Women in Engineering: Pioneers and Trailblazers [Paperback]

Margaret E. Layne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2009

Women in Engineering: Pioneers and Trailblazers introduces the visionary women who opened the door for today's female engineers. Pioneers such as Emily Roebling, Kate Gleason, Edith Clarke, and Katherine Stinson come to life in this anthology of essays, articles, lectures, and reports. In this book, the significant contributions women have made to engineering, in areas as diverse as construction management, environmental protection, and industrial efficiency, are finally placed in their proper historical context. Studies on women engineers in the 1920s and in the years following World War II, underscore how far women have progressed in engineering, and how far they have to go. With selections that span a century of historical and social analysis, Women in Engineering: Pioneers and Trailblazers and its companion volume, Women in Engineering: Professional Life, present a range of perspectives on women in engineering that will be of interest to historians, engineers, educators, and students. Ranking: Very High.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In most books examining the progress of an underrepresented group, there are two key aspects: an analysis of the state of affairs at the present time and tributes to those who have paved the way to bring things as far as they ve already come. These two companion volumes on women in engineering take those fundamental elements in turn. Three chapters in Pioneers and Trailblazers look back as far as the late 1800s in surveying engineering education and the presence of women in engineering. The main section of the book contains chapters by various authors on notable pioneers. These include Emily Roebling, who was instrumental in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, and Kate Gleason, the first woman to qualify for full membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Also spotlighted are the ENIAC girls, who played an important role in early computing technology. The chapters draw on a variety of engineering publications, some of them going back more than 80 years, and it is interesting to see how pioneers were written about in their own time. Similarly, the Professional Life volume draws together perspectives both old and new on what it means to be a woman in the engineering field, and the treatment ranges from career advice to social and cultural issues. It includes reports by the Women s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor from the 1940s and 1950s, one of which recommends that women engineering students explore fields that naturally appeal to women, such as consumer products, medical and biological fields, food technology, and technical writing. Both books are edited by Margaret E. Layne, P.E., M.ASCE, an experienced professional engineer who served for a year as an asce congressional fellow. Since 2003 she has served as the director of a program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University designed to increase the number of female faculty members in science and engineering. By helping to bring these books on women in engineering into being, Layne is furthering that mission in another important way. --This review appeared in the October 2009 (vol.79, issue 10) of Civil Engineering. Copyright 2009 by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

About the Author

Margaret E. Layne, P.E., is project director of Advance VT, a program created at Virginia Tech to increase the participation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers (June 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0784409803
• ISBN-13: 978-0784409800
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,732,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)