Repository: UIHistories Project: SWE - News Clippings Book [PAGE 6]

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A woman can be almost as much at home with a slide rule as she is with her tube of lipstick, according to Alicia Hart's report on women engineers. It's another NEWS feature aimed at women's interests.

Cleveland

Jan. 5, 1955

Needed: More Women Engineers

BY ALICIA HART NEA Staff Correspondent W A S H I N G T O N — (NEA) — If your daughter is a mathematical whiz and can handle a slide rule as deftly as any of the boys in her class, then there's no reason why she can't become an engineer. Here is one field where a gal doesn't have to take a back seat to the stronger sex if she's bright and on the ball. There's a big demand in government and private industry for female engineers, according to a recent Department of Labor survey. And the salaries in this business definitely put the ladies in the class A bracket. Starting incomes range between $2500 and $3000, and with five years' experience the average woman engineer earns at least $5000 a year. Some make far more. Last June's crop of engineering graduates fell 30,000 short of those needed by industry and the armed forces. A scant 30 women received degrees compared to roughly 20,000 men. Today there are only 3600 women engineers with professional training or equivalent ex- Miss Emma Barth of Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa., checks construction of a generator against her design. perience, and they c o m p r i s e about 1.2 per cent of the total girl to try and tackle engineer- census indicates their medium employment in the field. ing. You've got to be smart or age is 31 years. This makes them you'll flunk. ' seven years younger than the "TVTOMEN engineers are in the "But brains aren't everything," average male engineer. same boat as women doc- she is quick to point out. "An Furthermore, many of the lady tors were 50 years ago," says engineering degree doesn't auto- wizards can catch the eye of a Katharine Stinson, president of matically guarantee a bright fu- man, as well as compute. A good the Society of Women Engineers. ture. There are some weird char- example is pretty Lucille Pieti "Girls just aren't being made acters who think they should be- who is a mechanical engineer in aware of the opportunities in en- come the president of a company the Research Department of the gineering, and a lot of them are just because they can work a Chrysler Corporation in Detroit, majoring in basic engineering slide rule. Besides having tech- Mich. subjects such as chemistry, math- nical ability, you have to be able A variety of jobs are open to ematics and physics." to get along with people." women engineers. Aircraft comMiss Stinson is Chief of the Miss Stinson is acquainted with panies, automobile industries, Specification Division of the Civil scores of women engineers, and chemical and electronics manuAeronautics Authority. A nice she maintains they are no differ- facturers are all anxious to hire looking brunette with a slight ent from anyone else. "Why, competent women. southern drawl, she was the first when we had our convention a Government officials feel womwoman to nail down an engineer- year ago, a lot of people came en engineers are needed to boling degree at North Carolina just to see what we looked like, ster permanent manpower r e University. That was back in and they certainly were disap- sources in this critically impor1941. pointed. We're just ordinary tant profession. "They weren't too happy to people. A lot of the women are And in case of war, they would have me there," she laughs, "but married and have children." be essential. According to the they had to make the best of it. limited information that is availOf course, I was surrounded by TT'S a sure thing you won't find able, Russia presently has more hundreds of men, which, I should any old fuddy-duddies among women engineers than any other mention, is a poor reason for any women engineers, for the 1950 nation, says Miss Stinson.

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