incentives, such as tax credits for fuller utilization of womanpower or enforcement
mechanisms were put in place [1].
The pendulum had swung again toward encouraging women to be engineers
and scientists. The country needed women to be in the work force and supporting
the war effort when the country is at war, but then expected them to be compliant
about being discarded and replaced when the national crisis passed. After the
middle of the twentieth century, with higher levels of education and training
among women and the general population, such treatment began to prove unac-
ceptable for women. But it would still be several decades before significant prog-
ress was made toward even a semblance of equal opportunity for scientific and
engineering women.
Off to Suburbia 45

Off to Suburbia

In spite of official government encouragement during the period of the Korean War
and, as noted above, through the early 1950s, the number of women enrolling in
college and in engineering programs fell. Women constituted less than 0.5 % of the
total engineering student population, and a large number of colleges and universities
did not admit women as students. Indeed, during a typical year in the 1950s, women
might earn 100 bachelor’s degrees in engineering, and the number of engineering
Ph.D’s they would earn could be counted on one’s fingers [4]. However, there was
some good news for women wishing to pursue an engineering degree. The Georgia
Institute of Technology accepted women starting in 1953, and Clemson University
opened its doors to women in 1955 [1, 5].
The dwindling numbers reflected low societal tolerance for pioneering women
who were now even categorized as deviant [1]. Traditional attitudes were very slow
to change. Not atypical were the comments about women in a 1952 article from the
Journal of Engineering Education [3]:
Women have certain inherent characteristics which stand them in good stead. For instance,
they are conscientious, they know how to use their hands, they are careful about detail, and
quite important, they are not adverse to trying something new. Witness, for example, their
proclivity to change the furniture around in the house about every 3 days to see if they can
find a more efficient arrangement. This is exactly the procedure that our research scientists
use; that is, if you don’t know if something will work or not, try it and see. Quite often in
scientific studies the going gets pretty rough and girls, being more sensitive and nervous
than boys, sometimes become emotionally disturbed by overwork and the fear of failure.
These troubles, for the most part, can be solved by the strategic use of a few kind words and
a little human understanding. Girls will work their hearts out for you if you handle them
right, which usually requires nothing more than a sincere interest in their welfare.

Women in the U.S. in the 1950s were being pulled in two directions at the same
time. The average age of marriage for American women dropped to its lowest level
during the period 1945–1960. The birth rate soared, especially among the college
educated (the children born in this period were called the baby boomers). Marriage
took precedence over careers. In addition, a mass white exodus to suburbia began and,
for the first time, college-educated, middle class women had as many children as poor
women did [6]. Television and advertising glorified domesticity and the housewife,
especially her role as a consumer. Yet in the increasingly consumer-based economy,
more workers were required to design and produce all of the new products. Thus,
there were many more economic opportunities for women in the work force [7].
In the face of declining female enrollments in science and engineering and with
the projected shortages of technical manpower, in April 1956, President Eisenhower,
with the urging of the Office of Defense Mobilization Director Arthur Flemming,
established a National (later called President’s) Committee on the Development of
Scientists and Engineers (PSCE) to serve as a clearinghouse for the many nongovern-
mental efforts being undertaken around the country to train more scientists and engi-
neers. Interestingly, 19 men and no women were appointed to this committee, and its
vice chairman seemed particularly uninterested in recruiting women into engineering.
46 4 Suburbia and Sputnik

Not much progress was made on the subject of women in science and engineering up
to the point that the committee was disbanded in December 1958. However, the vice
chairman’s request for a breakdown of engineering data into gender would prove
beneficial later for female members of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF)
Divisional Committee for Scientific Personnel and Education [1].

Sputnik Is Launched

With the launching of the Russian satellite Sputnik in October 1957, Americans
began to focus their anti-Communist sentiment on science and education. Scientists
had begun trying to increase funding and emphasize scientific education earlier in
the 1950s as the Cold War intensified. When Sputnik went up, Soviet superiority in
science was made quite visible to the American public. And there was a new tone of
urgency in the talk about recruiting women scientists and engineers [1, 8].
In response, President Eisenhower exhorted the American people to meet the
need for thousands of new scientists, saying “this [national security] is for the
American people the most critical problem of all . . . we need scientists by the thou-
sands more than we are now presently planning to have.” Further, the President
requested that the NSF “develop a program for collection of needed supply, demand,
employment and compensation data with respect to scientists and engineers” [8].
NSF accomplished this through its Scientific Manpower Program and its two
elements, Manpower Studies and the National Register. This National Register of
Scientific and Technical Personnel grew out of the National Roster of World War II
and subsequent efforts aimed at Cold War preparedness. The National Register had
already begun to collect data in 1954 but published little prior to 1959 when in
response to the Sputnik launch, Congress increased the NSF’s budget. Consequently
much of the data available have significant gaps, and data on women scientists and
engineers is particularly incomplete [1, 8].
The NSF designed programs to provide federal assistance to the “best and bright-
est” in order to produce the scientists needed for the future and to gather the neces-
sary data. As Congress discussed science budgets and fellowship programs as part of
the U.S. response to the Sputnik launch (training scientists and engineers was now a
matter of national survival), an article titled “Science Talent Hunt Faces Stiff Obstacle:
‘Feminine Fallout’; Officials Fear Many Federal Scholarships Will Go to Girls—
Who’ll Shun Careers” appeared in as prestigious a newspaper as The Wall Street
Journal. Because up to one-third of these fellowships were expected to go to women
who would marry, have children, and interrupt their careers, the author commented:
Hence it’s inevitable that some Government money will go to train scientists who experi-
ment only with different household detergents and mathematicians who confine their work
to adding up grocery bills.

But the author further lamented it would not be feasible to place quotas on the
number of fellowships given to women as this “probably would embroil the
Government in a great controversy with the many ‘equal rights’ advocates among
the ladies” [1, 8].
1960s Activism 47

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was finally passed by Congress in
1958. The act clearly linked higher education to national defense by declaring:
The Congress hereby finds and declares that the security of the Nation requires the fullest
development of the mental resources and technical skills of its young men and women . . .
We must increase our efforts to identify and educate more of the talent of our Nation.
This requires programs that will give assurance that no student of ability will be denied an
opportunity for higher education because of financial need; will correct as rapidly as pos-
sible the existing imbalances in our educational programs which have led to an insufficient
proportion of our population educated in science, mathematics, and modern foreign lan-
guages and trained in technology.

Ten new programs were established upon enactment of the NDEA, including a
federal student loan program and a new graduate fellowship program larger and
broader than the one at the NSF. These fellowships would continue until 1973 [1].
However, women were still feeling a conflict between their domestic obligations
and pursuing a scientific or engineering career. And now with a perceived patriotic
duty—especially at a time when recruitment literature stressed that Russian women
constituted about half of the combined scientific and engineering workforce in that
country and 25 % of the Soviet Union’s engineers—articles on both sides of the
issue appeared in popular magazines with such titles as “Woman’s Place Is in the
Lab, too,” “Science for the Masses,” “Bright Girls: What Place in Society?” “Plight
of the Intellectual Girl,” and “Female-Ism: New and Insidious” [1, 8].
The first comprehensive study describing U.S. scientific and technical manpower
was published in 1964—it did not examine traits such as sex and ethnicity [8]. The
NSF also funded a number of studies to identify the factors associated with the low
numbers of women in science and engineering. These studies showed that myths
about women not being suited for engineering due to ability, emotion, or motivation
were just that—myths—and the studies recommended actions to encourage women
to pursue engineering [7].
Post-Sputnik, the major cultural and legislative changes of the 1960s would set
the stage for greater numbers of women engineers by the turn of the century.

1960s Activism

The women’s movement experienced a dramatic rebirth in the 1960s that later trans-
lated into significantly increased professional opportunities for women. That it
occurred at the same time as the civil rights movement is probably much less of a
coincidence than it appears. The birth of feminism and suffrage in the 1800s had
been closely aligned with the abolitionist cause. Now, the rebirth of the women’s
movement was closely related to the struggle for racial equality. Indeed, the mili-
tancy of college students during the 1960s mirrored some of the rebellious activism
that had been effective and prominent during the suffrage movement. In the 1960s,
protests were held on campuses and in the streets, and students traveled to the South
on behalf of civil rights [6].
48 4 Suburbia and Sputnik

Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, launched an attack on

suburban America and the status and roles assigned to women. Friedan meant her
book as a call to action, and many women strengthened their resolve to take charge
of their own lives as a result of its publication. The percentage of college-educated
females who worked outside the home increased from seven percent in 1950 to 25 %
in 1960 [6].
In the 1960s, corrective legislation that addressed women's historically lower
status in society relative to men began to roll out, one after the other. And by 1962,
53 % of all female college graduates were employed, while 36 % of those with high
school diplomas held jobs. Seventy percent of all females who had 5 or more years
of higher education worked [6].

Presidential Commission on the Status of Women

The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women was convened in 1961 to

investigate and suggest remedies for “prejudices and outmoded customs [that] act as
barriers to the full realization of women’s basic rights.” Seven committees repre-
senting various facets of American life—civil and political rights, education, federal
employment, private employment, home and community, social security and taxes,
and protective labor legislation—were involved in the commission’s work. Their
final report, issued in 1963, proved that in almost every area, women were second-
class citizens (remember the Federal government would not even hire women engi-
neers until 1942). President Kennedy took two actions as a result of the work that
went into the commission’s report:
1. Women were to be on an equal basis with men for Civil Service promotion.
2. All executive department promotions were to be based on merit [1, 6, 9].

