Repository: UIHistories Project: SWE - Proceedings of the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists [PAGE 304]

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SYRIAN WOMEN AS ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS by Raja Jalaleddin Women Engineers Section The Union of Syrian Engineering Societies Syrian Arab Republic The achievement of Arab Syrian women in engineering and the physical sciences is a remarkable one. This will become obvious when Syria is compared with some other highly developed countries. The new engineering and scientific evolution took place in Syria soon after the Second World War, when the country became independent. It is highly significant to know that the first Faculty of Engineering of the Syrian University was established in 1946, and the premises of that Faculty were formerly the military barracks of foreign troops. The pioneering engineering class which met in 1946 included two women students. The School of Engineering at that time had a civil engineering course only and so in 1950, after four years of study, the first two Syrian women civil engineers were graduated. These first two women engineers were enthusiastically received and now occupy leading positions as heads of civil engineering government departments. Engineering is a highly respected profession in Syria. I am not going too far when I say that in my country engineering is now the most priviledged of all professions. In government service, engineers are the most highly paid. Their social status is very high. Thus engineering in Syria does not suffer from the status complex which is prevalent in some other countries. For this reason the proportion of girls in the Faculty of Engineering has increased year after year, although this Faculty did*not offer other than Civil Engineering until 1958-59. In 1958-59 the Department of Architectural Engineering was established, and soon the proportion of enrollment of girls increased appreciably. The ratio of women students in architectural engineering at Aleppo University is 207o, and in the Department of Civil Engineering the ratio is about 8%. In other fields of science the proportion is reasonably good. The ratio of women who were awarded degrees in physics was 347» in the academic year 1961-62, and the ratio of women who were awarded degrees in mathematics in the same year was 2870. I may add that outside engineering and the physical sciences, pharmacy rates high, where the ratio of women students is 37% and in medicine the ratio is 107o. As a Syrian woman engineer, I am proud of my profession, and my country is giving much importance to the role of women in this great profession. In the Universities of Aleppo and Damascus there are now three faculties of engineering and architecture, with a relatively high proportion of women students. In government service, women engineers in Syria are occupying important positions.

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