At Shepherd Engineering Search, we want to celebrate Women’s National History Month by looking at the present and past contributions of female engineers to an ever-changing, exciting industry.
The trend today is to create a workforce that reflects the growing multifaceted makeup of today’s society. Research shows that a diverse workforce drive profits, as well as fostering innovative thinking. Another positive is creating an environment that welcomes those underrepresented in an industry to actualize their potential.
The following are three trailblazing women engineers of the past that have made crucial contributions to this ever-changing and dynamic field.
1) Marilyn Jorgensen Reece: The Designer of the San Diego-Santa Monica Freeway
In Marilyn Jorgensen Reece’s day, most technically gifted women were encouraged to pursue a teaching career. Reece decided to ‘reverse the trend’, so she refocused her efforts to becoming a prominent engineer of her day. Reece had a strong interest in mathematics, which drove her to pursue a career in engineering.
Reece was responsible for many breakthroughs. She was the first woman to be a Registered Civil Engineer in the State of California. Reece did not stop her trail blazing efforts with this achievement; she also designed the San Diego-Santa Monica freeway interchange in Los Angeles, CA – becoming the first female engineer to construct a freeway in California.
Commentators of the time such as Reyner Banham spoke highly of the interchange: “The Santa Monica/San Diego intersection is a work of art, both as a pattern on the map, as a monument against the sky, and as a kinetic experience as one sweeps through it.” Cited in the Los Angeles Times article That interchange you just: drove was designed by a woman, by Michelle Maltais (https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-freeway-marilyn-reece-20160311-snap-htmlstory.html).
As well as the freeway’s aesthetic looks, Reece’s main goal was to create long arcing curves. Unlike many stop-start freeways, the San Diego-Santa Monica freeway interchange curved shape enables drivers to maintain high speeds.
During Reece’s 35-year engineering career, she was responsible for a variety of projects such as the 210 Freeway through Sunland in 1975. In 1983, The City of Los Angeles recognized Reece for her noteworthy contributions. In 1991, she became a life member of the American Society of Engineers.
After she passed in 2004, the California Department of Transportation dedicated and renamed the San Diego-Santa Monica freeway interchange, ‘The Marilyn Jorgenson Reece Memorial Interchange’.
2) Mary Walton: Two innovations designed in a Brooklyn-based apartment
Mary Walton held no previous engineering qualifications. Her interest and passion in solving mechanical problems led to her to become an engineer. Walton was a boarding house owner, which could be unusual beginnings for one of the most noteworthy engineers of her time. Walton’s story coincides with the industrial revolution where middle-class workers from rural areas moved to booming cities such as New York. Together with this unparalleled growth, where factories sprang up all over the nation like monopoly hotels came the problem of increasing pollution. Rail (elevated train) networks established throughout metropolitan areas meant there was also a growing problem of noise pollution.
How Watson solved both airborne and noise pollution
Mary Walton began working on an invention in her Manhattan basement to solve the issue of airborne pollution. In approximately 1879, Walton created a way to reduce emissions before they became airborne, redirecting them into the sewage waters below ground.
Walton also worked in her engineering headquarters, her Manhattan basement, where she built a model railroad and experimented with a variety of noise dampening solutions. Walton took containers and put a small bell in each, then separately filled them up with horsehair, cotton, newspaper, and sand. She then rattled each container to identify the one that best absorbed the sound of the bell.
Then she fixed her model rails in a wooden box-structure. She first covered it with tar to weatherproof the structure, then lining it with cotton and filling it up with sand. She found that the mixture of tar, cotton, and sand worked best to reduce the sound from the nearby train tracks. A new sound proofing system was born! A more current version, based on Watson’s original design, is widely used today.
3) Emily Warren Roebling – From an Engineer’s Secretary to Project Manager – Completing the Brooklyn Bridge
Emily Warren Roebling was not a fully qualified engineer, but later demonstrated abundant qualities of an engineering trailblazer including leadership, creativity and an unshakable self-belief.
Roebling was the brains, the energy, and the strong will behind finishing building the iconic Brooklyn Bridge; a landmark piece of engineering that connected Brooklyn and Manhattan. It was also the longest suspension bridge of its time. Since its construction in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge has inspired many artistic creations, the composition of musical pieces, and projects of both architects and engineers.
Erica Wagner author of Washington Roebling: The man who built Brooklyn Bridge said that without Emily Warren Roebling’s contribution one of the nation’s most iconic bridges would not be standing today.
Emily Warren Roebling helped to transform her husband’s vision of the bridge into reality. She first began as her husband’s Secretary, making her way back and forth from the project sight, all the while reading as much as she could about civil and construction engineering.
Roebling took responsibility for managing the project including interfacing with trustees and campaigning. In addition, she eventually needed to take over the project from her husband who contracted a mystery illness. Roebling had plenty to do to complete the bridge’s construction.
She then took the role of Engineering Manager where she was responsible for negotiating supply materials, and managing construction contacts. Roebling also used her inherent lawyer-like skills to use diplomacy in arguing her case against the Mayor of New York who wanted to remove her husband from the project.
The project took 14 years to finish. During that time, Roebling had to overcome corrupt politicians, fraudulent construction contractors, and other detractors.
The project was finally completed on the May 24th-1883 with a plaque that read (at the) “Back of every great work we can find the self-sacrificing devotion of a woman.”
The efforts of the aforementioned engineers have no doubt created new possibilities for female engineers today, but we still have a long way to go to create equality in the engineering workplace. Let us look at what is happening in current workforce trends in the industry.
Positive changes ahead: more women are entering engineering
In the baby boomer generation, there were very few women engineers, let alone female university students. When female graduates entered the world of work, they faced a difficult transition. Engineering offices that now embrace a culture of diversity were not always like that.
Happily, today this is changing for the better, although there is long way to go before the industry arrives at a parity. With a rise in women graduates, and many entering the engineering industry, the pendulum is swinging towards an equilibrium.
Amanda Comunale writing for Victaulic says there is a similar pattern in the construction industry. While women working in this field are still a meager amount at 9%, the number looks like it is rising steadily.
According to national statistics from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 14.8% of women are working in civil engineering roles, with 9.4% now occupying electrical engineering positions.
Among those, supporting an increase in women entering engineering profession is NH Department of Transportation Commissioner Victoria Sheehan. Sheehan makes an important point when she says that although there has been an increase in women throughout the industry, certain disciplines such as civil engineering have fewer female engineers*.
Sheehan adds (cited in Engineering a career: More women are entering, and thriving in, a field that was once far less welcoming,by Liisa Rajalla*) “there needs to be a concentrated effort over the next 10-20 years to ensure students are encouraged to continue to pursue engineering careers, positively affecting the entire industry*.”
Trailblazers of the past that opened the way for engineers of today
At Shepherd Search Group, we keep a close eye on trends in the engineering industry. This Woman’s National History Month, we wanted to trace the path of how women trailblazing engineers of the past that have created a launchpad for today’s professionals.
It is remarkable to think that the likes of Emily Warren Roebling who had no engineering qualifications yet provided contributions that inspire the engineers of today. Without her, there would be no Brooklyn Bridge. Marry Watson and Marilyn Jorgensen Reece contributions are just as influential.
The good news is that with increasing amounts of women entering all fields of engineering, we are sure that when we look back there will be even more trailblazing efforts to praise.
(* Engineering a career: More women are entering, and thriving in, a field that was once far less welcoming,by Liisa Rajala)
