Expert Women

For many centuries, women were subjected to work as housewives or complete ordinary tasks in submission to the men in authority over their lives. All over the world, women usually had little to say about their interests, thoughts, or desires. In some cases, even the wealthiest women were refused the freedom to become educated in a man’s field of study because the idea was simply not acceptable at the time. Despite the adversity that many women faced early on, their perseverance slowly started an exponential growth of passion among women to become properly educated, pursue careers, and benefit society with their insightful contributions and expertise. In the field of science and engineering, women were always a minority and they still hold that position to this day. People often assume that women in science and engineering are a new phenomenon, but this is a fallacy. By examining the roles women have played throughout history in the fields of science and engineering we can gain more insight as to how women began as a minority, and grew to gain equal respect among the community of scientists and engineers, as well as inspired other women to attain these same positions.

From historical records, the first mention of the term engineering appeared over one thousand years ago. Available archives do not specify the gender of the engineers, their work, or life, only that they existed. Surprisingly, documentation of an organization that included female engineers does not appear until the year 1724 when the first craft guild was formed in North America. This group consisted of one-hundred and fifty outstanding architects, building contractors, and structural engineers. Men and women entering the construction field through the Carpenters’ Company were offered encouragement, education, and support. During a time period where women wore huge dresses, gossiped, and drank tea, it was shocking to think that a woman could become a scientist or an engineer. Today most people naturally accept women who do the work of a man and respect them for continuing to maintain their femininity.

During the height of the enlightenment, both men and women were encouraged to pursue knowledge. This freedom caused many women to experiment with learning. The period of enlightenment caused one particular French noblewoman, Ѐmilie du Châtelet, to write about mathematics and physics. Her lover, Voltaire, a popular author at the time, learned about most of his science from this passionate woman. Following in the footsteps of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Sir Isaac Newton, Ѐmilie extensively documented her ideas and discoveries. Through printed books, pamphlets, hand-copied letters, and informal readings, Ѐmilie added to the beauty of science until her early death in 1749.

Unfamiliar to the overwhelming feelings of lustful love and attraction, Madame Marie Thérèse Geoffrin was married off to a very old and distinguished man at the innocent age of fourteen. As an adult, she vastly contributed to enabling the communication and development of science during the enlightenment. She owned the best-known Parisian salon of the 1750’s. Madame Geoffrin’s Salon, as everyone called it, was the gathering place of countless intellectuals who were captivated by new theories and possibilities. Famous men in science like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Raynal joined others to discuss new phenomena. Even during the peak of enlightenment, which embraced change, many men resented and provokingly criticized the power of women’s salons. Despite the indignation from some men, intellectual life and movements of reform sprang up all over Europe due to the gatherings.

Over a century later in Britain, five women enrolled at Cambridge University in 1869. When the news caught wind of this, some influential doctors declared that the brain of the average female was a whopping one-hundred and fifty grams lighter than the brain of a man. Women attending universities were warned that if they were too diligent in their studies, they would become infertile by killing their own womb from exhaustion. During the same year when the Senate of Cambridge University held a vote to determine if the women attending the college should be allowed official membership, a riot broke out and the meeting ended in chaos. Ultimately, women’s right prevailed and the vote was in favor of official membership for all women. This encouraged more women to pursue getting a proper education.

After almost three hundred years from the inception of engineering, the first North American woman to graduate with a degree in engineering was Elizabeth Bragg. In 1876, she graduated from the University of California with an accredited degree in civil engineering. The trend of women going into majors that were dominated by men started to bloom even before the day of her graduation. Elizabeth was simply another flame that was added to the fire. Little is known about her career, but the University of California likes to brag about her. To this day, she holds the position of being the first graduated woman engineer in North America.

World renown for their daring and sacrificial addition to science, the dynamic duo, Madame Marie and Pierre Curie were a significant monument of change. Born on the crisp autumn morning of November 7, 1867, Madame Marie appeared to be an ordinary girl like her older sisters. However, her devoted fascination for physics, chemistry, and mathematics revealed that she was not ordinary, but extraordinary. After being awarded a degree in physics in 1893, she met Pierre Curie at the Sorbonne who was an instructor there at that time. Merely on the grounds that she was a woman, she was rejected a position at Kraków University. This caused her to return to Paris where she married Pierre in 1895. Together, the two scientists were so enraptured by their work, they rarely left their office. It was evident that they shared a deep bond and were truly in love. After discovering the element radium, Madame Marie and Pierre did not understand the damage that it was doing to their bodies. Weak from the radiation, Pierre fell and died instantly when his skull was crushed from a wagon that careless drove over his fragile body. Due to radiation exposure, Madame Marie slowly died at the age of sixty-six. Madame Marie was not only the first woman to be nominated and awarded a Nobel Prize, but she was the very first person to share two Nobel Prizes. She was the first woman professor at the Sorbonne, and ultimately, in honor the achievements of her and Pierre, their remains were transferred to be preserved in the Paris Panthéon. Madame Marie became the first, and remains the one and only, woman to be honored in such high regards.

