History of women in engineering facts for kids

Computer programmer Jeri Ellsworth at a "Maker Faire" event in 2009

The history of women in engineering tells us about the amazing journey of women in a field that designs and builds things. For a long time, engineering wasn't a formal job. So, women who had engineering skills often called themselves inventors. For example, during the Islamic Golden Age (from the 700s to the 1400s), many Muslim women were inventors and engineers. One famous example is Al-ʻIjliyyah, who made special tools for studying stars in the 900s.

In the 1800s, women doing engineering work often studied math or science. But many couldn't get a proper engineering degree. Think of Ada Lovelace or Hertha Marks Ayrton. However, some women did break through! Rita de Morais Sarmento was one of the first women in Europe to get an engineering degree in 1896. In the United States, Elizabeth Bragg (1876) and Julia Morgan (1894) earned their engineering degrees from the University of California, Berkeley even earlier.

In the early 1900s, a few women started to join engineering programs. But many people saw them as unusual. Alice Perry (1906), Cécile Butticaz (1907), Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (1912), and Nina Cameron Graham (1912) were some of the first European women to graduate with engineering degrees. When the United States joined World War II, there was a big need for engineers. Many men went to fight, leaving jobs open. Companies like General Electric (GE) and Curtiss-Wright started training programs for women. The Curtiss-Wright program, for example, taught over 600 women about aircraft design.

Kathleen McNulty (1921–2006) was chosen to be one of the first programmers for the ENIAC, an early computer. Many universities slowly started to let women into all their engineering courses. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had its first female graduate, Ellen Swallow Richards, in 1873. The number of engineering degrees given to women in the U.S. grew a lot between 1980 and 1994.

More recently, the Afghan Girls Robotics Team made headlines in 2017. These girls, aged 12 to 18, loved engineering and robotics. They took part in a global competition in Washington, D.C. They faced many challenges but showed great national pride. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, the team members were worried. Luckily, nine of them safely reached Qatar. They were offered scholarships to study robotics and engineering at top universities.

What is Engineering?

The words "engineer" and "engineering" have been around for a long time. But they got their modern meaning in the 1800s. An engineer uses science, math, and practical knowledge. They design and build things like structures, machines, and systems. Some main types of engineering include civil engineering (for buildings and bridges), mechanical engineering (for machines), and computer engineering (for computers).

Early Inventors

Before engineering became a formal job, women with engineering skills were often known as inventors.

Tabitha Babbit (1784–1853?) was an American toolmaker. She invented the first circular saw.
Sarah Guppy (1770–1852) was an Englishwoman. She patented a design for bridge foundations.
Henrietta Vansittart (1833–1883) was a naval engineer. She held patents for a special ship propeller. She was the first woman to write and draw diagrams for a scientific article.
Mary Dixon Kies (1752–1837) was the first American woman to get a patent. This was in 1809 for her method of weaving straw.

1800s: Women Enter Technical Jobs

The Industrial Revolution in the 1800s brought new jobs. These jobs used technology and were open to both men and women.

Sarah Bagley (1806–?) worked to improve conditions for women mill workers. She was also one of the first women to work as a telegraph operator.
Mathilde Fibiger (1830–1872) was a Danish writer and women's rights supporter. She became a telegraph operator in the 1860s.

Engineering started to be taught in schools in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The École Polytechnique in France opened in 1794. It taught military and civil engineering. West Point Military Academy in the U.S. started a similar program in 1819. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) began teaching civil engineering in 1828. But none of these schools allowed women students at first.

In the 1800s, women doing engineering work often had strong math or science training.

Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) was Lord Byron's daughter. She studied math at home. She worked with Charles Babbage on his "analytical engine." Many call her the "first computer programmer."
Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854–1923) was a British engineer and inventor. She helped develop electric arc lighting. She studied math at Cambridge in 1880. But women could only get certificates, not degrees, at that time. She later got a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of London in 1881.
Mary Engle Pennington (1872–1952) was an American chemist and refrigeration engineer. She finished her chemistry degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1892. But she also received only a certificate.

Elizabeth Bragg and Julia Morgan were the first women to earn engineering degrees. They graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in civil engineering (1876) and mechanical engineering (1894). In the same year as Morgan, Bertha Lamme also graduated from Ohio State University in mechanical engineering.

