Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2017
This book presents a short overview of women's access to engineering education in the US and short biographies of some high-achieving women in a variety of engineering areas.
This book's structure is great - first it introduces the challenges that women faced at a specific time period and then brings in the bios of women who despite everything managed to become engineers and thrive at their work.
The historical view is fascinating, especially as it shows, how for women's technical education wars were a good thing and they facilitated social change since women had to step in to fill the gaps that were left by men going to war. What distinguishes this book about women in engineering though, is that although it tells of the past when women were rarely accepted to study engineering or work as an engineer, it isn't full of stories of discrimination and sexism. Yes, it is a sad part of the history, but the large number of fascinating biographical sketches of the women in engineering brings to mind the attitude that if they could swim against the current in those conditions, then we're living at a great time for female engineers.
The women whose short biographies are presented in the book include electrical, mechanical, chemical and biological engineers and even female astronauts with engineering backgrounds.
Labels: book review, women engineers, women in STEM