Society of Women Engineers Collection
Papers, 1918-1993
(Bulk Dates: 1950-1993)
Approx. 120 linear feet
Organization History
The origins of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) lie in student groups organized at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia and Cooper Union and City College of New York in New York City in the late 1940s. Increased defense spending and a shortage of men during World War II had provided unprecedented educational and employment opportunities for women engineers. These early efforts were encouraged by pioneers like time and motion study expert Dr. Lillian Gilbreth, Alice Goff and Hilda Counts Edgecomb.
On May 27, 1950, about fifty women representing the four original districts or sections - metropolitan New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C., and Boston - attended the first "national convention" of the Society of Women Engineers at Green Engineering Camp of the Cooper Union in New Jersey and elected Dr. Beatrice A. Hicks president. Over the next three years, the Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles sections were chartered, and in 1957 the SWE Archives was established.
Even though there was a shortage of engineers in the 1950s, it wasn't until the 1960s, after Sputnik had intensified the United States government's commitment to technological research and development, that engineering schools began opening their doors to women; SWE membership doubled to 1,200 and the organization moved its headquarters into the newly constructed United Engineering Center.
Over the next decade, an increasing number of young women chose engineering as a profession, but few were able to rise to management-level positions. SWE inaugurated a series of conferences (dubbed the Henniker Conferences after the meeting site in New Hampshire) on the status of women in engineering and in 1973, signed an agreement with the National Society of Professional Engineers in hopes of recruiting a larger percentage of working women and students to its ranks. By 1982, the organization had swelled to 13,000 graduate and student members spread out in 250 sections across the country. The Council of Section Representatives, which in partnership with an Executive Committee had governed the Society since 1959, had become so large SWE adopted a regionalization plan designed to bring the leadership closer to the membership.
Scope and Content
Throughout its history, the Society's major thrust has been on career guidance, using conferences, scholarships, awards and other programs to encourage women to enter or return to the engineering profession and to attain high levels of educational and professional achievement; it has sought to publicize the role of women in engineering, to place them in engineering jobs and to promote them in industry and professional circles; it has served as a center of information on women in engineering; and it has allied itself with other organizations to promote equal rights for women.
The papers of the Society of Women Engineers include, correspondence, minutes, reports, organizational publications, legal and financial records, statistics, conference material, speeches, biographies, articles and clippings and other material documenting the history of SWE and of women in engineering. The documents are arranged numerically according to the SWE Archives cataloging system.
Important Subjects
Discrimination in Employment-United States
Equal pay for equal work-United States
Engineering
Engineering-Societies
Engineering-Vocational guidance
Engineering students-United States
Engineers
ERA-United States
Federation of Organizations for |
Professional Women
Lillian Moller Gilbreth
Beatrice A. Hicks
Grace Murray Hopper
International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists
Women-Employment-United States
Women-Societies and Clubs-United States
Women engineering students
Women engineers
Women in engineering
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Important Correspondents
Lillian Moller Gilbreth
Arminta Harness
Beatrice A. Hicks
Barbara Krohn
Naomi McAfee
Ada Pressman
Paula Wells
Non-manuscript Material
A few photographs received with the collection have been placed in the Archives Audiovisual Collection.
For More Information about the collection please contact Deborah Rice, 313-577-4024
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