Mary Hegeler Carus was the first woman to graduate in engineering from the University of Michigan in 1882. She then studied in Germany. She was not allowed to officially graduate there because she was a woman. She later ran her family's zinc company, which was once the largest in the U.S.

Rita de Morais Sarmento (1872–1931) was the first woman to get an engineering degree in Europe. She studied civil engineering in Portugal and finished in 1894. Two years later, she was certified to work as an engineer. She was the first fully recognized female engineer in Europe. Lydia Weld was the first woman to graduate in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She started her studies in 1898. She later became the second woman member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Other women engineers in this period included three Danish women: Agnes Klingberg, Betzy Meyer, and Julie Arenholt. They graduated between 1897 and 1901.

Women without formal engineering degrees also helped with big projects. Emily Warren Roebling managed the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. She was the first person to cross it when it opened in 1883. Her husband, the chief engineer, became ill. Emily took over his duties. She taught herself about materials, cable building, and other engineering topics.

1900s: Entering Engineering Programs

In the early 1900s, more women were allowed into engineering programs. But they were still often seen as unusual.

Early 1900s

On July 27, 1904, Maria Elisabeth Bes became the first female engineer to graduate in the Netherlands. She studied chemical engineering.
In 1906, Anna Boyksen became the first female engineering student in Germany.
Nora Stanton Blatch Barney (1883–1971) was the first woman to get a civil engineering degree from Cornell University in 1905. She worked as an engineer and inspector.
Olive Dennis (1885–1957) was the second woman to graduate from Cornell in civil engineering in 1920. She became the first "Service Engineer" for a railroad company.
Cleone Benest passed several engineering exams around 1908-1910. She started her own engineering business.
Alice Perry was one of the first formally recognized female engineers in Europe. She graduated with an engineering degree in 1908.
In 1908, Emma Strada was the first woman engineering graduate in Italy.

Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (1887–1973) faced challenges because she was a woman in science. She was rejected by a school in Romania. But in 1909, she was accepted at the Royal Academy of Technology in Berlin. She graduated in 1912 with a degree in chemical engineering. She may have been one of the first women engineers in the world.

1910s

In 1911, the Higher Women's Polytechnical Courses in St. Petersburg, Russia, became a university. By 1916, about 50 women engineers had graduated from there.
Nina Cameron Graham graduated from the University of Liverpool in 1912. She was the first British woman to qualify as an engineer.
Maria Artini graduated in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1919. She was the first female electrical engineer in Italy.
In 1914, Vera Sandberg was the only woman among 500 male students at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. She graduated in 1917, becoming Sweden's first woman engineer.
Edith Clarke, who invented a graphical calculator, was the first woman to earn an electrical engineering degree from MIT in 1918. She was also the first woman in the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
Elisa Bachofen was the first female civil engineer in Argentina. She graduated in 1918. Her sister, Esther Elena Bachofen, became the fourth in 1922.

In 1919, the first engineering society for women was started in the United Kingdom. It was called the Women's Engineering Society (WES). It still helps women in engineering today. Important founders included Katharine Parsons and her daughter Rachel Parsons.

Justicia Acuña was the first woman in Chile to become a civil engineer. She graduated in 1919. She worked for the state railway company. An award for outstanding women engineers is named after her.

Anne-Marcelle Schrameck became the first French woman engineer to graduate from a mining school in 1919. She was the only woman there for 50 years.

1920s

Juana Pereyra graduated as an "Engineer of Bridges and Roads" in Uruguay in 1920. She was one of the first female engineers in South America.
Adele Racheli was the first woman to graduate in industrial mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1920. She later opened a patent office with a female colleague.
In 1921, Sébastienne Guyot graduated in mechanics and engineering in Paris. She became an aeronautical engineer.
In 1922, Marguerite Massart became the first woman civil engineer in Belgium. She later started a successful business.
Hélène Mallebrancke was the first Belgian civil engineering graduate from the University of Ghent. She kept telecommunications working during World War Two.
Kathleen M. Butler was the first staff member for the Sydney Harbour Bridge project in Australia in 1922. She managed the project.
On June 30, 1923, Marie Schneiderová-Zubaníková became the first woman civil engineer in Czechoslovakia.
Germaine Benoit graduated in chemical engineering in 1923. She joined the Pasteur Institute.
In 1925, Annette Ashberry was the first woman elected to the UK Society of Engineers.
In 1927, Elsie Eaves was the first woman to become a full member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Martha Schneider-Bürger became the first German female civil engineer in 1927.
Greta Woxén became Sweden's first female civil engineer in 1928.