A year after the marriage of the Curies, the first female student that The University of Wisconsin enrolled in 1896 failed to graduate due to the adversity she faced because of her gender. However, thirty years later, one woman finally graduated from the college with an engineering degree. Her name was Emily Hahn. Born in the small farm town of St. Louis, Missouri, her friends and family gave her the nickname, “Mickey.” When she was fifteen years old, her whole family moved to Chicago to begin a new life. As a young woman, she was not allowed to take a chemistry class at the University of Wisconsin. This sudden interest in chemistry and refusal caused her to change her major from English to Engineering. Emily was a woman who looked at a challenged and made a plan to defeat it, and accomplished her goal. Despite the disdain from the administration and students at the college, she graduated in 1926 with a degree in Mining Engineering. Eventually she procured a career in journalism and then later became a novelist where she wrote about her personal experiences and the lives of others.

Even though they never had the privilege of meeting face to face, Emily Hahn was alive during the same time as Lillian Moller Gilbreth, who was deemed, “The First Lady of Engineering.” Even though everyone clearly knows that she is not the “first” she holds the dignified position of representing the “First Lady” because of her impressive accomplishments. In the year 1900, she completed a bachelor degree from the University of California, and then in 1902 a masters degree. Even though she finished her Ph. D, she could not receive the degree because of residency complications. In the meantime, a handsome and brilliant gentleman by the name of Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr., had his eye on Lillian. They met while researching for a project about applied motion. It was love at first sight for the two intellectuals and Frank proposed to Lillian and she lovingly accepted. On a bright and cheery fall morning on October 19, 1904, they exchanged wedding vows and became husband and wife. The next year she had her first child, a beautiful baby girl. After birthing eight children, she persevered and simultaneously earned a Ph. D fifteen years later from Brown University. After her twelfth child, she stopped conceiving in 1922 and decided that it was time to be more focused on her ideas. Her legacy not only lives on through her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, but through the work that she contributed to science and engineering. It was remarkable for her to set an outstanding example of being a respectable mother along with her innovative work of being an engineer.

About the same time Lillian was a young child, a future expert was born in the friendly city of Cincinnati, Ohio, Olive Clio Hazlett lived there with her family until they moved to the busy streets of Boston, Massachusetts. Since she was a bright individual, she received a bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College in 1912. Then she attended the University of Chicago where she completed a master's degree in 1913 and a Ph.D. in 1915. Olive’s love and devotion was exclusively for mathematics. To pursue her research of algebra, she quit her position at Mount Holyoke and moved to the University of Illinois. There she remained as professor for the conclusion of her professional career. Severely unhappy with her situation, she suffered from mental illnesses and took some time to herself. When she came back from leave, the students noticed a change in her behavior and were frightened of her. After suffering from more mental breakdowns and being placed on disability leave, she was not permitted to return to her teaching position. For the rest of her lonely life, she continued to work on mathematics while she lived in a home for the disabled in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Since there are many women who claim to be the very first woman engineer in the world, it’s difficult to determine who is telling the truth. Nevertheless, each and every woman during the pioneering days played an important role to the moment of women in the industry of science and engineering. If it wasn’t for honorable men who believed that everyone was created equal, supported the rights of women, and opened the doors of opportunity, there probably would not be any women scientists or engineers. Men often take the blame for making it difficult for women to succeed. It is very important to know that only some men were this way - definitely not all. Women who are wise and successful realize and apply the fact that they need men in order to survive in the world. North America and Europe were not the only countries dealing with this dramatic change, it was a worldwide movement.

Even though the number of women in science and engineering when it began was few, it was more than one which was better than none. Even though there is strength in numbers, it takes only one to start those numbers, and more ones to make hundreds. Women like Madame Marie, Ѐmilie du Châtelet, Emily Hahn, and countless others, will be remembered forever because of their bold efforts to feed the fire of their passion for science and engineering. Their lives clearly demonstrate the result of hard work – accomplishment. For that aspect alone, we owe them our sincere respect. These women faced rejection and disgrace. However, nothing ever put them out of their place. They stood their ground, took the blows, and kept moving like it was a part of the game. In the beginning of this revolution, the progress was slow, but now there is an exponential increase of women scientists and engineers all over the world.

Despite the criticism that women used to frequently face, they were still offered golden nuggets of encouragement in ways they never expected. For example, Emily Hahn was once hesitantly told by her lab partner, "you ain't so dumb!" after weeks of noticing her tremendous intelligence. Madame Marie was presented with awards and monuments, but her everlasting source of endurance came from her beloved husband, Pierre Curie. Voltaire attributed his scientific discoveries to his lover, Ѐmilie du Châtelet, who bloomed with her fervor for science and undoubtedly gave off an addictive fragrance. Olive Clio Hazlett was mentioned by her students for her quick wit along with her impressive discoveries about mathematics. In any situation, encouragement can keep a person on a path of accomplishing their ambitions which may one day bless countless individuals. For these women, it brought unity to their desire for other women to be educated as scientists and engineers.

Scientists and engineers might not always have it together, but together they have it all. When like-minded people are able to work together and accomplish great things, society is ultimately benefited. Regardless of the distress that women in science and engineering encountered, their determination prevailed to help create an undying passion for women to be educated, hold a career, and to ameliorate other experts with their knowledge. By examining some women scientists and engineers from history, we were able to gather a better understanding that women are and were a minority in the field of science and engineering. The emotional and mental anguish that these women endured was truly an excellent example to all women who desire to choose their future freely. In today’s culture, women are free to explore their personal interests, thoughts, or desires. Event the poorest women are given the opportunity to become their very best due to benevolent individuals. Women around the world are forever indebted to the lives of the first female scientists and engineers who delighted in the achievable challenge to change the world.

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