THE STORIES

1950-2015
Honoring
Exceptional Women Engineers
BACKGROUND PHOTO: SWE Emerging Leader Award recipients at WE14 in
Los Angeles, California.
One of SWE’s key priorities has been to recognize the contributions of women
engineers, beginning with the 1952 introduction of what is now called the Achievement
Award. At the time of its inception, the Achievement Award represented one of the few
avenues of honor and recognition that women engineers were likely to receive. While
the Achievement Award remains the Society’s highest honor, SWE has also developed
a robust awards program to acknowledge the work of women engineers at various
career stages, as well as the contributions of men who have made outstanding efforts
to promote gender diversity and upward mobility for women. In a 2011 Grassroots Oral
History Interview, Past President Jill S. Tietjen explained why the Society’s awards
program continues to be an honor and impetus for women to pursue engineering careers:
“I think that pretty much every SWE award that there
is…there’s a tremendous amount of recognition
that she gets through her company. I mean, if
her company or her organization, whether it’s a
government organization or whatever, sees that she
has been recognized for this kind of effort, what they
then understand, if they didn’t already recognize
it, and I suspect in most cases they had—she’s a
fast-tracker. She is highly motivated. She is a doer.
She is an achiever. She gets things done…So that
shows the motivation of the individual, that shows
the leadership potential or leadership achievement…
And what often happens is that companies then give
individuals promotions, they give internal awards,
there’s recognition in company organs, whether it’s
newsletters or press releases…what people want
most according to surveys is not money; they want
recognition for a job well-done…In so many cases,
getting these awards is putting women forward
as role models so that other people can see that
this level of career success or personal success or
whatever kind of technical success, whatever it is, is
achievable…
…I nominated Mary Petryszyn for the Upward
Mobility Award, which she received in 2005; when
I started talking to her about the award, Mary was
very humble and said basically that what she’d
done wasn’t all that significant…In so many cases,
getting these awards is putting women forward as
role models so that other people can see that this
level of career success, or personal success, or
whatever kind of technical success—whatever it
is—is achievable…We have to do it. If we women do
not nominate the other women who are deserving of
recognition, then it’s not going to get done.”
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ABOVE LEFT: Rosalia Andrews received SWE’s first Distinguished
Engineering Educator Award in 1986. According to the October 1986
issue of U.S. Woman Engineer, “She was so surprised and pleased upon
hearing of her selection that a colleague asked her if she had won a
million dollars. ‘No, better than that!’ Dr. Andrews replied.”
ABOVE RIGHT: The Resnik Challenger Medal was established in
memory of NASA mission specialist and SWE Senior Member Dr. Judith
A. Resnik, who was aboard the ill-fated Challenger Space Shuttle flight.
First awarded in 1992, the medal was designed by Past President
Arminta Harness.
TOP RIGHT: Recognized for their outstanding service to the Society
and to women engineers, Elsie Eaves, Aileen Cavanaugh, Betty
Davey, Elizabeth Plunkett, Carolyn Phillips, Naomi McAfee and Lillian
Leenhouts (not shown) were the first members inducted
into the Society’s College of Fellows, in 1980.
BOTTOM LEFT: Natalie Givans accepts SWE’s Suzanne Jenniches
Upward Mobility Award at the WE12 annual conference, with Jenniches
watching in the background. First awarded in 1989, the award was
endowed by Northrop Grumman and renamed in 2011 in honor of
Jenniches, a past SWE president who spearheaded the establishment
of the award. Jenniches is also a SWE Fellow and SWE Achievement
Award recipient.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Yvonne Brill received the 1986 Achievement Award
for her contributions to both the Society and advanced auxiliary
propulsion of spacecraft. She recalled in a 2005 Profiles of SWE
Pioneers oral history interview that upon learning that she was the
recipient, “I just couldn’t really believe it…it just didn’t occur to me
that what I was doing or had contributed was just all that valuable.”
Her work was so valuable, in fact, that President Obama presented her
with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2011, one of
numerous honors received in her lifetime.
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