Equal Pay Act

After the publication of the report from this Commission, and in large part
because of its findings, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, which states
that “. . . no employer shall discriminate between employees on the basis of sex
by paying wages for equal work, the performance of which requires equal skill,
effort and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working condi-
tions.” The act was sponsored by Edith Green of Oregon, one of the most influen-
tial members of Congress. It was the first major piece of legislation addressing
sexual inequality since the Nineteenth Amendment. Although there were signifi-
cant exemptions included as part of the Act, the legislation was an important step
forward [6, 9].
Recognition of Sex Discrimination 49

Civil Rights Act: Title VII

In 1964, a second major piece of legislation—Title VII of the Civil Rights Act—was
passed to prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, color,
national origin, and sex. The original intent of the bill was to deal with racial
inequality. The amendment adding the word “sex” was proposed by the powerful
chair of the House Rules Committee, Howard Smith of Virginia, in an effort to
retard its passage. Smith urged Congress “to protect our spinster friends in their
‘right’ to a husband and family,” a conniving plea that was met with roars of laugh-
ter. His apparent intent was to burden the entire law with the addition of gender and
cause its defeat due to the expected ensuing controversy and ridicule. Thereafter, his
strategy of adding sex was referred to as a joke. Nonetheless, the amendment to the
language was retained, and the law passed. The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission was formed to enforce Title VII and found that most of its complaints
were from women, not from minorities as had been expected [6, 10].

The Dawn of Affirmative Action

In September 1965, President Johnson essentially began affirmative action by sign-

ing Executive Order 11246. This order required all companies wishing to do busi-
ness with the federal government to not only provide equal opportunity for all, but
also to take affirmative action (defined as extra steps) to bring their hiring in line
with available labor pools by race [11].

Recognition of Sex Discrimination

Two years later, in 1967, President Johnson signed Executive Order 11375 extend-
ing Executive Order 11246 to include “sex” as a protected category. This executive
order now required that affirmative action be taken on behalf of women in addition
to minorities (as required by Executive Order 11246) so that hiring was in line with
gender proportions as well as racial proportions in the relevant labor pools [11].
By the end of the 1960s, the U.S. had successfully landed men on the moon,
symbolizing American technical and scientific superiority over the Soviet Union.
The women’s rights and civil rights movements encouraged women and minorities
to pursue all career fields—including nontraditional ones such as engineering
although the number of women engineering Ph.D.s in 1968 totaled 5 nationwide
(0.2 % of the total). However, by the early to mid-1970s, the Vietnam War, the
energy crisis, and a widening awareness of environmental issues somewhat soured
Americans on science and technology. Now, scientists were needed to help save
America from themselves—so maybe women and minorities, with different ways of
solving problems—could help [8, 12].
50 4 Suburbia and Sputnik

1970s Progress

The 1970s represented some watershed years in the progress of women in engineer-
ing and women in the workforce, in general. In undergraduate engineering, the 1 %
barrier was broken—in 1972, 525 women received B.S. degrees, a stunning 1.2 %
of the total degrees. By 1979, the percentage of women receiving undergraduate
degrees had increased to 9 % of the total, master’s degrees in engineering were up
to 5.6 %, and Ph.D. degrees amounted to 2.2 % of the total [12].
Significant legislative advances during the decade included the 1972 passage of
the Education Amendments Act (particularly Title IX), the Equal Employment
Opportunity Act of 1972, and the 1972 expansion of the Equal Pay Act. All served
to put the public on notice that women were to be treated equally and either inten-
tionally or inadvertently, all served to open more professional opportunities for
women, including engineering opportunities.

Education Amendments Act

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of

sex in all federally-assisted educational programs. Title IX stated in part, “No per-
son in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in,
be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education
program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
Title IX extended the Equal Pay Act and Title VII to educational workers and
applied to admissions of females to all public undergraduate institutions, profes-
sional schools, graduate schools, and vocational schools. A very significant conse-
quence of this act was that caps on the numbers of women students accepted into
medical, law, business, and other professional schools were finally abolished [11].
Certainly women still were not at parity with men in employment or education
by the end of the 1970s, yet more progress had been made for women pursuing an
engineering career in this decade than in any previous decade.

Key Women of This Period

The significant engineering women of accomplishment in the last half of the 20th
century were educated as engineers and scientists. Their accomplishments were rec-
ognized through national honors from professional societies, governmental organi-
zations and others.
Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992) 51

Maria Telkes (1900–1995)

Hungarian-born Maria Telkes came to the United States in 1925 after earning a
Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Budapest. She worked first for the
Cleveland Clinic Biophysical Laboratory. She was motivated to find alternatives to
coal-fired generation for electricity production because of her horror over coal
mine disasters.
When MIT received a grant from oil magnate Godfrey L. Cabot to conduct
research in solar energy conversion, Telkes was appointed a research associate by
MIT (1940) to start the development of semiconductors for solar thermoelectric gen-
erators. She developed solar distillers to convert sea water into drinking water for life
rafts. She produced inflatable floating solar stills, weighing one pound and producing
twice their weight in drinking water directly from sea water. To store solar heat for a
test structure that MIT was developing, Telkes developed the use of heat of fusion of
inexpensive salt hydrates that required only one-twentieth of the volume of a water
tank. The phase change materials (PCM) were new in this type of application.
As a result of this work, Telkes built the first solar-heated home in 1949 in Dover,
Massachusetts. She then participated in the construction of solar-heated houses by
the Curtiss Wright Company in Princeton, New Jersey and at the University of
Delaware from 1972 to 1977. Later, she applied heat storage principles to use off-
peak electricity for heating and cooling of buildings. Her original chemical heat stor-
age invention at MIT grew into an entirely new technology. She holds 21 patents.
During her career of over 50 years, Telkes was involved in photovoltaics, solar
cooking, solar space and water heating, solar distillation, and thermoelectricity.
Telkes received the first Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) Achievement Award
in 1952 “in recognition of her meritorious contributions to the utilization of solar
energy.” Dr. Telkes, who was referred to as the “Sun Queen,” invented simple solar
cookers and ovens during the 1950 and 1960s that will roast, broil, and bake food
without using wood, fossil fuels, or animal dung. In 1954, the Ford Foundation
granted her $45,000 to develop her solar cooker. Some of her solar energy inven-
tions can also be used for crop drying. In 2012, she was inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame [13–16].

Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992)

Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was famous for carrying “nanoseconds” around
with her. These lengths of wire represented the distance light traveled in a nanosec-
ond (one billionth of a second). She was renowned for trying to convey scientific
and engineering terms clearly and coherently to non-technical people.
Hopper, also known as “Amazing Grace” and “The Grandmother of the Computer
Age” helped develop languages for computers and developed the first computer
compiler—software that translates English (or any other language) into the 0’s and
52 4 Suburbia and Sputnik

1’s that computers understand (machine language). Actually, her first compiler
translated English, French, and German into machine language, but the Navy told
her to stick with English because computers didn't understand French and German!
Computers truly only understand numbers, but humans can translate those numbers
now into any of our many languages. She was also part of the group that found the
first computer “bug”—a moth that had gotten trapped in a relay in the central pro-
cessor. Although Admiral Hopper loved to lay claim to the discovery of this first
computer “bug” (and it has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution’s American
History Museum), the term bug had actually been in use for many years.
Hopper received the SWE Achievement Award in 1964 “in recognition of her
significant contributions to the burgeoning computer industry as an engineering
manager and originator of automatic programming systems.” She was the first
woman to attain the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. The destroyer Hopper
was commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1997. Hopper received the National Medal
of Technology from President Bush in 1991, the first individual woman to receive
the medal: “For her pioneering accomplishments in the development of computer
programming languages that simplified computer technology and opened the door
to a significantly larger universe of users.” She was inducted into the National
Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994. Hopper said she believed it was always easier to ask
for forgiveness than permission. “If you ask me what accomplishment I’m most
proud of, the answer would be all of the young people I’ve trained over the years;
that’s more important than writing the first compiler” [14, 15, 17–20].

Mary Ross (1908–2008)

The first Native American female engineer and the first woman engineer at Lockheed
Missiles and Space Company, Mary Ross contributed to space exploration efforts.
One of the founding members of the Skunk Works, Ross was involved in the Apollo
program, the Polaris reentry vehicle, and interplanetary space probes. Ross began
her career at Lockheed in 1942 and retired in 1973. A passionate advocate for
women, Ross believed in the Cherokee traditions of equal education for boys and
girls.
After graduating from college with a degree in mathematics, she taught high
school math and science for 9 years. She completed her master’s degree in 1938,
while serving as a girls’ advisor at a coeducational Indian boarding school. Ross
joined Lockheed in 1942 as a mathematician and received intensive on-the-job
training, emergency war training, and night classes to begin her engineering career.
She received her engineering license in California in 1949. Later, she worked on the
Poseidon and Trident Missiles.
The recipient of numerous awards, Ross was inducted into the Silicon Valley
Engineering Hall of Fame and was elected Fellow of SWE. The great-great-
granddaughter of a Cherokee chief, Ross inspired generations of women engineers
across the U.S. [21–23].
Thelma Estrin (1924–2014) 53

Yvonne Brill (1924–2013)

Aerospace consultant Yvonne Brill worked tirelessly to nominate women for awards
and to boards and served as a role model for several generations of women engi-
neers, including her daughter. Her patented hydrazine/hydrazine resistojet propul-
sion system (3,807,657—granted April 30, 1974) provided integrated propulsion
capability for geostationary satellites and became the standard in the communica-
tion satellite industry.
Brill’s career began in 1945. She left to raise three children and then returned to
work in her forties. In her outstanding career, she effectively expanded space hori-
zons. Throughout most of that career, she was the sole technical woman working on
propulsion systems. Her other significant technical achievements include work on
propellant management feed systems, electric propulsion, and an innovative propul-
sion system for the Atmosphere Explorer, which, in 1973, allowed scientists to
gather extensive data of the earth’s thermosphere for the first time. She also managed
the development, production, and testing of the Teflon solid propellant pulsed plasma
propulsion system aboard the NOVA I spacecraft launched in May 1981.
Brill became a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1987 and
was a Fellow of SWE and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Among her many awards were the 1986 SWE Achievement Award “for important
contributions in advanced auxiliary propulsion of spacecraft and devoted service to
the growing professionalism of women in engineering,” the 1993 SWE Resnik
Challenger Medal for expanding space horizons through innovations in rocket pro-
pulsion systems, and induction into the Women in Technology International Hall of
Fame in 1999. After induction into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame (first
woman) (2009) and the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2010), in 2011, Brill
received the nation’s highest honor, the National Medal of Technology and
Innovation from President Obama “For innovation in rocket propulsion systems for
geosynchronous and low earth orbit communication satellites, which greatly
improved the effectiveness of space propulsion systems” [14, 15, 24, 25].

