In 1845, President Eliphalet Nott brought William Mitchell Gillespie to Union to teach courses in
civil engineering.
One-hundred twenty five years later, the College began admitting women as full-time undergraduates.
Since these two beginnings, approximately 400 women have graduated with engineering degrees.
Over the summer, we talked with eight women who were part of both of those beginnings. They discussed their feelings about Union, their experiences as women in a traditionally-male profession, and such difficulties as balancing work and family.
YOU'RE A GIRL … YOU SHOULD CHOOSE SOMETHING ELSE
When Lisa Freed Ackerman '86 told the head of her high school guidance department (a woman) that she wanted to be an engineer, she was told that girls didn't become engineers and she should pick something else.
Both Ackerman and her father, who is an engineer, were infuriated by the advice. “I was pretty good in math, and I knew that I wanted to be in a creative field,” she says. So when it came time to visit colleges, she talked with Frank
Griggs, then an engineering professor and chair of the civil engineering department at Union, who encouraged her.
She decided to come to Union, and she did well, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in civil engineering and winning several awards, including the Warner King and Kirchenbaum Prizes for engineering and the Bailey Prize for outstanding contributions to the College. Today, she is a civil engineer and landscape architect at HNTB Corporation in Boston.
Reacting to her experience of being told that girls don't become engineers, she devotes a great deal of time to the American Society of Civil Engineers Committee on Equal Opportunity Programs. Through outreach programs, she coordinates visits to schools for fellow engineers in an attempt to spark an interest in engineering careers among women and minority students.
“There's a need for engineers to do this,” Ackerman says. “So few women and minorities are encouraged to go into engineering. We tell them what engineering is all about. We have to let them know what it is and that girls can do it.”
Girls, of course, can do it, but it can be more difficult for them because of a lack of encouragement (or, in Ackerman's case, plain old discouragement) and traditional viewpoints and attitudes that they face.
Richard Kenyon, professor of mechanical engineering and dean of engineering at Union, describes the tradition of engineering as based on the original West Point model-“rigorous and demanding, no nonsense. It was white, male, and full of a separate-the-men-from-the-boys approach.”
Kenyon says that during the past twenty-five years this mentality has changed dramatically. And he adds that the academic world has seemed to adjust better than industry to women in
the field.
YOU WANT TO BE AN ENGINEER? PROVE IT
A sentiment expressed by nearly all of the women we talked with was the feeling of having to prove themselves in varying degrees to their professors, their classmates, their employers and co-workers, and even their families.
Certainly, proving oneself is part of any job, but some of the women felt that as a woman there was more pressure to do so.
Jane Webb '83, a mechanical engineer, says, “As a woman you had to show that you knew what you were doing and that you should be there.”
Webb felt this pressure in the classroom and at her first job with the Sperry Company. “But once you get over that hurdle-and it is higher for women-you are treated the same.”
Kenyon says that when women first started entering engineering in larger numbers twenty-five years ago, there was a real desire among them to prove themselves. “They were
fighters. They were real pioneers, and they had to be,” he says.
Today, he continues, it is usually very difficult to tell the difference between men and women in the classroom. “Many of us have worked hard-we have bent over backwards-not to make these distinctions.”
Laura Cassidy Rabenold '89 says that by the time she enrolled in the electrical engineering program, many women had paved the way, and being one of only a few women in
a classroom wasn't even noticeable most of the time.
Rabenold, who is an electronics engineer at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI., adds that a lot of older women have broken the ground for younger women in the work world as well. For the most part, she says, being a woman in this so-called man's world is not that much of issue, and she finds her career to be quite enjoyable.
Still, she occasionally encounters some older male engineers who don't believe that women should be in engineering. In those cases, Rabenold says, they either patronize or refuse to deal with the women.
Ackerman describes the academic atmosphere at Union as “sex blind” and adds that “the same help was given to both men and women. It didn't matter in classes. We were all encouraged and the support was there.”
In the work world, Ackerman has encountered much of the
same fair treatment, and she considers herself lucky. “But you have to play the game,” she says. “You have to be able to talk to the men. If you go out in the field in a skirt and high heels, they're not going to take you seriously. In the world of engineering, I can hold my own against the guys. Women today don't expect special treatment, and they don't want it.”
Laura Masailo-Connors graduated in 1979 with a degree in
industrial economics (engineering combined with mathematics and economics). She says she had something to prove to her family. “My grandfather, who worked at General Electric, was the real patriarch of the family. I
was the first woman to graduate from a four year college, and I wanted to be able to say, `I can do this.”'
