Countless women have contributed to engineering over the years. Among the most amazing advances was the creation of computers by people who did math on paper and engineering with pencils. Women were responsible for many in computer engineering.
Women in Engineering:
Edith Clarke
By Katelin Kukk
Born in 1883, Howard County, Maryland, Edith Clarke made monumental changes to the field of engineering.
Edith studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin and was hired that following summer by AT&T to be a “human computer”. She went on to MIT and received her master’s in electrical engineering, becoming the first woman to earn a degree in that field. After graduating, General Electric hired her and shortly after, Edith filed a patent for a graphical calculator she invented. It was incredibly useful for solving electric power transmission line problems.
Among her dozens of amazing accomplishments, she also became the first woman to present a paper before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. After many more papers and achievements, she retired in 1956 and passed away in 1959.
