SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 72) SWE Scrapbook SWE Archives presents a regular series spotlighting women’s engineering history The Women in SWE The 1970s saw a significant upswing in the second-wave women’s movement, focusing on social and economic equality. Many SWE members naturally found common ground with an ideology that espoused equal pay and recognition for working women, championed women’s increasing presence in male-dominated fields, and, in general, demanded equal rights for women. SWE members regularly weighed in on the ties between the national women’s movement and women’s particular role in the engineering profession. SWE member Patricia Shamamy coauthored a study on the number of women in the engineering field in the early 1980s, which cited the 1970s feminist movement for inspiring young women to even consider careers in formerly male-dominated fields. Inez Van Vranken, former SWE executive secretary, also spoke candidly in a 1977 article, stating, “As a profession, we haven’t been the screamers, but we have benefited from the movement.” – Deborah Rice, SWE Archivist Then-SWE-President Arminta Harness attends the 1977 National Women’s Conference on behalf of the Society. Invited by President Jimmy Carter, along with heads of all the national women’s organizations, Harness has said of the occasion, “The events … are significant to the progress of American women — and SWE was there.” In her famous address at the 1978 national conference in Atlanta, 1972-74 SWE President Naomi McAfee urges members to take “individual membership actions” in support of the ERA. She calls for changing “the conservative mindset” of SWE and of engineering societies in general. A 1976 article on the national SWE conference, held in Denver that year, quotes SWE member Connie Hauser in the headline. 72 SWE SPRING 2008
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