Thelma Estrin (1924–2014)

Pursuing her electrical engineering education at the University of Wisconsin in the

1940s and 1950s (B.S. 1948, M.S. 1949) was not easy for Thelma Estrin. Her pro-
fessors did not take her seriously and because she could not get a research assistant
position, her Ph.D. (1951) took a year longer than did her husband’s.
Then, she had to commute for 4 hours a day to her job in New York City from her
home in Princeton, New Jersey because no other opportunities were available.
Nevertheless, she persevered, with the support of her husband. They had three
daughters in the 1950s.
Estrin was a pioneer in the field of biomedical engineering. She was one of the
first to use computer technology to solve problems in health care and medical
54 4 Suburbia and Sputnik

research. Her work combined concepts from anatomy, physiology, and neurosci-
ence with electronic technology and electrical engineering.
Estrin designed and implemented a computer system to map the nervous system.
Later, she published papers on how to map the brain with the help of computers. She
helped design Israel’s first computer, the WEIZAC, in 1954. Estrin served as the
director of the Data Processing Laboratory at the Brain Research Institute at the
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), being barred from employment in
the School of Engineering at UCLA by nepotism rules since her husband was on the
faculty there. After UCLA dropped its nepotism rules in 1980, she was able to
become a professor in the computer science department of the School of Engineering
and Applied Science.
Not only a pioneer in her technical field, but a pioneer among women engineers,
Estrin was the first woman elected to national office in the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as a vice president in 1981. In the late 1970s, she was
the first woman to join the board of trustees of The Aerospace Corporation. Her
presence and leadership on that board encouraged many women to pursue careers in
aerospace engineering. She was very active in the women’s movement, encouraging
women to be engineers from the 1970s forward.
Among her many awards were the 1981 SWE Achievement Award “in recogni-
tion of her outstanding contributions to the field of biomedical engineering, in par-
ticular, neurophysiological research through application of computer science”.
A Fellow of SWE, IEEE, and the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS), she was a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical
and Biological Engineering.
Her honorary doctor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1989
included the following citation: “Refusing to be daunted by prejudice, she demon-
strated through the undeniable quality of her work that talent is not tied to gender.
She has been a model for other women who have entered and enriched the field of
engineering, including two of her daughters” [14, 15, 26–28].

Jewel Plummer Cobb (1924–)

Jewel Plummer Cobb became interested in science in ninth grade when her biology
teacher put a microscope in front of her. Her parents had always encouraged her
interest in education and had introduced her to the wonders of science as well as
strong women, particularly African-American women.
Cobb entered the University of Michigan in 1941 but stayed for just three semes-
ters because of the racist treatment. There was no support system for black students,
the dormitories were segregated, black students were not allowed in the Pretzel Ball
or Beer Parlor, and women couldn’t walk in the front door of the men’s union build-
ing. So she transferred to Talladega College, founded by the American Missionary
Society just after the abolition of slavery, and graduated with a B.S. in biology in
Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930 –) 55

1944. An M.S. and Ph.D., both in cell physiology and both from New York
University, followed in 1947 and 1950.
Cobb’s research over the years has primarily been related to cancer causes and
treatment including extensive study of melanin—the brown or black pigment that
colors skin and its ability to shield human skin from ultraviolet rays. Her melanin
studies involved examination of melanoma, a form of skin cancer. As her research
evolved, so did her career, as she moved up the academic ladder to become President
of California State University at Fullerton in 1981. In her academic administrative
positions, Cobb initiated a number of programs to encourage ethnic minorities and
women to pursue careers in the sciences [26, 29, 30].

Yvonne Clark (1925–)

The first woman to receive a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Howard
University (1951), Yvonne Clark was also the first woman to receive a masters in
engineering management from Vanderbilt University in 1972. The first African-
American member of the SWE, Clark became a senior member and was elected a
Fellow and served on many committees within the organization. In 1998, she
received the Distinguished Engineering Educator Award. Clark had a distinguished
career on the faculty at Tennessee State University.
Clark was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, prevented from taking a mechanical
drawing class in high school because she was a woman. The University of Louisville
would not admit her, being segregated at the time, and she received a full scholar-
ship to attend Howard University. Clark faced significant discrimination in her
career, often not able to obtain employment, because she was African-American and
a woman. She said “They forgot to tell me I couldn’t do it” [31].

Mildred S. Dresselhaus (1930–)

The first female recipient of the National Medal of Science in the engineering cat-
egory, the first woman to receive the IEEE Medal of Honor, “Carbon Queen” Dr.
Mildred Dresselhaus has been on the faculty of MIT since 1967. She was the first
women tenured in the School of Engineering at MIT. In August 2000, she became
the Director of the Office of Science in the Department of Energy, having been
nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
As an Institute Professor of electrical engineering and physics at MIT (the first
woman to be so honored), Dresselhaus is a solid-state physicist and materials scien-
tist whose research areas include superconductivity; the electronic and optical prop-
erties of semimetals, semiconductors, and metals; and, particularly, carbon-based
materials. The citation for the 1990 National Medal of Science reads “For her stud-
ies of the electronic properties of metals and semimetals, and for her service to the
56 4 Suburbia and Sputnik

Nation in establishing a prominent place for women in physics and engineering.”

Her 2014 U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom citation (the highest honor for civil-
ians), reads for “deepening our understanding of condensed matter systems and the
atomic properties of carbon—which has contributed to major advances in electron-
ics and materials research.” On presenting her the award, President Obama said
“Her influence is all around us, in the cars we drive, the energy we generate, the
electronic devices that power our lives.”
Dresselhaus received an A.B. from Hunter College in 1951 in physics and math.
She received encouragement to study physics at Hunter from her advisor Rosalyn
Yalow (later a Nobel Laureate in medicine) as opposed to becoming a schoolteacher.
After a year in Cambridge, England, on a Fulbright scholarship in physics, she stud-
ied first at Harvard and then completed her thesis and received her Ph.D. from the
University of Chicago in 1958.
The 1977 recipient of SWE’s Achievement Award “for significant contributions
in teaching and research in solid state electronics and materials engineering,”
Dresselhaus founded the MIT Women’s Forum in 1970. The objective of the forum
was to support the careers of women in science and engineering at MIT. In 1999,
she received the Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Science from the American
Physical Society “for being a compassionate mentor and lifelong friend to young
scientists; for setting high standards as researchers, teachers and citizens; and for
promoting international ties in science.”
In addition to her many honorary degrees, Dresselhaus has been President of the
AAAS, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National
Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of SWE, AAAS, IEEE, and others. She attri-
butes her success in balancing her career and raising four children to a supportive
husband [14, 26, 27, 32–38].

Y. C. L. Susan Wu (1932–)

Born in Beijing, China, Ying-Chu Lin Wu was encouraged by her mother to study
mechanical engineering. After graduating in 1955 (the only woman in a class with
80 men), she found that jobs for women engineers were scarce and thus she moved
to the U.S. Wu earned her masters and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio State University
and the California Institute of Technology (the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in aero-
nautics), respectively, and found employment as an optics engineer in California. In
1965, she joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee Space Institute. There
her research focus was on magnetohydrodynamics and its application to cleaner
coal-fired generation.
After 23 years at UTSI, Wu left to start her own business, ERC, Inc. With more
than 800 employees and annual revenues of over $100 million, ERC today does
business with the Department of Defense, NASA, and others within the defense
industry. Wu stepped down as president in 2000 but remains as chairman.
References 57

Wu has received many awards and honors including SWE’s Achievement Award
and the Outstanding Educators of America Award. She received the Amelia Earhart
Fellowship in 1958, 1959, and 1962, the only three-time recipient [29, 39].

References

1. Rossiter MW (1995) Women scientists in America: before affirmative action 1940-1972. The
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
2. Barker AM (1994) Women in engineering during World War II: a taste of victory. Rochester
Institute of Technology, unpublished
3. (1954) Employment opportunities for women in professional engineering. U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 254
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mission of the American Association of Engineering Societies, 3(1)
5. Turner EM. Education of women for engineering in the United States 1885-1952. UMI
Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, MI, (Dissertation, New York University, 1954)
6. Harris B (1978) Beyond her sphere: women in the professions in American history. Greenwood
Press, Westport, CT
7. LeBold WK, LeBold DJ (1998) Women engineers: a historical perspective. ASEE Prism
7(7):30–32
8. Lucena JC (1995) “Women in engineering” a history and politics of a struggle in the making
of a statistical category. Proceedings of the 1999 international symposium on technology
and society—women and technology: historical, societal, and professional perspectives,
pp 185–194. New Brunswick, NJ, July 29–31, 1999 Rossiter, op.cit., p. 61
9. Read PJ, Witlieb BL (1992) The book of women’s firsts. Random House, New York
10. Baer JA (1996) Women in American Law: the struggle toward equality from the new deal to
the present, 2nd edn. Homes & Meier, New York, p 15
11. Tobias S (1997) Faces of feminism: an activist’s reflections on the women’s movement.
Westview Press, Boulder, CO
12. (1998) For engineering education, 1997 outputs look like 1996. Engineers. Engineering
Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies 4(1)
13. Telkes M (1900–1995) www.asu.edu/caed/Backup/AEDlibrary/libarchives/solar/telkes.html.
Accessed 25 Aug 1999
14. www.swe.org/SWE/Awards,achieve3.htm. Accessed 1 Sept 1999
15. Stanley A (1995) Mothers and daughters of invention: notes for a revised history of technol-
ogy. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ
16. Maria T. Actually the name of the article is Maria Telkes, the author is National Inventors Hall
of Fame, it should read Maria Telkes, as I originally wrote it. National Inventors Hall of Fame.
http://invent.org/inductee-detail/?IID=468. Accessed 25 May 2015
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18. Grace Murray H. The National Medal of Technology. U.S. Department of Commerce.
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Inc., Hillside, NJ
20. Zuckerman L. Think tank: if there’s a bug in the etymology, you may never get it out. The
New York Times. Accessed 22 Apr 2000
21. Ross MG (2008) Obituary, San Jose Mercury news. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/mercu-
rynews/obituary.aspx?pid=109118876. Accessed 6 June 2015
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22. Ross M (2011) First native American engineer, spirited woman blogger team. http://www.
thespiritedwoman.com/go_blog_blog_blog/2011/03/mary-ross-first-native-american- -
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Feb 2001
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gov/the-press-office/2011/09/27/president. Accessed 25 May 2015
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engineering: no universal constants. Temple University Press, Philadelphia
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14 Feb 2001
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Westport, CT
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org/praw/nicholso/99wind.html. Accessed 14 Feb 2001
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hau.shtml. Accessed 14 Feb 2001
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Science. www.pnl.gov/energyscience/08-00/inside.htm. Accessed 14 Feb 2001
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Transformation/. Accessed 22 Aug 2015
Chapter 5
Bridges to the Future