She earned her degree while spending up to forty hours a week as a manager for men's varsity sports teams, a resident assistant, and a dining hall worker.
And Masailo-Connors has continued to prove herself as she has made her way up the corporate ladder. She began at GE in Chicago in the technical marketing training program. In her first six weeks, direct labor went on strike. Wearing steeltoed boots and a hard hat, Masailo-Connors crossed the picket line everyday. “I proved that I could get down and dirty with them,” she says. “And it was a marvelous experience.”
Currently, Masailo-Connors is the director of change management for a major business re-enginnering initiative at UNUM Life Insurance Company in Portland, Maine. Although there are several women in executive positions, Masailo-Connors still sees a gender gap in equal pay for equal work. And, she adds, it can be difficult to be a woman in the corporate world for other reasons as well-“I get accused for being too emotional sometimes.”
Comments like “What's a pretty girl like you going into engineering for?” did not discourage Kathleen Taylor Beausoleil '87. In the classroom, she says she was never discriminated against in any way.
And in her career, Beausoleil feels that being a woman has been advantageous.
Beausoleil is an estimating engineer for Turner Construction, where she has worked since she graduated with degrees in civil and mechanical engineering. “If there are few women in engineering, there are even fewer in construction,” she says.
Architects and others that Beausoleil works with are often pleasantly surprised by her, she says. “They Eke the
fact that I am not a run-of-the-mill engineer.”
Beausoleil is certain that gender has not been an adverse factor in her progression through Turner's male dominated management structure. Of the five college recruits hired by Turner for the Connecticut office in 1987, she has received promotions on par with or exceeding those of her four male counterparts.
Andrea Inco Slater '81, who earned a degree in biology and
mechanical engineering, feels that being a woman in the engineering classroom posed challenges. The male students were receptive, she says, but the professors in the earliest days of women at Union seemed to have a harder time adjusting. She says she often felt as if she were in the “spotlight” in her classes and that she had to do more to prove she belonged.
Her first experience in the work world was also challenging. Her manager was skeptical of her and her abilities. “I did the job and I did it well,” she says. “My manager complimented me, but he couldn't even say my name.”
Today, she is a program manager at Meadox Medicals
in New Jersey-the only female manager at her level. Through the years, she says, other women have come to her for help and support.
PRESSURE IS A PLUS
Sometimes being singled out helped the women succeed and gain acceptance from their male counterparts.
Laura Masailo-Connors had a “great four years and has many fond memories of Union,” but says she felt a lack of career
guidance and didn't feel as though she could get as much out of professors as the male students could. In some ways, that was positive, she says, since it pushed her to work a little harder.
Brenda Silver Schiff '76, who graduated with a degree in civil engineering, was in one of the early classes of women at Union. She recalls being treated as a “novelty, something cute. Professors would sometimes begin classes, `Men … oh, and you too, Brenda.' But it was never nasty or unfriendly. Just good-natured ribbing.”
Schiff, who always did very well in her classes-she graduated summa cum laude
sometimes felt resentment from
the men. But she says that this helped her to be accepted. “If I hadn't done as well, I don't know if it would have been the same.”
Nearly twenty years later, Tricia Nelson '95, a mechanical engineering major who began in GE's technical leadership program this summer, expresses similar sentiments. Like Schiff, she graduated summa cum laude. She says she was singled out a lot by her professors, and it seemed that the men in her classes were intimidated by her at first. But in time the men grew to be
open and supportive of her. “They admitted that I earned it, and sometimes they were amazed at my motivation,” Nelson says.
LIBERAL ARTS ALSO
A PLUS
Joanne Tobiessan, director of the Career Development Center, says that the women who enroll in the challenging engineering program at Union tend to be “very bright and motivated and want to be a success at Union and in their careers.
“They are strong women who are able to handle the kinds of pressures that arise in the classroom and in the workplace,” she says. Cherrice Traver, associate professor of electrical engineering agrees. “Women tend to be some of the best students we see. It's sort of a well-known phenomenon.”
The women alumni attribute a good deal of their professional success to the education they received at Union, and they speak highly of the broad liberal education that has been valuable throughout their lives.
Ackerman says that she advises young people considering engineering as a career to attend a Union-type school. “It's a tough school where in conjuction with engineering classes, you have to take liberal arts classes. A balanced education is what is going to get you a job and a successful career.”
Masailo-Connors agrees that the combination of technical expertise with liberal arts skills will help progress in the profession.
