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Recognizing the contributions of engineering's "founding mothers" and celebrating their legacy
Engineering was an exclusive men's club until the late 1800s, when a few pioneering women defied convention and braved discrimination, rejection, and hostility to study and practice the discipline. Despite numerous obstacles, and often with little support from their families and teachers, these highly gifted women, drawn by engineering's intellectual and social challenges, made their mark and paved the way for others.
March is Women's History Month, and in commemoration of the annual event, this article examines the progress women have made in U.S. engineering, and profiles some of the field's female pioneers.
Earliest Pioneers
When the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education (later named the American Society for Engineering Education) formed in 1893, only three women had ever received an engineers still managed to make their mark during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Emily Warren Roebling
The Brooklyn Bridge might not have been built had it not been for Emily Warren Roebling. Most history books cite her father-in-law John Roebling and her husband Washington Roebling as the bridge's builders. Early into construction in 1872, however, collapsing bridge timbers crushed John Roebling's legs, leaving him incapacitated. Soon after, an illness paralyzed Washington Roebling. With both men out of commission, Emily Warren Roebling took over. Under her husband's guidance, Emily had studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction. She spent the next 11 years supervising the bridge's construction.
The Brooklyn Bridge opened to great fanfare in May 1883. The names of John Roebling, Washington Roebling, and Emily Warren Roebling are inscribed on the structure as its builders.
Kate Gleason
One of the first women to formally study engineering in the United States, Kate Gleason is revered as the leading spirit of all women engineers. She began studying the field as an apprentice engineer with her father at the tender age of 11.
Seven years later in 1884, Gleason entered Cornell University as the first of the "Sibley Sues," a nickname given to female students in Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering. Cornell was the first university in the eastern United States to admit women, and Gleason was the first...