Abstract The last quarter of the twentieth century saw heightened attention regard-
ing the need for a trained and diverse scientific and engineering workforce. Several
initiatives were launched but the statistics still gave credence to the phrase “Why so
Few?” referring to the still low numbers of women and minorities pursuing scien-
tific, technical, engineering and mathematical (STEM) careers. So many opportuni-
ties—and challenges—present themselves to the STEM workforce in the twenty-first
century. The engineering advances in the last century are staggering from electrifi-
cation to agricultural mechanization, to the internet to high-performance materials.
The opportunities in nanotechnology, biotechnology and other fields as well as the
challenges of aging infrastructure, terrorism, and an aging workforce promise fasci-
nating careers as we bridge to the future. Profiles of engineering women, many of
whom are still active in their careers today, are provided.

Moving Forward in the 1980s

In the early 1980s, Americans began worrying about whether or not the country was
on an equal footing with technologically advanced Japan. As a result of this interna-
tional competitiveness, more focus was placed on engineers and technology in the
U.S., in the hopes of keeping America economically in-line. The pipeline for engi-
neers and scientists began to be discussed, and women in engineering received sig-
nificant focus and recognition [1].
The Science and Technology Equal Opportunity Act of 1980 was passed to
include women and minorities as problem solvers to deal with the now recognized
issues of environment, food shortages, and areas affected by affirmative action. The
act said:
. . . it is the policy of the United States to encourage men and women, equally, of all ethnic,
racial, and economic backgrounds to acquire skills in science, engineering and mathemat-
ics, to have equal opportunity in education, training, and employment in scientific and
engineering fields, and thereby to promote scientific and engineering literacy and the full
use of the human resources of the Nation in science and engineering [1, 2].

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2017 59

J.S. Tietjen, Engineering Women: Re-visioning Women’s Scientific Achievements
and Impacts, Women in Engineering and Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40800-2_5
60 5 Bridges to the Future

Yet in spite of this rhetoric, the Reagan administration cut science education
funding in the early 1980s. The falloff in the rate of increase in the number of
women in engineering is evidenced by the flattening of the women graduates
through the 1980s, and is attributed, in part, to the cuts in federal funding and the
Reagan’s administration significantly reduced emphasis on affirmative action [3].
Congress became convinced by 1987 that, based on manpower projections for
scientists and engineers that showed significant shortfalls by 2006, something
needed to be done. A law was passed creating a Task Force on Women, Minorities
and the Handicapped in Science and Engineering to examine the current status of
those groups in the targeted fields and to coordinate existing federal programs to
promote their education and employment in science and engineering. The Task
Force Report was issued in 1989 and thereafter many more educational institutions
established Women in Engineering Programs and Minority Engineering Programs
with the resulting available federal funding. The task force also reported that non-
traditional engineers and scientists faced barriers in both promotion and progression
in their careers [1, 4].
The latest national imperative to get women and minorities into technology was
reflected in a 1988 report [1]:
If compelled to single out one determinant of US competitiveness in the era of the global,
technology-based economy, we would have to choose education, for in the end people are
the ultimate asset in global competition. . . . But an especially important further step will be
to extend the pool from which the pipeline draws by bringing into it more women, more
racial minorities, and more of those who have not participated because of economic, social,
and educational disadvantage. . . Thus not only is providing a better grounding in math and
science for all citizens a matter of making good on the American promise of equal opportu-
nity. It is a pragmatic necessity if we are to maintain our economic competitiveness.

Additional legislative and regulatory actions in the 1980s and 1990s helped
improve the workforce for women. Specifically, the Equal Employment Commission
issued regulations in 1980 that defined sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimi-
nation, thus prohibited under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. U.S. Supreme Court
rulings in the 1980s and 1990s further clarified the situations constituting sexual
harassment [5]. Women engineers, who tended to be fairly isolated in work environ-
ments because of their low numbers, now had legal recourse for some of the more
blatant behavior they were experiencing.

The 1990s

In the 1990s, the U.S. was focused on ways to remain globally competitive with the
entire world, not just Japan [1]. Additional initiatives, task forces, studies, and con-
ferences occurred to further examine what often boils down to the phrase “Why so
Few?” Why aren’t more women pursuing engineering careers? And, although many
issues have been identified and solutions proposed, the number of women in engi-
neering failed to increase significantly during the 1990s [3, 6].
Minority Women in Engineering 61

National Academy of Engineering

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) launched an initiative in 1997 to

examine and take positive steps on a national scale toward resolving the issue of
why so few women are entering the engineering field. A web site was set up and a
major conference, the Summit of Women in Engineering, was held in May 1999 [7].
One of the legacies of that effort is the web site engineer girl [8].

The Commission on the Advancement of Women

and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology

The Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science,

Engineering and Technology (CAWMSET), established by Congress in 1998, again
examined the issues and potential remedies associated with the low participation of
women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science, engineering, and technol-
ogy careers. The Commission’s Report Land of Plenty (September 2000) identified
issues and made recommendations with regard to pre-college education, access to
higher education, professional life, public image, and nationwide accountability [9].

Establishment of Women in Engineering Programs

By 1990, many efforts had been underway by many groups—some for more than 30
years—to increase the number of women in engineering. Universities had estab-
lished Women in Engineering Programs (or Women in Science and Engineering
Programs) to both recruit more women students into the field and to retain higher
percentages of the female students that enrolled.

Minority Women in Engineering

The national effort on increasing the talent pool in engineering has focused on
minorities as well as women for many years. As early as 1974, the National Action
Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME) was established to lead
national efforts to increase access to careers in engineering and other science-based
disciplines for minorities. In 1979, the National Association of Minority Engineering
Program Administrators (NAMEPA) was established to promote collaboration and
cooperation among the many groups committed to improving the recruitment and
retention of African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans in the industry.
One significant initiative, announced in September 1999, the Gates Millenium
Scholars Program, is an activity of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
62 5 Bridges to the Future

This 20-year program will provide financial assistance to high-achieving minority

students who pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in technical fields includ-
ing engineering [10–12].

Trends for the Future of Engineering

Against a backdrop of stagnant percentages of women and minorities pursuing an

engineering education and a career in the engineering fields, our world has become
increasingly characterized by technology. The engineering accomplishments of the
20th century have resulted in the way of living that we in the developed countries
experience and expect today. The National Academy of Engineering identified the
20 top engineering achievements of the twentieth century (shown in Table 5.1): [13]
Over the history of engineering, the changes to the engineering profession and
engineering education came after changes in technology and society. New disci-
plines were established and curricula were developed to provide the workforce nec-
essary to support those changes [14]. It is not clear that this model should be
sustainable going forward.
These advances of the twentieth century have lengthened our life spans (average
life expectancy increased from 47 years of age in 1900 to 77 years of age in 2000
[15]), expanded our communications abilities by orders of magnitude, and short-
ened product development cycles leading to increased innovation and functionality.
The world changed more in the 20th century than it had in all of the preceding years

Table 5.1 Top engineering 1. Electrification

achievements of the twentieth
2. Automobile
century
3. Airplane
4. Water supply and distribution
5. Electronics
6. Radio and television
7. Agricultural mechanization
8. Computers
9. Telephone
10. Air conditioning and refrigeration
11. Highways
12. Spacecraft
13. Internet
14. Imaging
15. Household appliances
16. Health technologies
17. Petroleum and petrochemical technologies
18. Laser and fiber optics
19. Nuclear technologies
20. High-performance materials
Nanotechnology 63

[14]. On the horizon are new breakthroughs in many fields including biotechnology,
nanotechnology, computing and logistics [14]. Challenges exist with the threat of
terrorism, deteriorating infrastructure, environmental concerns and meeting the
needs of worldwide population growth [14].
Although projecting the future is always fraught with peril—often resulting in
shattered crystal balls—we are on a path where some projections can be made about
the opportunities and challenges awaiting engineers over the next decade.

Engineering Opportunities

The promises for engineering advances in the twenty-first century are numerous and
exciting.

Biotechnology

Humankind is now able to attack diseases and disorders at the cellular and DNA
levels leading to the dream that diseases may be eradicated and the limitations of the
human body (e.g., aging) could be compensated for [14]. Tissue engineering
advances and regenerative medicine provide avenues for treatment of burn victims
and individuals with spinal cord injuries [14].
Biotechnology in concert with advances in nanotechnology and micro-electronic
mechanical systems (MEMS) could lead to the use of tiny robots for medical treat-
ments such as repairing tissue tears and cleaning clogged arteries. Such robots
might be used to destroy cancers or change cell structures for those with inherited
genetic diseases. In conjunction with advances in computer technology in the bio-
technology field (bioinformatics), these types of developments could lead to indi-
vidually customized drug treatments [14].
We have already seen pacemaker development, the creation of artificial organs,
prosthetic devices, laser eye surgery, imaging systems, and fiber-optic-assisted non-
invasive surgical techniques [14]. We have devices that monitor our health, count
our steps, and show us our sleep patterns—so we can learn to behave in more health-
ful ways. Engineers participate in tissue engineering, drug delivery engineering, and
bio-inspired computing. These fields will continue to advance and increase in scope
and complexity [14].

