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July 1963 Electronics World
Table of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
Electronics World, published May 1959
- December 1971. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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If you were to think the effort
to encourage women to join the ranks of engineers is a recent thing, you'd be wrong.
Contrary to what news media rabble-rousers want you to believe, women have long
been welcome in the engineering world. Some, admittedly, were initially as welcomed by men
into engineering as men initially were by women into nursing (and nowadays into
women's sports - ugh), but those who persisted usually
excelled. As hard as it is for social engineers to accept, evidently most women,
at least at this point in history, would rather pursue career fields other than
engineering. I have posted stories like this one from a 1963 edition of Electronics
World that beseech girls and women to pursue all the fields of science - not
just engineering. See
Making Wartime Engineers and the
National Union Radio Corporation ad in a 1945 issue of Radio Craft,
YL News and Views
in a 1953 issue of QST,
A "WAVE" in Naval Electronics in a 1957 issue of Popular Electronics,
An Avocation Becomes a Vocation in a 1943 issue of QST,
and
A Key to Radio as a Vocation in a 1936 issue of Radio Craft. There
are others. Whatever you do, though, don't read
Do You Understand Women?.
"Let's Woo the Woman Engineer"
 For the Record
Wiliam A. Stocklin, Editor
Personnel experts from industry and various Government agencies have continually
stressed our need for at least 80,000 engineering graduates a year if we are to
meet the requirements of our space-age "industrial revolution." As against this
need we are, in actual fact, graduating less than 40,000 engineers a year. If the
shortage of engineers is as critical as the President's Science Advisory Committee
says it is, then both educational institutions and industry are faced with a gigantic
task of convincing prospective students of the benefits and satisfactions to be
derived from a career in engineering.
Today the average annual salary for electronics engineers is approximately $7500
- a rather unimpressive figure considering the educational investment an engineering
degree represents. Although the going rate of $5200 for electronics engineering
graduates embarking on their first jobs is above that for many other professions,
this lure has apparently failed to attract potential students. In the minds of most
would-be engineers their profession has lost status during the past few years. Where,
say, ten years ago it was considered to be the No. 2 career, directly behind the
legal profession, today it is running a poor third, with the medical profession
moving into the top spot.
Recent interviews with high-school graduates planning their college careers indicate
all too clearly that they are fully aware of these facts and that their opinions
of the engineering profession are far from flattering. One remark heard time and
again was: "We don't like the idea of getting cornered behind a slide-rule." It
is obvious that these students visualize some future for themselves more satisfying
and grander than that of being an engineer. Although educators and vocational counselors
have attempted to combat this attitude by presenting facts about the challenges
involved and the country's need for engineers, they must have more ammunition if
they are to channel more students into engineering courses. They shouldn't have
to tackle the job alone. Industry itself must do more than it has been doing in
the past.
An interesting sidelight on this problem was touched on recently by Herbert W.
Hartley, president of Northrop Institute of Technology, in the course of a series
of talks to students in Southern California. Speaking on the subject, "Let's Woo
the Woman Engineer," Mr. Hartley suggested that if industry cannot meet its quota
of electronics engineers from among the male student body, women should be encouraged
to enter the profession. Many women work as electronics draftsmen, and there is
no reason why a mathematics - or science-oriented woman can't handle an engineering
curriculum.
C. T. Reid, director of graduate placement for Northrup, surveyed more than 200
aerospace and electronics firms on their attitudes toward hiring women engineers.
Without exception they replied that not only were they willing but eager to accept
trained women for employment in various engineering categories.
"We find that women make excellent designers," reported North American Aviation's
Space & Information Systems Division. "They have done well for us in aerodynamics,
stress analysis, and weight analysis."
Hughes Aircraft employs 80 women engineers. IBM has discovered that women perform
better than men as computer engineers and programmers. Women have also demonstrated
their competence in every other phase of computer engineering they've tackled.
One of the five design engineers on the "Tiros" weather satellite project was
Mrs. Sima Miluschewa of RCA's Astro-Electronics Division. One of the most attractive
and capable women you'll meet anywhere is Mrs. Marily Peck, an engineer with North
American Aviation. Jack Leadbetter, president of Associated Aero Science Laboratories,
goes so far as to say "the average woman going in for engineering is better than
the average man." Perhaps she has to be in order to compete successfully in a profession
that is predominantly male.
The Society of Women Engineers reports that out of 800,000 engineers in the United
States today, only 5000 are women. It is the consensus, however, that this situation
will change drastically before the start of the next decade. Whether or not women
will enter the engineering profession in large numbers, as has been the case in
many other countries, is problematical as the path to an engineering degree is still
a thorny one for most women. In addition to some altering of physical facilities
at what are now predominantly male engineering strongholds, it will be necessary
for educators and industry alike to change the average woman's conception of engineering
as a purely masculine career and that to follow such a profession is "unladylike."
This will take time - but once started - it is a trend that could gather momentum
- depending on how carefully the initial steps are planned
Posted September 16, 2024
(updated from original
post on 2/6/2017)
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