WOMEN ENGINEERS

Shannon News, 14 September 1926, Page 4

WOMEN ENGINEERS

Engineering was regarded a few years ago as the one profession absolutely unsuited to women. Yet every year women are adopting it in \pne or other of its many branches. The idea of a woman in the engine-raom of a cargo steamer may sound ridiculous. Yet there is a woman marine engineer. She is Miss Drummmd, a Scottish girl, who has duly passed her examinations and signed on just like a man. A few yearu ago the Women's Engineering Society was formed. It has grown very rapidly. Its first president was Lady Parsons, wife of the famous inventor of the modern steam turbine eigine. The Northampton Polytechnic, London, now runs an engineering- course for girls. The course includes mathematics, drawing - design, magnetism and electricity, and work at the bench. Most of the girls graduating from this institution adopt engineering as their profession. Not long ago, the Universities gave no facilities to women, students to learn engineerinf;. Now they all do so, and some women have shown themselves far above the average man student in mechanical ability. For example, at Girtpn, Cambridge, Miss Foxwell took a nrst-clai.s degree in engineering. It is especially in the' higher branches of engineering that women are proving their mettle. One woman manages a foundry in the Midlands,. another runs a consulting engineering office in the. West of England, many are conducting their own garages and workshops, and several are in practice as electrical engineers. Perhaps the greatest livin? woman engineer is Mrs. Galbraith. She directs, with her husband, a vast engineering works in America. And so much do the men engineers think of her that she was 'recently voted to a high office in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.