History abounds with instances and stories of plucky women who kept their shoulders to the wheel and achieved honey pots of success. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)fields have churned out multiple women of wit and grain who transformed their respective fields. Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, Barbara McClintock, and a host of women worked extensively to push the envelope.
Construction and real estate industries are on the crest of a wave. Builders are incorporating newfangled patterns and ideas to create novel living spaces. These real estate developers use reliable materials and infallible equipage to deliver marvelous living spaces.
What distinguishes them from their contemporaries is an unfailing set of values and ideologies.They dovetail distinctiveness with honesty to deliver homes in time.
A host of people and companies have made the construction industry what it is today. The AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry was metamorphosed by the touch of women. This blog talks about five such women. The second part of the blog will cover the remaining five jewels. Both the blogs aim at giving each woman accolades and fine, undivided space.
- Julia Morgan
In 1898, Julia Morgan became the first woman admitted to the École de Beaux-Arts in Paris, widely regarded as the best school of architecture in the world. She returned to her home in California and became the first woman licensed by the state to practice architecture. She was a leading proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement and designed many buildings. Her YWCA buildings were institutions intended to serve women, but her most famous design was Hearst Castle, conceived for publisher William Randolph Hearst. Morgan supervised every aspect of the construction over the next 28 years, making her work a symbol of the utmost dedication to her career. - Janet Guthrie
Janet Guthrie is known for being one of the first female racecar drivers. She was the first woman to qualify for and compete in the prestigious Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. But, before she started racing, she was an aerospace engineer who learned to fly while she was in her teens. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in physics and worked as a research and development engineer for American aircraft manufacturer Republic Aviation. The work she completed during that time contributed greatly to Project Apollo. - Emily Roebling
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most iconic engineering projects in America’s history. It is stunning. Washington Roebling was its Chief Engineer, but when he became seriously ill in 1872, his wife Emily stepped in. She had been taking notes of what needed to be completed before he passed, and when he died, she began overseeing the day-to-day supervision and management of the project. According to ASCE, she learned about strength of materials, stress analysis, cable construction, and calculation of catenary curves. Every day, she went onsite to relay her husband’s instructions to workers and to answer questions. She kept records and was said to have represented her husband at social events. She was Chief Engineer in all but name, and the bridge — completed in 1883 — bears a plaque honoring Emily and her husband. - HedyLamarr
HedyLamarr is renowned as a glamorous film star from the 1930s and 1940s, but few people are aware that she was also an avid inventor. At the beginning of World War II, she developed a radio guidance system aimed at combating the threat of jamming by enemy forces. The US Navy didn’t adopt the technology until the 1960s, but the principles of her work live on in modern communications technology, including WiFi and Bluetooth. - Lillian Gilbreth
Lillian Gilbreth combined the fields of psychology and industrial and mechanical engineering to pioneer work in time and motion studies, as well as ergonomics. Gilbreth is credited with many “firsts” in the field of engineering, including household appliance and kitchen designs. In 1965, when she was in her late 80s, she became the first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Due to her husband’s concern with the technicalities of worker efficiency, Gilbreth studied scientific management principles that are still used today. Now, she is known as the “Mother of Modern Management” and is recognized as the first true organizational psychologist.
(Inputs from Interesting Engineering)
