Edith Clarke
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER (1883 - 1959)
The first ever professional electrical engineer
in the US, Clarke studied mathematics and
astronomy at Vassar College. However, her
real passion was elsewhere and in 1919 she
achieved a M.S in Electrical Engineering from
the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. She invented an early model of a
graphing calculator and was hired by General
Electric. She became known for her
knowledge in power engineering, contributing
to the design of the Hoover Dam, writing a
book used as the basis for electrical
engineering education. She also became the
first female professor of engineering in the
U.S. Her gender didn't hold her back, saying
that all that mattered was that she could do
her job well. In 2015, over fifty years after her
death, she was added to the National
Inventors Hall of Fame, for her trailblazing
work.
Emily Warren Roebling
FIELD ENGINEER (1843 - 1903)
Roebling was married to the chief engineer of the
world-famous Brooklyn Bridge. When he fell ill it
was Emily that stepped in, at first just relaying
information from her husband to his assistants,
but as time went on she began to build on her
prior interest in the bridge's construction,
studying it intensively. For over a decade Emily
and her husband, who remained quite ill, worked
together on the construction of the bridge, with
Emily undertaking many of the Chief Engineer's
jobs, unheard of for a lady in the 1800s. As
recognition for all she had done, Emily was the
first to cross the completed bridge. After this she
turned her attention to fighting for women's
causes and gained her law degree from New
York University. A firm believer in women's right.
she railed against discrimination until her death,
arguing that for too long women had been
dismissed by society.
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