At one point in history, not so long ago, the idea of a woman being an engineer was laughable. With engineering being primarily a science and maths based degree, and with the general consensus of women being that they were best left to the home and children, the two just didn’t fit. In fact, women were typically not even admitted into engineering programs at all.

It really is amazing to see how far women have come, especially in the last century or so, considering where we’ve come from. In all walks of life, and many different career paths, women have had to fight to be recognised as contributing members, and fought hard. Because of the countless women before us, women are beginning to prove that they are just as competent, smart, and worthy of the title, engineer, as any man.

Early women engineers

Shortage has always been a moment of change. Shortage means the need for something and not enough of it, therefore something needs to change to make it happen. Shortage in engineers meant that the world needed to pull engineers from the unusual places, and at the time of World War 1 and World War 2, the shortage of engineers meant women had the best chance at infiltrating the man’s world of science and maths.

While women had informally been engineers and builders for a long time, the 20th century finally broke the barrier of formal recognition and showed the first woman graduate from the United States with an engineering degree. Despite Nora’s incredible success as an engineer, she still wasn’t recognised by her male colleagues as a valuable member of the engineering world.

But, as the World Wars dawned and the male engineers were pulled off to war, engineers were needed at home, and women were available. At first, women were used as technicians, metal fabrication workers, and basic labourers. They didn’t have the training in engineering that men had, so they were left to the lower jobs. Many women were charged with tasks like making lifting straps, or welding airplane parts together.

As both wars progressed, however, it became more and more apparent that New Zealand, and other countries around the world, were going to need to temporarily replace their male engineers altogether while they were fighting. Training was eventually developed for women, and thus dawned the beginning of women being common in the engineering world.

Women and science and maths

Despite their apparent reputation as housewives and child rearers only, women have excelled in science and maths for generations. In reality, if women had been allowed the chance to test their science and maths aptitude since the beginning of time, they would have more than impressed their male counterparts.

Now that we’ve finally given women the opportunity to even attempt a degree in engineering, we can start to see the bigger picture of women’s ability to excel in maths and science. Over the last several decades, different tests and studies have shown that men and women score pretty much the same on science and maths aptitude tests.

The main reason why men tend to flood the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, is because of the preconceived notion that they are explicitly better at those subjects. Women have stayed away from those fields because of the same reason, and that they believe they’re better suited to communication, administration, and empathetic roles. Again, this just simply isn’t true, and women have just as much of the ability to excel in STEM subjects.

Noteworthy women in engineering

The Brooklyn bridge, the beginnings of Bluetooth technology, and windshield wipers all have one thing in common that you can probably guess, considering the context of this article. That commonality is women, and they all had a serious role in the invention and creation of these products.

Emily Roebling, after dealing with the tragic death of her father-in-law as well as her sick and failing in health husband, took up both of their work and began delegating and overseeing the work for the Brooklyn Bridge. While her husband was meant to be completing the project, but was confined by his sickness, Emily continued on the work and led the project to its success and opening.  

The idea of Bluetooth technology was originally thought up by Hedy Lamarr, who created the frequency-hopping spread spectrum theory to help with the World War II. The technology at the time helped guide missiles through radio frequency, but eventually became widely used in many types of modern technology, including Bluetooth.

When it comes to practicality, women have always been the winners. This is why Mary Anderson realised a common problem with the automobiles of the early 1900’s, and invented the windshield wiper. Despite not being taken seriously and unable to sell her invention to anyone, as many other women inventors and engineers of their time had to deal with, Mary persisted, and was later credited with the invention of the wiper.

How to keep women in engineering

One of the biggest problems facing women in engineering is the same problem that they’ve dealt with since the beginning of engineering. Women are still not recognised across the board as strong in science and maths, and are continuously not paid equally for the same work. Besides that, because there are still less women in STEM fields, new women graduates have less women role models and female bosses in senior positions to look up to.

To keep women in engineering, and to interest more young women in the profession, awareness needs to start young. Getting young women excited about STEM fields and targeting both young men and women equally as potential engineer candidates is a good start. Creating more programs for young women to be leaders in the STEM fields is an even better one.

This is just but a tiny snapshot of the history of women in engineering, their contributions, and what their future looks like. The impact that women have had in the field, and continue to have, goes well beyond what we’ve written here. That fact alone is what makes the women in engineering so exciting. Even with countless setbacks and cultural insistence that women are less than, their relentless persistence and faith will propel them closer and closer to evening the score and getting recognised for their genius, their skill, and their ability to be incredible engineers.