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 offi cial 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. Profi les of engineering and scientifi c women from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century are provided. 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