She began at UNUM Insurance as a systems analyst, and has been a special assistant to the chairman of the company. And today as the company is being restructured,
Masilo-Connors is in charge of making sure that more than 4,000 employees are ready for the change. The career moves came not only because of her technical background but also because “I could
communicate.”
Webb says that her all-round education really helps in the work place. “They want people who can deal with people.”
She learned this in the classes where there was a team effort. “We worked together as a group, learning each others' strengths and weaknesses to get through assignments and projects,” she says. “It was never cut-throat.”
Teamwork is valuable in her
current job as a senior engineer at United Airlines in San Francisco. She works with the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, and United Airlines
to “keep the planes reliable and safe.”
Beausoleil, who liked math and science in high school, thought that engineering would provide “a well-rounded educational base for any scientific field.” But she also had a strong
interest in history and languages, which she could take at Union. “Mere is a lot of flexibility at Union,” she says. “And my confidence and ability to communicate was strongly bolstered by my experience at Union.”
Nelson had similar reasons for coming to Union. She looked at engineering colleges but chose Union because it offered the liberal arts. “I was interested in engineering and I liked math
and science but I have wide interests and Union offered me a broad alternative,” she says.
BALANCING FAMILY
AND WORK
Just as the women praised the Union approach, they expressed concerns about balancing family and work.
Slater says that her education has helped her not only in her profession but in her personal life as well. She has been the single parent of her ten-year-old son, Mark, since he was a year and half old.
“The mind set for engineering allows you to balance work and what you do at home,” she says. “It's very challenging and very difficult. You have to have a good support group.”
Ackerman says that with more women entering the work world, there are more dual career families and both parents have to handle real world issues that come up, such as balancing the
responsibilities of work and family.
Masailo-Connors is also a single parent, with an eight-year old son, James. She finds it both tough and rewarding. “I don't take time for granted,” she says. “I appreciate both parts of my life-my career and being a mother. I've had good support systems, and I've learned to work hard and play hard. My son keeps me young at heart.”
Schiff, the mother of two daughters, considers herself fortunate. Her area of expertise, the design of movable bridges, has allowed her freedom in her career. The state of Florida requires that engineering companies who do this type of work have two professional engineers who are trained in this area.
“My company needs my qualifications to get this type of work,” she says. “They get to pay me on a part-time basis. It's advantageous both ways.”
She acknowledges that her situation is unusual. “I have been able to combine family and work. I work because I enjoy it.
I don't know of anyone else who has a situation like mine.”
Beausoleil is also the mother of two children and says that working full-time is a challenge. But, like Slater, she feels that her job in engineering has taught her to balance her time.
“I'm a different person when I'm at home,” she says. “Engineers tend to be goal and focus-oriented. It's tough to be like that with kids. As parents we quickly learn the advantages of being flexible. A ten-minute task like vacuuming the rug could take over an hour when you have kids.”
ENCOURAGEMENT
AND ADVICE
If there was a common word of advice for women and men considering engineering as a major and career, it was, “Stick with it.”
And don't be intimidated.
Nelson recalls not being overly confident and outgoing when she first arrived at Union. In time, she developed her confidence, excelled academically, and now feels prepared for her job at General Electric.
Webb says, “Have self-confidence. We all have fears-even the guys. Nobody's perfect. In engineering, we're not learning the answers but we're learning how to solve problems.”
Masailo-Connors advises looking into a variety of occupations. “Explore the different ways to use your degree, and when you get out
there start in the trenches and work your way up.”
When Ackerman sends engineers to classrooms, some of the girls are surprised to see a woman engineer. “Their eyes are opened. They hear about things they never even thought of doing. They learn that girls can be in construction, design bridges, or create new ball parks … They learn that they can do it,” she says.
Ackerman's company, and many others, are encouraging younger engineers. A number
of professional organizations are encouraging math in the schools. Union has a partnering program that sends engineering professors and students into Capital District schools to talk about engineering.
Beausoleil says Turner Construction has set up a mentoring program for younger women engineers who are just entering the field.
“Engineering is a career that needs women,” Beausoleil says. “Companies are beginning to bring in women not just to fill
Affirmative Action quotas but because of the attributes that women can bring to the work place.”
According to Kenyon, women have contributed tremendously to engineering. “It is my feeling that men and women approach things in life differently. Women bring a sensitivity and a perspective to engineering that has only been good.”
And Masailo-Connors offers this piece of encouragement and advice, 'There's absolutely nothing a woman can't do.”
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