Nanotechnology

The advances in technology at the molecular level will expand in the next decade
and beyond [14]. Multiple fields will be involved—bioengineering, materials sci-
ences, and electronics, among others. Applications for nanoengineering cover a
broad range from flame retardant additives to paint pigments to biosensors as shown
in Table 5.2 [14].
64 5 Bridges to the Future

Table 5.2 Nanotechnology Pigments in paints

applications
Cutting tools and wear resistant coatings
Pharmaceuticals and drugs
Nanoscale particles and thin films in electronic devices
Jewelry, optical, and semiconductor wafer polishing
Biosensors, transducers, and detectors
Functional designer fluids
Propellants, nozzles, and valves
Flame retardant additives
Drug delivery, biomagnetic separation, and wound healing
Nano-optical, nanoelectronics, and nanopower sources
High-end flexible displays
Nano-bio materials as artificial organs
MEMS-based devices
Faster switches and ultra-sensitive sensors

Materials Science and Photonics

New materials and smart materials will be developed across many engineering
disciplines from civil to mechanical to electrical. Civil engineers might incorpo-
rate smart materials and structures that can sense and respond such as for displace-
ments from earthquakes or explosions. With the assumption that fuel cells will
replace the existing internal combustion engines, greater knowledge and under-
standing of fuel-cell chemistry and materials will be required. The decrease in the
size of optical devices as their power and reliability increase will drive develop-
ment of photonics-based technologies. Engineers will also be required with exper-
tise in fiber optics communications; visioning, sensing, and precision cutting for
precision manufacturing applications; laser guidance; and optical sensing and
monitoring [14].

Information and Communications Technology

The late twentieth century saw an explosion in communications devices that many
of us now can’t imagine our lives without—computers, smartphones, copiers, and
the Internet. Huge volumes of information can be transmitted globally today; that
capability will only increase—with the attendant responsibilities of data integrity
and security. This information explosion requires expertise in materials, electronics,
electromagnetics, photonics, and the underlying mathematics [14].
Infrastructure 65

Logistics

The term just-in-time manufacturing hardly does justice to the intricate ballet that it
necessitates [p. 16]. Worldwide coordination is required in our ever increasingly
globalized world. From the tablets used by personnel in airport or to present wine
lists at restaurants, wireless and inventory trading and database software have led to
significantly improved productivity [14].
Wal-Mart’s distribution network has been held up as the model for ensuring
emergency supplies after a hurricane lands and causes widespread destruction [16].
How to most effectively and efficiently provide and move goods and services will
be a focus of engineering attention in the decades to come [14].

Engineering Challenges

Just as there are opportunities, there are also challenges.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure in the U.S. is aging. Since the early 2000s, the American Society of
Civil Engineers has periodically issued its report card providing grades for a wide
variety of infrastructure categories. The 2013 grades, shown in Table 5.3, are not grades
that anyone would have wanted to come home with or to have shown her parents! [17]

Table 5.3 2013 Category Grade

Infrastructure report card
Water & environment
Dams D
Drinking water D
Hazardous waste D
Levees D−
Solid waste B−
Wastewater D
Transportation
Aviation D
Bridges C+
Inland waterways D−
Ports C
Rail C+
Roads D
Transit D
Public facilities
Public parks & recreation C−
Schools D
Energy
Energy D+
66 5 Bridges to the Future

In some cases, the grades have decreased from report card to report card, demon-
strating the deterioration of our transportation, energy, water and other facilities. An
estimated $3.6 trillion is needed through 2020 to address these concerns; much
engineering expertise is required within those dollars [17].

Information and Communications Infrastructure

Although newer than the facilities referenced above, the information and communi-
cation infrastructure has shown itself vulnerable to intentional attacks, system over-
loads, and natural disasters. Yet, we are becoming increasingly dependent on them
for our work, our banking and other financial transactions, our commerce, and our
economy in general. Significant attention will be required to ensure their security
and reliability [14].

Environment

The first Earth Day (April 22, 1970) came about because of a confluence of many
factors leading to the realization that humankind needed to be better stewards of
our planet and all it had to offer us. Population growth and increased standards of
living lead to higher use of many resources as well as water. Engineers will be
required to develop sustainable practices across many fields including agriculture
and energy [14].
The challenges—and the opportunities—for engineers to contribute in the
twenty-first century are many. New areas of inquiry have been opened up and are
being pursued. The possibilities are almost endless in the ways in which engineers
will help advance society and provide value in our future.

Key Women of This Period

The engineering women whose accomplishments occurred during the late twentieth
century and early twenty-first century were primarily educated as engineers. Their
honors and recognitions are tributes to their lasting legacies.

Ada Pressman (1927–2003)

The first three-pinner in the Society of Women Engineers (Past President, Fellow
and Achievement Award), Ada Pressman was a pioneer in combustion control and
burner management for supercritical power plants including the input logic and fuel
air mixes associated therewith. She was directly involved in early design efforts
toward more automated controls of equipment and systems, the new packaging
Sheila Widnall (1938–) 67

techniques, and breakthroughs in improved precision and reliability of sensors and

controls. As she progressed through the management ranks at Bechtel (earning her
MBA during the process), she was recognized as one of the nation’s outstanding
experts in power plant controls and process instrumentation and worked on fossil-
fired and nuclear power plants. Pressman is credited with significantly improving
the safety of both coal-fired and nuclear power plants for both workers and nearby
residents. In addition, she successfully lobbied the state engineering board in
California to recognize control systems engineering as a distinct engineering field.
Pressman characterized her professional experience as including the engineering
management of millions of individual hours of power generation plant design and
construction and of economic studies and proposals for potential projects. She con-
tinually monitored the costs for each project as well as the technical engineering
details as the design progressed. Pressman received SWE’s Achievement Award in
1976 “For her significant contribution in the field of power control systems
engineering.”
Planning to become a secretary after she graduated from high school in Ohio,
Pressman was encouraged to attend college by her father. She earned her B.S. in
mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University. Pressman actively
mentored women throughout their engineering careers and was devoted to pro-
moting women’s STEM careers. From her outstanding career in industry, to her
many years of dedicated service to SWE, to her dedication to mentoring young
women and funding their educational dreams, Pressman was truly a role model
for us all [18, 19].

Sheila Widnall (1938–)

The first woman placed in charge of a branch of the military, Dr. Sheila Widnall
became Secretary of the Air Force in 1993, after she was appointed by President
Clinton. She was praised by the president “as a woman of high achievement, a
respected scientist, a skilled administrator, and a dedicated citizen.” Prior to her
service as Secretary, she spent 28 years at MIT, where she had won international
acclaim for her work in fluid dynamics. After her resignation from the Air Force,
she rejoined the MIT faculty.
Widnall’s father fostered her interest in science and math, and her working
mother showed her that women can manage a career and a family. She was encour-
aged to pursue an engineering education. But, when she enrolled at MIT, she was
one of 23 women out of a total of 936 freshmen. As she had never been part of a
minority group, she experienced a culture shock. Despite this initial setback, Widnall
received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from MIT in aeronautics and astronau-
tics. Her first child was born 6 months before she finished her Ph.D. and her second,
4 years later. She credits a supportive husband and the ability to find good daytime
child care (graduate students’ wives) as contributors to her career success. She was
the first MIT alumna to become a member of the faculty of the School of Engineering.
68 5 Bridges to the Future

And for many years after she was hired, she was the only woman engineer on fac-
ulty. In addition, she was the first woman to head the entire MIT faculty.
Widnall is known internationally for her fluid dynamics work involving aircraft
turbulence and spiraling airflows. She is the holder of three patents, has a long his-
tory of professional activities, and has received many awards. She is a member of
the National Academy of Engineering and has received its Distinguished Service
Award (1993). In 1998 she received the IEEE Centennial Medal. Widnall received
the SWE Achievement Award in 1975 “in recognition of her significant contribu-
tions to the fluid mechanics of low speed aircraft and hydrofoils.” She has been
inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She has served as President of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and as a trustee
for The Aerospace Corporation.
Widnall says, “I believe that women should pursue their interest in science and
engineering. The future has a way of taking care of itself if one has the proper edu-
cation that supports one’s dreams” [20–27].

Mary-Dell Chilton (1939–)

In 1983, Mary-Dell Chilton led the research team that produced the first transgenic
plants. As such, she is considered one of the founders of modern plant biotechnol-
ogy and the field of genetic engineering in agriculture. After groundbreaking efforts
at the University of Washington and Washington University, she established one of
the world’s leading industrial biotechnology agricultural programs at Ciba-Geigy
(today Syngenta). Her team has worked to produce crops with higher yields, and
resistance to pests, disease and adverse environmental conditions (such as drought).
The recipient of numerous awards including the 1985 Rank Prize in Nutrition
and the 2013 World Food Prize, Chilton was inducted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame in 2015. Today, Distinguished Science Fellow Chilton works in a
building in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina that bears her name.
Dr. Chilton’s B.S. and Ph.D. degrees are in chemistry from the University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She said “My career in biotechnology has been an excit-
ing journey and I am amazed to see the progress we have made over the years. My
hope is through discoveries like mine and the discoveries to follow, we will be able
to provide a brighter and better future for the generations that follow us” [28–30].

