The
Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and be recognized for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders. SWE has over 17,000 members in nearly 100 professional sections and 300 student sections throughout the United States of America.
Antecedents
The SWE Archives contain a series of letters from the
Elsie EavesElsie Eaves was the first female associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a founding member of the American Association of Cost Engineers .- Life :Elsie Eavese earned her civil engineering degree at the University of Colorado at...
Papers, (bequeathed to the Society), which document how in 1919, a group of women at the University of Colorado attempted to organize a women's engineering society. This group included Lou Alta Melton, Hilda Counts and
Elsie EavesElsie Eaves was the first female associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a founding member of the American Association of Cost Engineers .- Life :Elsie Eavese earned her civil engineering degree at the University of Colorado at...
. These young women wrote letters to engineering schools across the nation, asking for information on women engineering students and graduates.
This was a time of triumph for women. This was a time of suffragettes and of the shedding of the corsets for the "braless" look. It was a time for a new morality and for the introduction of the first Equal Rights Amendment (which failed). It was a time of post-war prosperity, the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, gangsterism and stock market speculation. One would think there were a lot of women engineers out there willing to join Alta and Hilda and Elsie in their effort to form a women's engineering society.
They found 63 women enrolled in engineering at 20 universities. Their hearts jumped when they found 43 of those at the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university, the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, and one of the top public universities in the world...
alone! From a letter that Hazel Quick wrote to Hilda Counts, we know that the Michigan women had organized a group in 1914, which they called the T-Square Society, although no one was sure (even then) if it was a business, honorary or social organization.
Many negative responses were received from schools which did not admit women into their engineering programs. From the
University of North CarolinaThe University of North Carolina system includes all sixteen public four-year universities in North Carolina, United States and one public residential high school. While the system's Board of Governors oversees general system policy, the campuses are classified as separate institutions and are...
, Thorndike Saville, associate Professor of Sanitary Engineering, sent this gem: "I would state that we have not now, have never had, and do not expect to have in the near future, any women students registered in our engineering department".
Some responses were supportive of women in engineering, but not of a separate society. Many of the women contacted as a result of the inquiries wrote about their support for such an organization. Besides the Hazel Quick letter from Michigan, there was a reply from Alice Goff, expressing her support of the idea of a society for women in engineering and architecture, "Undoubtedly an organization of such a nature would be of great benefit to all members, especially to those just entering the profession."
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History
Though the Society of Women Engineers did not become a formal organization until 1950, its origins are in the late 1940s when shortages of men due to
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
provided the new opportunities for women to pursue employment in engineering.
FemaleFemale is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces mobile ova .- Defining Characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
student groups at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia,
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
,
Cooper UnionThe Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a privately-funded college in Downtown Manhattan, New York City. Cooper Union, founded in 1859, established a radical new model of American higher education...
and
City College of New YorkThe City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
began forming local meetings and
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activities.
On the weekend of May 27, 1950, about fifty women representing the four original sections of the Society of Women Engineers, New York City, Philadelphia,
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, and
BostonBoston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...
met for the first National Convention at Green Engineering Camp of the Cooper Union in
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
to elect the first
presidentPresident is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. Etymologically, a "president" is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
of SWE,
Dr. Beatrice A. HicksBeatrice Alice Hicks was an outstanding engineer, helping to find the Society of Women Engineers in 1950.Born in Orange, New Jersey, she attended Orange High School...
.
It wasn't until 1960s after
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
launched Sputnik and interest in technological research and development intensified that many engineering schools began admitting women. Membership in SWE doubled to 1,200 and SWE moved its headquarters to the United Engineering Center in New York City.
Over the next decade, an increasing number of young women chose engineering as a profession, but few were able to rise to management-level positions. SWE inaugurated a series of conferences (dubbed the Henniker Conferences
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED127523&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED127523after the meeting site in New Hampshire) on the status of women in engineering and in 1973, signed an agreement with the National Society of Professional Engineers in hopes of recruiting a larger percentage of working women and students to its ranks.
At the same time, SWE increasingly became involved in the spirit and activities of the larger women's movement. In 1972, a number of representatives from women's scientific and technical committees and societies (including SWE) met to form an alliance and discuss equity for women in science and engineering. This inaugural meeting eventually led to the formation of the Federation of Organizations of Professional Women (FOPW). In addition, SWE's Council resolved in 1973 to endorse ratification of the
Equal Rights AmendmentThe Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which was intended to guarantee that equal rights under any federal, state, or local law could not be denied on account of sex...
, and a few years later, resolved not to hold national conventions in non-ERA-ratified states. In 1973, SWE signed an agreement with the
National Society of Professional EngineersThe National Society of Professional Engineers is a professional engineering organization in the United States. From their press releases:...
to recruit more women engineers and students as members.
By 1982, the Society had swelled to 13,000 graduate and student members spread out in 250 sections across the country. The Council of Section Representatives, which in partnership with an Executive Committee had governed the Society since 1959, had become so large SWE adopted a regionalization plan designed to bring the leadership closer to the membership. Today, SWE has over 17,000 student, graduate, and corporate members, and continues its mission as a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational service organization.
Mission
Its
mission statementA mission statement is a formal short written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and guide decision-making...
, adopted in 1986, is "Stimulate women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life, demonstrate the value of
diversityMulticulturalism is the acceptance of multiple ethnic cultures, for practical reasons and/or for the sake of diversity and applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g. schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities or nations...
."
Objectives
- Inform young women, their parents, counselors, and the general public, of the qualifications and achievements of women engineers and the opportunities open to them.
- Assist women in readying themselves for a return to active work after temporary retirement.
- Serve as a center of information on women in engineering.
- Encourage women engineers to attain high levels of education and professional achievement.
Programs
SWE offers support at all levels, from
K-12K–12 is a designation for the sum of primary and secondary education...
outreach programs and collegiate sections to
professionalA professional is a member of a vocation founded upon specialised educational training.The word professional traditionally means a person who has obtained a degree in a professional field...
development in the workplace.
Collegiate sections are organized at the local, regional, and national levels, and have annual regional conferences and an annual national conference.
Scholarships
One method that SWE uses to provide support for women in engineering is through scholarships. SWE offers scholarships for incoming freshmen, undergraduate students, and graduate students in various fields of engineering.
External links
Society of Women Engineers Regional Sections
An example of a collegiate section:
Sources