Edith Clarke

Edith Clarke was a human computer (an individual crunching complex math formulas to help engineers in their work) for AT&T, an appropriate job for women at the time, when engineering was considered men’s work and computing was women’s work. In those odd times she dreamt of becoming an engineer. She was the first woman to graduate with a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Even after her education she could not find a job as an engineer.

General Electric did not recognize her expertise and hired her to do calculations for engineers and to train other women. This did not stop her from working toward her dreams and passion. She invented a graphical calculator (equations with hyperbolic functions could be solved) and left her job at GE as they did not recognize her abilities as an engineer. After filing for a patent for the calculator in 1921 she travelled the world for a year. GE missed the patent rights to Edith's calculator because she was a part-time employee at the time she invented the calculator. Meanwhile, GE realized what they had been missing. So, when she returned, they offered her an engineering position.

Edith continued her work in both making calculations of equations easier and in improving the efficiency of transmission lines. She retired from GE in 1945 and then taught at the University of Texas for 10 years. Her work as an electrical engineer was respected and in 1948, she became the first female Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Edith’s story is proof that women can certainly do a "man’s job".