Eleanor Baum (c. 1940–)

The first female dean of any engineering college in the U.S. and the first female
president of the American Society for Engineering Education, Dr. Baum is a Fellow
of ABET, IEEE, and SWE. She has also served as the President of ABET.
Donna Shirley (1941–) 69

Baum’s route to engineering was not an easy one. Her high school guidance
counselor thought she should study something else. In fact almost anything else
would do. Her mother was very worried that people would think she was strange
and, as a result, that no one would marry her. Baum was not accepted at several
engineering colleges where she applied for admission because she was female; in at
least one case her application was denied due to a lack of women’s bathrooms. In
the end, she was the only female in her engineering class at City College of
New York. She received a B.S. in electrical engineering (1959) and completed her
M.S. (1961) and Ph.D. (1964) degrees from the Polytechnic Institute of New York.
Baum is a national leader in engineering education and the advancement of
women in science and technology. She was the 1988 recipient of the Emily
Roebling Award presented by the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She was
inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 1996 and
into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2007. A recipient of SWE’s Upward
Mobility Award, Baum serves on the Boards of Directors of several corporations
[24, 27, 31–34].

Donna Shirley (1941–)

The President of Managing Creativity and former Assistant Dean at the University
of Oklahoma, Donna Shirley burst into the national and international scene in July
1997 when the Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner Rover—the solar-powered,
self-guided, microwave-oven-sized explorer, began their exploration of the Martian
surface.
Shirley decided at age 10 to be an aeronautical engineer and to build airplanes.
At 15, she began flying lessons and at 16, she soloed. However, her path to aeronau-
tical engineering was not as straight as she might have envisioned.
When Shirley arrived at the University of Oklahoma in 1958 determined to study
aeronautical engineering, her first visit with her adviser began with him telling her
that “Girls can’t be engineers.” The school newspaper even ran an article noting the
rarity of female engineering students—all six of them. Shirley did eventually gradu-
ate in 1962, but with a degree in journalism.
After a stint as a technical writer at McDonnell Aircraft, Shirley reapplied to the
University of Oklahoma, took a leave of absence from McDonnell, and went back
to engineering school. In the spring of 1965, she did graduate with a B.S. in aero-
space/mechanical engineering. And she returned to McDonnell Aircraft. In 1966,
Shirley took a job with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with one objective: to get to
Mars—a goal that would take 31 years.
Inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, Shirley has
written several books, including her autobiography and a book on using the collec-
tive creativity of groups to develop ideas and turn those ideas into real products
[35–37].
70 5 Bridges to the Future

Gail de Planque (1944–2010)

The first woman and the first health physicist to be appointed to the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Dr. Gail de Planque was a trailblazer for women through-
out her entire career. When she joined the Atomic Energy Commission’s Health and
Safety Laboratory (HSL) as an entry-level physicist, she was told not to expect
much in the way of opportunities for advancement because women would eventu-
ally leave for marriage. She did not leave and eventually became the lab’s director.
During her tenure at HSL, she earned her M.S. in physics and her Ph.D. in environ-
mental health sciences. Her master’s thesis was titled “Radiation Induced Breast
Cancer from Mammography”; ironically, she was later a breast cancer survivor.
Dr. de Planque was the recipient of numerous awards for her pioneering role as
a woman in science and contributions to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. One of
the most significant was election to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
with the citation “For leadership of the national nuclear programs and contributions
to radiation protection devices and standards.” In 2003, she received the Henry
DeWolf Smith award for Nuclear Statesmanship from the American Nuclear Society
and the Nuclear Energy Institute for her contributions to the peaceful use of nuclear
energy. In 2015, she was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame. Her
areas of expertise included nuclear physics and environmental radiation studies.
While at the U.S. NRC, Dr. de Planque often had a pivotal role in matters relating
to equal employment opportunities, flexiplace and flexitime, sexual harassment
policy, and management. After her tenure at the U.S. NRC was complete, Dr. de
Planque was sought after nationally and internationally including by the United
Nations International Atomic Agency.
As Chair of the NAE’s Celebration of Women in Engineering Steering Committee,
she led the national effort to change the national dialogue on increasing the number
and percentage of women in engineering and implement national and local pro-
grams that would implement new, wide-reaching efforts to get closer to parity [38].

Shirley Jackson (1946–)

The first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D, from the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (MIT), theoretical physicist Shirley Jackson is now the
President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). As a physicist, Jackson’s area
of expertise is particle physics—the branch of physics that predicts the existence of
subatomic particles and the forces that bind them together.
Jackson was encouraged in her interest in science by her father who helped her
with projects for her science classes. She took accelerated math and science classes
in high school and graduated as valedictorian. At MIT, she was one of less than
twenty African-American students on campus, the only African American studying
physics, and one of about 43 women in the freshmen class of 900. After obtaining
her B.S. at MIT, she opted to stay for her doctoral work in order to encourage more
F. Suzanne Jenniches (1948–) 71

African-American students to attend the institution. She completed her dissertation

and obtained her Ph.D. in 1973.
After postdoctoral work at prestigious laboratories in the U.S. and abroad,
Jackson joined the Theoretical Physics Research Department at AT&T Bell
Laboratories in 1976. She served on the faculty at Rutgers University from 1991 to
1995 and then became the first woman and African-American Chairman of the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In 1999, she became the first African American
and first woman President of RPI.
Her numerous honors and awards include induction into the National Women’s
Hall of Fame and the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, the Thomas
Alva Edison Science Award, and the CIBA-GEIGY Exceptional Black Scientist.
Jackson actively promotes women in science [24, 39–41].

F. Suzanne Jenniches (1948–)

Suzanne Jenniches, retired Vice President, Communications Systems, Northrop

Grumman, had not even heard of the word engineering until she was 23 years old
and teaching high school biology. She was influenced by the first Earth Day
(April 1970) to enroll in a master’s program in environmental engineering at
Johns Hopkins University.
In 1978, she completed her M.S. in environmental engineering, although the
large majority of her courses were undergraduate courses in computers and electri-
cal engineering. In the interim, Jenniches had left her public education career and
begun her employment with Westinghouse Electric Corporation as a product evalu-
ation engineer.
Jenniches rose through the ranks at Westinghouse, at one point becoming the
Operations Manager for B-1B Offensive Radar and Special Access Systems. The
production of this radar system was the critical path for the B-1B program and was
briefed monthly to then-Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger. Jenniches suc-
cessfully introduced the first Electronically Scanned Antenna into a production air-
craft with the B-1B.
Subsequently, she became the General Manager, Automation and Information
Systems for Westinghouse and later Northrop Grumman (after its purchase of this
division of Westinghouse). While in this position, Jenniches oversaw the delivery of
over 10,000 postal systems for the U.S. Postal Service. In addition, she led the team
that designed and deployed the Federal Express Small Package Sort System in its
500,000 square-foot facility in Memphis, Tennessee. At the time of her retirement,
Jenniches was leading Northrop Grumman’s efforts in the Electronics Systems
International Business.
Jenniches received the 2000 Achievement Award from SWE “in recognition of
outstanding leadership in manufacturing innovation and for setting the highest
standards of excellence in producibility engineering.” She has served as the
National President of SWE. Jenniches serves on corporate boards and has received
72 5 Bridges to the Future

gubernatorial appointments to several Maryland commissions and task forces. A

Fellow of SWE, Jenniches served for many years as a consultant to the Service and
Technology Board of the U.S. Army. In 2015, she received the Kate Gleason Award
from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers [42, 43].

Judith Resnik (1949–1986)

A member of the ill-fated Challenger mission in 1986, Judith Resnik was a “can do”
kind of person. She received her B.S. in electrical engineering from Carnegie-
Mellon in 1970 and a Ph.D., also in electrical engineering, from the University of
Maryland, College Park in 1977.
Resnik was selected for the astronaut corps in 1978, having previously served as
a biomedical engineer and staff fellow in the laboratory of neurophysiology at the
National Institutes of Health. The second American woman to travel in space, Resnik
was a mission specialist on space shuttle Discovery’s maiden voyage in 1984. During
96 orbits of the earth, the Discovery deployed three satellites and removed ice par-
ticles from the orbiter using the Remote Manipulator System (the robotic arm).
Resnik had developed operational procedures and software for the arm. In addition,
she developed deployment procedures for a tether satellite system.
Resnik lived life to its fullest. She was a classical pianist and a gourmet cook.
She was working on her pilot’s license and liked to run and ride her bicycle.
SWE established the Resnik Challenger Medal in her memory. It is awarded for
visionary contributions to space exploration. SWE also awards Resnik scholarships.
The IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award recognizes outstanding contributions to space
engineering [44, 45].

Bonnie Dunbar (1949–)

Astronaut Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar is a pioneering engineering woman. When she

enrolled as an engineering student at the University of Washington, there were nine
women in her entire freshman class. She received B.S. and M.S. degrees in ceramic
engineering from the University of Washington in 1971 and 1975, respectively.
When she joined the Astronaut Corps in 1980, she was in only the second class at
NASA to accept women. Subsequently, she earned her Ph.D. in mechanical/bio-
medical engineering at the University of Houston in 1983.
Prior to becoming an astronaut, Dunbar was employed as a senior research engi-
neer at Rockwell International Space Division, where she played a key role in the
development of the ceramic tiles that form the heat shield for the space shuttle,
allowing it to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. In 1978, Dunbar became a payload
officer/flight controller for NASA. She served as a guidance and navigation officer/
flight controller for the Skylab reentry mission in 1979.
Mae Jemison (1956–) 73

While an astronaut, Dunbar’s NASA technical assignments included: verification

of shuttle flight software; serving as a member of the Flight Crew Equipment Control
Board; 13 months in training in Star City, Russia for a 3-month flight on the Russian
Space Station, Mir; and Assistant Director with a focus on University Research. She
has logged more than 50 days in space.
Dunbar’s experiments in space have involved protein crystal growth; surface ten-
sion physics; and tests on muscle performance, bones, the immune system and the
cardio-pulmonary system. She received the Resnik Challenger Medal from SWE in
1992 and the IEEE Judith Resnik Award in 1993. She has been inducted into the
Women in Technology International Hall of Fame [46, 47].

