The History of Women in Engineering
For decades, men dominated the engineering industry. Throughout the nineteenth century, less than 1% of the engineering workforce consisted of women due to lack of educational opportunities. However, with the booming job growth stemming from the Industrial Revolution,
women began to see more opportunities to gain formal training. As mechanical and structural industries continued to broaden, interests in specialized areas grew significantly. With this new growth, a demand for engineering professions (especially in the automotive industry) skyrocketed. In response, universities created undergraduate and graduate programs that targeted these popular areas. As more programs opened up, women began entering higher education to pursue engineering degrees.
Timeline of the Fight for Women’s Suffrage
Suffrage is defined as the right to vote in public, political elections, and referendums, and for quite a long time, women did not have that right because they were thought to take care of the home and children, leaving them no place in politics (or that’s what the men thought).
ᐧ 1648- Margaret Brent (an unmarried woman with property and an English immigrant to the colony of Maryland) asked for the right to vote and is denied by the colonial assembly.
ᐧ 1756- Lydia Taft is the first woman (by proxy of her husband) to vote in colonial America after becoming a recent widow to her husband Josiah Taft.
ᐧ 1847- The first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. Over 300 men and women attended the convention, and 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments.
