Purdue University News Service 1132 Engineering Administration Building West Lafayette, IN 47907-1132 Voice: 765-494-2096 FAX: 765-494-0401
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A color photo of Diane Windler in her Purdue office is available. Ask for the photo called Windler/Office.
October 1997
WOMEN ENGINEERS CELEBRATE 100-YEAR HISTORY AT PURDUE
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ã When Martha Stevens earned a degree in civil engineering in 1897, she became the first woman to graduate from Purdue University with an engineering degree.
One hundred years later, nearly 300 women received undergraduate engineering degrees during Purdue's spring commencement ceremonies.
At Purdue and nationwide, less than 1 percent of engineering students were women before 1972, and less than 25 percent of the few who chose engineering actually graduated.
Today the picture has changed dramatically, due in part to Purdue's pioneering efforts to attract and retain female engineering students ã efforts that are now used as a model for other universities.
"In the past 10 years, Purdue has graduated more undergraduate women engineers than any other university in the country, averaging about 250 bachelor's degrees a year," says Jane Z. Daniels, director of Purdue's Women in Engineering Programs. "Women make up about 23 percent of the graduating engineers at Purdue, while nationally it's about 18 percent. Also, about 22 percent of undergraduate engineers enrolled at Purdue are women, compared to about 19 percent nationwide."
"But our strength and success over the years has been in increasing the number of women who start in engineering and graduate in engineering. That figure is now equal to that of men ã between 55 and 60 percent."
Little is known about what Stevens did with her engineering degree a century ago, but today Purdue's engineering alumnae are astronauts, corporate executives, researchers and engineers ã including Laura Mechalke (ma-HALL-kee), a 1990 electrical engineering graduate who works for Corning Inc. in Corning, N.Y. As an engineering supervisor at the plant that makes catalytic converter components, she is responsible for the upkeep of equipment.
"In the engineering profession, it may take a little longer for a woman to earn respect, but an engineering degree from Purdue automatically earns you respect, man or woman, no questions asked," Mechalke says.
Diane Windler, a 1985 civil engineering graduate, works in Purdue's Department of Facilities Planning. She is part of a team that plans, designs and oversees construction projects on campus. Windler is in charge of the renovation and redesign of Purdue's $7 million golf complex.
"My experience as a student at Purdue was a very positive one, and though I may have stood out as one of the few women in some of my classes, I don't think I was treated any differently than male students," Windler says. "In my experience as a professional engineer, I've never run into any problems as a woman in a typically male-dominated field."
By the time Windler graduated in 1985, Purdue's Women in Engineering Programs had already been in place for 15 years. The formal program was established in 1969 to increase the participation of women in engineering by encouraging young women to study engineering and supporting them through their college careers.
In 1969, one of the first things the first director of the programs did for female students was to make a map of where the women's restrooms were located in each of the engineering buildings, Daniels says. "In most cases there was only one in a building," she says.
Purdue's Women in Engineering Programs, one of the first of its kind in the country, now includes a wide variety of activities and programs, such as recruiting and career counseling at the junior high and high school level; mentoring programs and peer groups for students once they enroll at Purdue; networking with alumnae and industry supporters; and a program that encourages women to seek advanced engineering degrees.
While women have made great strides in the engineering profession in the past 25 years, Daniels says it will be many years before the number of women engineering graduates approaches parity with men, and she says the hard work is still ahead ã making changes in society and education.
"For example, we need to help engineering rise above the stereotypes, that engineering is a 'thing-oriented' profession and that it doesn't have much to do with people," she says. "That's pretty far from the truth."
CONTACT: Daniels, (765) 494-3889; e-mail, [email protected]
Mechalke, (607) 974-1925; e-mail, [email protected]
Windler, (765) 494-6936; e-mail, [email protected]
Photo caption
Diane Windler, a 1985 graduate of Purdue's School of Civil Engineering, manages construction projects on campus and is in charge of the renovation of the university's $7 million golf complex. (Purdue News Service Photo by David Umberger)
Color photo, electronic transmission, and Web and ftp download available. Photo ID: Windler/Office
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