Eve Sprunt (1951–)

Eve Sprunt performed the fundamental work used (1) to identify oil and gas fields
where there are naturally occurring fractures and (2) optimizing the resource recov-
ery from those fields. Her work has led to the identification of areas where natural
fractures are occurring, i.e., the identification of new oil and gas fields. With her
work on seismic waves in rock, geologists can now predict the direction of the natu-
ral fractures in the rock in these fields. Once they know the direction of the natural
fractures, they can fracture the rock to optimize resource recovery; the technique
known today as hydraulic fracturing (also commonly called fracking).
Sprunt holds a B.S. and an M.S. in earth and planetary science, both from MIT.
and a Ph.D. in geophysics from Stanford University as well as 23 patents. Sprunt’s
career was spent at Mobil Oil Corporation and Chevron Corporation. She served as
the 2006 President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and was the first woman
to serve on the SPE board. During her term, she championed working with the
United Nations to write common global standards for reserves and resource classi-
fications. Sprunt founded and served as second president of the Society of Core
Analysts (now the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts). Sprunt led
industry-wide collaborations that demonstrated the need for better quality control
and the 10-year-long effort that revised the American Petroleum Institute’s
Recommended Practices for Core Analysis.
Sprunt received the 2013 SWE Achievement Award “For game-changing con-
tributions to the petroleum industry, to the science and practice of geoscience and
petroleum engineering, and to the advancement of women engineers” [48, 49].

Mae Jemison (1956–)

The first African-American female astronaut, Mae Jemison received her B.S. in
chemical engineering from Stanford University. She then entered medical school at
Cornell University Medical College. Jemison has global interests, studying in
Kenya and Cuba during her medical school years and working at a refugee camp in
74 5 Bridges to the Future

Thailand. Those global interests were enhanced during the 2 years she spent in the
Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, after she obtained her M.D.
She pursued her dream of becoming an astronaut when she was selected as a
member of the class of 1987. Jemison went into space in 1992 aboard the Endeavor
where she conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness on herself
and her fellow crew members. Upon her return, Jemison remarked on how much
women and other minorities can contribute if only given the opportunity. She has
received many awards and recognitions.
Jemison taught at Dartmouth College and has established her own company, ded-
icated to encouraging a love of science in students and bringing advanced technol-
ogy throughout the world. She has also established an international science camp.
Jemison said “I want to make sure we use all our talent, not just 25 %. Don't let
anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your
place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the
life you want to live” [50, 51].

Kristina Johnson (1957–)

Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015 and elected to the
National Academy of Engineering in 2016, Dr. Kristina Johnson is the CEO of Cube
Hydro, a company that advises in clean energy policy and invests in, develops and
operates hydroelectric power facilities across North America. Prior to Enduring
Hydro, Johnson served as Under Secretary of Energy at the U.S. Department of
Energy. As Under Secretary, Dr. Johnson was responsible for unifying and manag-
ing a broad $10.5 billion Energy and Environment portfolio, including an additional
$37 billion in energy and environment investments from the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Johnson served as Provost and
Vice President for Academic Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, the largest
research university in the U.S. From 1999 to 2007, Dr. Johnson was Dean of the
Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, the first woman to serve in that
position. Before joining Duke University, Dr. Johnson served as a professor of elec-
trical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she
was a leader in interdisciplinary research on optoelectronics, a field that melds light
with electronics. Her research and projects provided the University of Colorado
approximately $42 million in grants and contracts. Her research and teaching
included holography, which is the creation of three-dimensional images with light
wave interference patterns, along with optical and signal processing, liquid crystal
electro-optics and affixing a novel variety of liquid crystals to silicon to create new
types of miniature displays and computer monitors.
In 1994, Johnson helped found the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute
Center for Excellence in Optoelectronics. She also co-founded several companies
including ColorLink Inc., KAJ, LLC, and Southeast Techinventures (STI). ColorLink
Alma Martinez Fallon (1958–) 75

makes color components for high definition television and other image projection
devices utilizing the polarization, or vibrational, states of light. KAJ, LLC is an
intellectual property licensing company that assists new firms using technology pio-
neered at the Optoelectronics Computing Systems Center at the University of
Colorado at Boulder. STI is a technology acceleration company for commercializing
intellectual property developed at Duke and other universities in the Southeast U.S.
In addition to her academic career, Johnson is an inventor and entrepreneur,
holding over 45 U.S. patents (119 U.S. and international patents) and co-founder of
several successful companies. Johnson has received numerous recognitions for her
contributions to the field of engineering, entrepreneurship and innovation, including
the John Fritz Medal, considered the highest award made in the engineering profes-
sion [49, 52].

Alma Martinez Fallon (1958–)

As Director of Supply Chain Procurement at Newport News Shipbuilding a Division

of Huntington Ingalls Industries, Alma Martinez Fallon is responsible for approxi-
mately a $1 billion a year in material, subcontracting and service requirements for
all programs at Newport News and joint procurement with General Dynamics
Electric Boat.
Fallon began her career at Newport News in 1985 as a co-op student and then
began her full-time career in 1988 as an engineer in the SEAWOLF Piping
Engineering section of the SEAWOLF Engineering Division. She progressed to a
Senior Engineer, Engineering Supervisor supporting numerous engineering design
projects in the area of auxiliary piping and machinery systems for the Commercial
Ship and Aircraft Carrier Programs. She was responsible for the planning for the
George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier, the CVN-21 aircraft carrier, the Virginia Class
construction programs and SAP/ERP3 for Steel Fabrication and Assembly. Prior to
her appointment to Director, Fallon served as Hull Structure Construction
Superintendent where she led the advanced planning, project management, design/
build, and steel construction and assembly for the FORD Class.
Alma received a B. S. in Mechanical Engineering from Old Dominion University
and a Master of Engineering Management from The George Washington University.
She was born in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to the U.S. at the age of
nine. She is bilingual with English as her second language.
A visible leader in the engineering profession, Fallon has a long and dedicated
record of achievement in public policy and outreach. She was the 2004 national
president of SWE and is a senior life member of the organization. She is an American
Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Fellow and she served on the ASME
Board of Governors as a Governor (the first Hispanic so elected in ASME’s history).
Fallon also served as the 2007 Chair of the American Association of Engineering
Societies.
76 5 Bridges to the Future

She is the recipient of many awards including selection as one of America’s lead-
ing minority women in technology by Hispanic Engineer and Information
Technology magazine. Fallon was the Society Hispanic Professional Engineers
2004 Junipero Serra Award recipient. In 2012, she was the recipient of the Inside
Business 2012 Women in Business Achievement Award [49, 53].

Ellen Ochoa (1958–)

The first female Hispanic astronaut, electrical engineer Ellen Ochoa became the
Director of the Johnson Space Center in 2012. Selected for the astronaut program in
1990, she served on her first mission in 1993 aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
She was in space on four separate occasions, logging over 1000 hours in flight.
Ochoa grew up in California, completing her undergraduate education at San
Diego State University, earning a B.S. in physics and her graduate work in electrical
engineering at Stanford University. She investigated optical systems for information
processing and received three patents for an optical inspection system, an optical
object recognition method, and a method for noise removal in images.
Ochoa is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including NASA’s
Outstanding Leadership Award and the Harvard Foundation Science Award [54, 55].

Sherita Ceasar (1959–)

Growing up in the “projects” (of the Chicago Housing Authority) may not have been
the most auspicious start to an engineering career for Sherita Ceasar, but in high
school, Ceasar heard about engineering while at a career fair. When the representa-
tive from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) asked her if she wanted to make
a lot of money after college, she was hooked. She attended an outreach program for
minorities after her junior year in high school and placed second in mechanical apti-
tude out of 250 students. Ceasar was destined to study mechanical engineering.
After a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from IIT, Ceasar embarked on
a career that has since led her to being the highest-ranking black female engineer
within Motorola’s Paging Products Group and is today a Vice President at Comcast.
As Director of Manufacturing at Motorola’s Boynton Beach, Florida facility,
Ceasar led an organization of nearly 2000 manufacturing associates, engineers, and
managers in the manufacture of alphanumeric and numeric pagers. The facility was
named by Arthur D. Little as the “Best of the Best in Manufacturing Management”
and Ceasar represented Motorola at Arthur D. Little’s “1995 Best of the Best
Colloquium on Manufacturing Management.”
A past National President of SWE, Ceasar received the 1997 Women of Color in
Technology Award and has been inducted into the Women in Technology International
Hall of Fame, in addition to numerous other awards. Ceasar personal motto is “I am
a committed empowering leader who will make a difference in the world” [56, 57].
Sandra Begay-Campbell (1963–) 77

Padmasree Warrior (1961–)

Through 2015, the Strategic Advisor to Cisco (and formerly the Chief Technology
Officer), Padmasree Warrior is trained as a chemical engineer, holding degrees from
the Indian Institute of Technology and Cornell University. When she served as
Senior Vice President, Engineering, Warrior was responsible for a wide variety of
technologies including cloud computing core switching, and security. Before join-
ing Cisco, Warrior was Executive Vice President and CTO at Motorola. During her
time there, Motorola received the 2004 National Medal of Technology.
The recipient of numerous awards and recognition, Warrior was named by Forbes
as one of “The World’s 100 Most Power Women” for 2 years in a row. She has been
inducted into the Women in Information Technology International Hall of Fame and
named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the “50 Women to Watch.”
A strong advocate for women in the tech industry, Warrior wrote in the Huffington
Post “the fact that you’re different and that you’re noticed, because there are few of
us in the tech industry, is something you can leverage as an advantage.” She has
advised women to take opportunities as they arise and not second guess their own
capabilities. Warrior also advised women to focus on work-life integration as
opposed to work-life balance [58, 59].

Kalpana Chawla (1962–2003)

The first Indian-American woman astronaut and the first Indian-American woman
in space, Dr. Kalpana Chawla received her undergraduate aeronautical engineering
education in India and her graduate aerospace engineering education in the U.S. Her
early work was in the area of powered-lift computational fluid dynamics. She
researched complex air flows around aircraft.
Selected for the astronaut program in 1994, her training began in 1995. She flew
aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1997 whose mission was a Microgravity Payload
flight that focused on experiments designed to study how the weightless environment
of space affects various physical processes, and on observations of the Sun’s outer
atmospheric layers. Her second flight aboard Columbia, which was a research and
science mission involving 80 experiments, ended in tragedy in 2003 [60].

