10 Influential Women in Engineering

Driven by their passion for science and technology, these women are shattering the glass ceiling in STEM and pushing the envelope of engineering.

Author: Chitra Sethi

animation of woman in glasses with various objects hovering above her: car, robot, dna sequence, planet, spreadsheet, etc.

One hundred and forty years ago, on February 16, 1880, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers was founded by leading U.S. industrialists, educators, technical journalists, designers, shipbuilders, military engineers, and inventors. All men.
 
It wasn’t until 1918, when Kate Gleason was unanimously elected to ASME as its first woman member. In 1998, the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology became the first engineering school in the country to be named for a woman. Her impact on engineering, especially for women, continues to be recognized.
 
Other notable women engineers including Nancy D. Fitzroy (ASME’s first woman president), Yvonne C. Brill, Edith Clarke, Sally Ride, Mary Winston Jackson, Dorothy Lee, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, and several others were trailblazers who entered the profession of engineering at a time when opportunities for women were limited.

Further Reading: In the Shadow of Apollo 11: 11 Women Engineers

Today, women make up about 47 percent of the overall workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, but are still underrepresented in science and engineering occupations. Only 14 percent of engineers are women.
 
While the number of women engineers in the workforce has been consistently growing over the last few decades, obstacles still remain for women working in STEM fields today. Women drop off at every stage throughout the STEM journey, whether in elementary school, high school, university, or in the workplace.
 
Still, there is a gradual transformation taking place. There has been an increasing effort across the U.S. to boost the number of female students to pursue STEM careers.
 
The Girl Scouts, for example, has reorganized its educational model and created four pillars of content to include STEM. Girls Who Code runs programs to fix gender imbalance by teaching girls computer programming, while Technovation empowers girls through engineering and technology to become innovators and leaders. 

Learn More about Kate Gleason

“While the gender gap is not a simple problem to solve, I think we can start by engaging girls in STEM from a very young age,” said Kathy de Paolo, a technologist and vice president of engineering at The Walt Disney Company. “We also need to build inclusive programs throughout the education process—and then as companies, we need to recruit and build a culture that nurtures and retains top female talent.” 
 
Engineering companies—including General Motors, Lockheed Martin, and Siemens—are supporting STEM initiatives, programs, and measures to encourage a change of culture in diversity and inclusion.
 
Professional societies such as the Society of Women Engineers are providing mentors and sponsors to help women progress in their careers. ASME also offers networking events for women in engineering, providing them opportunity to hear from women leaders and meet peers.
 
More women are advancing in the engineering field.
 
There are many influential women—educators, innovators, leaders—who are not only breaking the stereotype but are also role models and mentors for the next generation of female engineers.
 
Here we spotlight 10 women engineers who are transforming the fields of bioengineering, energy, robotics, and manufacturing and paving the way for other women to follow.

Read more here: https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/10-influential-women-in-engineering

By UNLV Career Services
UNLV Career Services