1930s

The first woman to earn a civil engineering degree in Mexico was Concepción Mendizábal Mendoza in 1930.
Rachel Shalon graduated as a structural engineer in Israel in 1930. She became the first woman engineer there. She later became a full professor.
Marcelle Lafont graduated as a chemical engineer in 1930. She worked in factories and her family business.
Yun Hao “Ruth” Feng was the first woman to get a PhD in engineering in the United States in 1931. She studied chemical engineering.
Ying Hsi Yuan trained as a civil engineer in China in the 1930s. She worked on bridge design.
In 1931, Asta Hampe got her degree in telecommunications engineering in Berlin. She worked in engineering but was fired by the Nazis for being a woman. She later became an economics professor.
Marie Louise Compernolle was the first female Flemish chemical engineer. She earned her PhD in 1932.
Sonja Lapajne Oblak became the first Slovenian woman civil engineer in 1932. She designed a unique school building.
Isabel Ebel earned her degree in aeronautical engineering at MIT in 1932. She was the first woman to graduate in that subject there. She helped plan Amelia Earhart's flights.
Hürriyet Sırmaçek graduated as Turkey's first bridge engineer in 1935. She had a long career in bridge and structural engineering.
In 1935, Gjuvara Noerieva became the first Azerbaijani woman to be a professional metallurgist.
Virginia Sink graduated as a chemical engineer in 1936. She was the first woman automotive engineer at Chrysler.
Beatriz Ghirelli was the first woman to graduate in mechanical and electrical engineering in Argentina in 1938.
In 1939, Isabel Gago was one of the first two women to graduate in chemical engineering in Portugal. She was the first woman to teach chemical engineering there.

1940s: World War II and Beyond

World War II Engineering Programs for Women

During World War II, the United States needed many engineers. Men were joining the army, and industries were making more weapons and planes. The U.S. government started science and engineering courses open to women.

Private companies also had programs. GE offered on-the-job training for women with math and physics degrees. The Curtiss-Wright Engineering Program trained "Curtiss-Wright Cadettes." This program partnered with several universities. It taught over 600 women about aircraft design and production in ten months.

Thelma Estrin (1924–2014) later became a leader in computer science. She took an engineering assistant course in 1942. She went on to earn several degrees.

Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha graduated in electrical engineering in 1943. She became India's first woman engineer.

Lois Graham (1925–2013) graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1946. She was the first woman in the U.S. to get a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering.

Postwar Era

In 1943, the U.S. Army started a secret project. They wanted to build an electronic computer to calculate artillery tables. This project became the ENIAC.

Before ENIAC, women trained in math did these calculations by hand. In 1945, Kathleen McNulty (1921–2006) was chosen as one of the first ENIAC programmers. Other original programmers included Frances Spence, Betty Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, and Betty Jean Jennings. Some of these women later worked on the UNIVAC, one of the first commercial computers.

Rebeca Uribe Bone became the first woman to graduate in engineering in Colombia in 1945. She worked as a chemical engineer. Her sister, Guillermina Uribe Bone, became the first woman civil engineer in Colombia in 1948.
In 1946, Hattie Scott Peterson earned a civil engineering degree. She is believed to be the first African-American woman to do so.
In 1947, Mary Thompson Irvine became the first woman to be a chartered member of the Institution of Structural Engineers in the UK.
Ángela Alessio Robles was a Mexican civil engineer and city planner. She became Director General of Planning for Mexico City in the 1940s and 1950s. She also oversaw the development of the Macroplaza in Monterrey, one of the largest city squares in the world.