Sandra Begay-Campbell (1963–)

A Principal Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories, Sandra

Begay-Campbell leads the laboratories’ efforts to assist Native American tribes with
their renewable energy endeavors. A civil engineering graduate of the University of
New Mexico and Stanford University, Begay-Campbell grew up in the Navajo
Nation fascinated by math and science and trying to figure out how things work.
78 5 Bridges to the Future

The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Begay-Campbell says she enjoys
working in the renewable energy field because “it’s wide open and cutting edge.”
She has been very active in the American Indian Science and Engineering Society
and was the first woman to chair its Board of Directors [61–63].

Kristi Anseth (1968–)

A pioneer in the field of biomedical engineering, a Distinguished Professor at the

University of Colorado and a member of both the National Academy of Engineering
and the National Academy of Sciences, Kristi Anseth is a leading researcher and
inventor in the fields of biomaterials and regenerative medicine. Her work has dem-
onstrated that by controlling the chemical, biological, and physical properties of
biomaterials, fundamental cell biology issues can be determined and the informa-
tion so obtained can be used to regenerate tissue. The results of her work mean that
broken bones heal faster and diseased heart valves can be replaced. Anseth’s semi-
nal work has revolutionized the field resulting in biomaterials that are tissue substi-
tutes that are able to restore, maintain, or improve tissue function.
The first engineer to be named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator,
Anseth has been named one of the “100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era.” A
dedicated teacher who mentors and promotes the careers of her students, Anseth
serves on federal review panels including those at the National Institutes of Health.
Her degrees are in chemical engineering from Purdue University and the University
of Colorado [64–66].

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Index

0-9, and Symbols C

1700s, 2 Cadettes, 29–32
1800s, 2–6, 13, 15, 47 Ceasar, Sherita, 76
1920s, 6, 17, 18, 25–27, 37–39 Century, 1–3, 5–7, 10, 13–15, 17–19, 44, 47,
1930s, 21, 26–28, 43, 55–56 62–64, 66
1940s, 28–30, 34, 36, 38, 51, 53, 68–69 Chawla, Kalpana, 77
1950s, 33, 34, 37, 38, 43–46, 48, 51, 53, 55 Chemistry, 2, 7, 14, 16, 18, 19, 30, 36, 40, 51,
1960s, 33, 45, 47–49, 51 64, 68
1970s, 49, 50, 54, 56, 66, 71, 72 Chilton, Mary-Dell, 68
1980s, 38, 40, 54, 59–60, 72 Civil Rights Act – Title VII, 49, 50
1990s, 55, 60, 61, 76 Civil War, 3–6, 18
Clark, Yvonne, 55
Clarke, Edith, 16, 35, 37–38
A Cleopatra, 7
Advancement of Women and Minorities in Cobb, Jewel Plummer, 54–55
Science, 61 Computer, 10, 51–54, 62–64, 71, 74
Affirmative action, 49, 59, 60
Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, 8–9
Amendment, 48–50 D
American Institute of Mining Engineers de Forest Barney, Nora Stanton Blatch, 22
(AIME), 15, 16, 18 de Planque, Gail, 70
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Dennis, Olive, 38
15, 16, 22, 34, 39, 65 Dresselhaus, Mildred S., 55–56
Americans, 3, 16, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 59–61, 72 Dunbar, Bonnie, 72–73
Anseth, Kristi, 78

E
B Early Twentieth Century, 17–18
Bassi, Laura, 8 Eaves, Elsie, 16, 26, 30, 38–40
Baum, Eleanor, 68–69 Education, 3–9, 13–15, 18, 19, 21, 25, 27, 28,
Begay-Campbell, Sandra, 77–78 30, 31, 33, 41, 44–48, 50, 52–54,
Biotechnology, 63, 68 59–62, 67–69, 71, 76, 77
Brill, Yvonne, 53 Emily Warren Roebling, 69

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2017 83

J.S. Tietjen, Engineering Women: Re-visioning Women’s Scientific Achievements
and Impacts, Women in Engineering and Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40800-2
84 Index

Energy, 35, 36, 49, 51, 55, 56, 65, 66, 70, 74, K
77, 78 Key Historical Women, 6
Engineer, 1, 2, 10, 13–15, 19, 22, 26, 30, 33, Key Women of this Period, 18, 35, 50, 66
35, 37–41, 52, 56, 61, 68, 69, 71, 72,
75–78
Engineering aides, 29–33, 35 L
Engineering education, 3, 6, 13–15, 30, 41, 53, Lamme, Bertha, 14, 21–22
62, 67, 69, 77 Logistics, 63, 65
Engineering opportunities, 50, 63–65 Lovelace, Ada Byron, 10
Engineering, Science, and Management War
Training program (ESMWT), 30
Environment, 19, 59, 60, 65, 66, 74, 77 M
Equal, 5, 40, 44, 46, 48, 49, 52, 59, 60, 70 MacGill, Elsie, 40
Equal Pay Act, 48, 50 Materials Science and Photonics, 64
Establishment of Women in Engineering Member, 3, 8, 9, 15–18, 21, 22, 32, 34, 36–40, 44,
Programs, 61 46, 48, 52, 53, 55, 56, 67, 68, 72–75, 78
Estrin, Thelma, 53–54 Military, 1, 2, 25, 29, 32, 67
Minority Women in Engineering, 61–62
Miriam the Alchemist, 2, 6
F
Faculty, 3, 19, 28, 32, 33, 37, 54–56, 67, 68, 71
Fallon, Alma Martinez, 75–76 N
Friedan, Betty, 48 Nanotechnology, 63–64
National, 15, 16, 19, 26, 34, 39, 44, 46, 47, 49,
54, 60, 61, 69, 70, 75
G National Academy of Engineering (NAE), 17,
Germain, Sophie, 9 37, 41, 53, 56, 61, 62, 68, 70, 78
Gilbreth, Lillian Moller, 36–37 National Action Council for Minorities in
Gleason, Kate, 14, 16, 20–21, 72 Engineering, Inc. (NACME), 61
Great Depression, 27–28 National Association of Minority Engineering
Griswold, Edith Judith, 20 Program Administrators (NAMEPA), 61
National Science Foundation (NSF), 46, 47
Nineteenth century, 3, 5, 13–14, 19
H Nuclear, 2, 62, 67, 70, 71
Hicks, Beatrice, 34, 40–41
Hopper, Grace Murray, 51–52
Hypatia, 2, 7 O
Ochoa, Ellen, 76
Off to Suburbia, 45–46
I Office of War Information (OWI), 29
Industrial, 2, 3, 6, 17, 18, 26, 28, 36, 37,
39, 68
Information and communication, 66 P
Information and Communications Pennington, Mary Engle, 36
Technology, 64 Physics, 2, 8, 30, 31, 40, 41, 55, 56, 70, 73, 76
Infrastructure, 34, 63, 65–66 President, 16, 18, 21, 34, 36, 38, 40, 41, 43,
45, 46, 48, 49, 52–56, 66–71, 73–77
Presidential Commission on the Status of
J Women, 48
Jackson, Shirley, 70–71 Pressman, Ada, 66–67
Jemison, Mae, 73–74 Professional, 3, 14–17, 26, 28, 30, 34, 35, 37,
Jenniches, F. Suzanne, 71–72 39, 41, 44, 47, 50, 61, 67, 68, 76
Job, 14, 17, 18, 21, 26–32, 34, 36–41, 48, 52, Program, 3, 5, 6, 15, 18, 21, 26, 29–32, 35,
53, 56, 69 45–47, 50, 52, 55, 60, 62, 68, 70, 71,
Johnson, Kristina, 74–75 75–77
Index 85

R Sonduk, Queen, 7
Research, 8, 10, 18, 25, 29, 31, 36, 37, 41, 45, Space, 33, 51–53, 72–74, 76, 77
51, 53–56, 68, 71–74, 77 Sprunt, Eve, 73
Resnik, Judith, 72, 73 Sputnik is Launched, 46–47
Revolution, 2, 3, 5 Susan Wu, Y. C. L., 56–57
Richards, Ellen Henrietta Swallow, 13, 16,
18–19
Roebling, Emily Warren, 15, 19–20 T
Ross, Mary, 52 Technology, 4, 14, 16, 21, 25, 27, 29, 31, 41,
45, 47, 49, 51–54, 56, 59–63, 69–77
Telkes, Maria, 35, 51
S Trained, 28–32, 35, 43, 47, 52, 77
Science, 2–4, 6–10, 13, 18, 19, 26, 28–30, Training, 2, 3, 13, 18, 25, 26, 29–31, 44, 46,
32–34, 36, 38, 40, 41, 43–47, 49, 52, 52, 59, 73, 77
54–56, 59–61, 63, 64, 67–71, 73, 74, Trends for the Future of Engineering, 62–63
76–78
Scientific, technical, engineering and
mathematical careers (STEM), 67 U
Sex discrimination, 49, 60 U.S. Military Academy (USMA), 3
Shirley, Donna, 69
Short History of Engineering, 1–3
Si Ling-Chi, 6 W
Society, 8, 9, 14–17, 19, 21, 22, 26, 33–37, 39, War, 18, 21, 25–30, 32–35, 39, 43–46, 49, 52
40, 43, 44, 47, 48, 51, 54–57, 62, 65, Warrior, Padmasree, 77
66, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78 Widnall, Sheila, 67–68
Society of Women Engineers (SWE), 22, 26, Women, 1–6, 8–10, 13–22, 25–29, 32–38, 40,
34–35, 37–41, 51–57, 66–69, 71–73, 41, 45, 48, 50–53, 55–57, 60–62, 66,
75, 76 68–71, 73, 75–77
Solar, 35, 51, 69 World War I, 18, 21, 25–29, 32
Somerville, Mary Fairfax, 9–10 World War II, 28–30, 32–35, 43, 46