1950s

Nohemy Chaverra was the first Afro-Colombian woman to graduate with a chemical engineering degree in Colombia in 1951.
In 1950, Marianna Sankiewicz-Budzyńska graduated with a master's degree in electrical engineering. She became an academic and influenced electrophonics in Poland.
Elfriede Tungl was the first woman in Austria to earn a doctorate in civil engineering in 1950.
In 1952, Maria Wanda Jastrzębska earned a master's degree in electronics. She set up early computer labs.
Ila Ghose was West Bengal's first woman mechanical engineer. She graduated in 1951.
Sudhira Das was the first woman engineer in the Indian state of Odisha in the early 1950s.
California Odha Zertuche Díaz was the first woman to graduate from the UNAM School of Engineering in Mexico in 1954. She helped develop the water system in Ensenada.
Dorothy Hatfield became the first female engineering apprentice in the UK in 1956. Janet Gulland was the first female graduate apprentice at the same company in 1958.
In 1957, Araceli Sánchez Urquijo became the first female civil engineer to work in Spain. She was trained in hydropower engineering in Moscow.
Evelyna Bloem Souto was the only woman in the first civil engineering class at the University of São Paulo in Brazil in 1957.
From 1958, Laurel van der Wal was a project engineer for space launches. She was named the "1960 Woman of the Year in Science."

Premala Sivaprakasapillai Sivasegaram became the first female engineer of Sri Lanka after studying in the 1960s.

In 1962, Steve Shirley started a software company called Freelance Programmers. She wanted to create jobs for women with families. Most of her first 300 employees were women. She even used the name "Steve" to help her in the male-dominated business world. Her team helped program the Concorde's flight recorder.

The first International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists was held in New York City in 1964. It was organized by the US Society of Women Engineers. Women from 35 countries attended. These conferences have continued every few years since then.

1950s–1970s: Cold War and More Opportunities

The Cold War and the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union created a big need for engineers. Many engineering schools in the U.S. that only admitted men started to allow women.

RPI began admitting women in the 1940s.
Georgia Tech started admitting women engineering students in 1952. By 1968, women could join all courses there.
MIT had its first female graduate in 1873, Ellen Swallow Richards. But few women studied engineering there until the 1960s. After a women's dormitory was built in 1964, more women enrolled. Female professors like Mildred Dresselhaus and Sheila Widnall also helped promote engineering education for women.

Civil engineer P.K. Thressia became India's first female chief engineer (for the state of Kerala) in 1971.

The École Polytechnique in Paris started admitting women students in 1972.

Margaret Hamilton made important contributions to computer and aerospace engineering in the 1970s. She was the director of software engineering for the Apollo 11 mission. She wrote the computer code for the spacecraft.

1980s–1990s: More Women, But a Puzzle in Computer Science

As more engineering programs opened to women, the number of women studying engineering grew a lot. The number of engineering degrees given to women in the U.S. increased by 45 percent between 1980 and 1994.

However, something interesting happened in computer science. From 1984 to 1994, the number of women graduating with computer science degrees actually went down by 23 percent. This was called "The incredible shrinking pipeline." Some reasons for this included:

Computer games were often designed for boys only.
People thought computer science was only for "hacker/nerd/antisocial" types.
There was some unfair treatment (gender discrimination) in computing.
There weren't enough female role models at universities.

Statistics on Women in Engineering

United States

Studies show that the percentage of engineering degrees given to women in the U.S. steadily increased. It went from 0.4 percent in 1966 to a high of 20.9 percent in 2002. It then dropped slightly to 18.5 percent in 2008.

However, the trend in computer science continued. The percentage of degrees in math and computer science given to women reached its highest point in 1985 at 39.5 percent. It then went down to 25.3 percent in 2008.

The percentage of master's degrees in engineering for women grew from 0.6 percent in 1966 to 22.9 percent in 2008. For doctoral degrees, it increased from 0.3 percent to 21.5 percent in the same period.

Australia

Only about 9.6% of engineers in Australia are women. The number of women in engineering degree courses has stayed around 14% since the 1990s.

United Kingdom

The percentage of female engineering graduates in the UK rose from 7 percent in 1984 to 14.6 percent in 2018. But the number of women working as engineers in industry is still low, around 11.8%. This is the lowest percentage in the European Union.

Groups That Help Women in Engineering

Many groups work to encourage and support women in engineering. Some of these include:

Alpha Omega Epsilon
Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
Robogals
The Society of Women Engineers
Women in SET (Science, Engineering, and Technology)
Women in Technology International
Women's Engineering Society
WIE – Women in Engineering Network
WEPAN – Women in Engineering ProActive Network Inc.
WISE – Women into Science, Engineering, and Construction