From The First Engineer In 1943 To Now Becoming Senior Officials At Big Techs, Woman Engineers Have Indeed Come A Long Way!

Pragya Dubey

2 years ago

Women have conquered every field that was restricted only for men to participate. One such discipline was engineering, and what better day to discuss women’s achievements than on Engineering Day itself? Back in the day, this career was definitely not very gender inclusive but as the saying goes, somebody had to break these barriers and pave a way for the women in future. And we do have some really important figures to thank and also make ourselves aware of them. We can also behold the pride in the fact that the engineering dreams these women chased and pursued back then their legacy, and hard work have not gone in vain. In today’s time, Indian women are excelling in this field and making significant contributions. They have indeed come a long way and this journey is worth knowing about.

If you ever read about the history of women engineers in India, you will come across some very interesting facts only to realise how courageous our women have always been. They never really accepted what society served them. The very first woman to get a graduate degree in engineering was Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha. Lalitha completed her degree in the year 1943 from an engineering college that did not have any female students. WOW! There are three women engineers who were popularly known as the first women engineering trio. Apart from Lalitha, the trio also had P.K Theresia and Leelamma Koshie. Unfortunately, the names of these pioneering women in engineering are slowly fading with time. P.K Theresia was also the first woman chief engineer. From the time, these women proved their efficiency in engineering, the picture of the present world for women in engineering has completely changed.

Also Read: Thread On How Our World Was Not Built For Women Proves We Need More Inclusivity In Our Engineers, Scientists And Testers

Today, we have notable women scientists and engineers who are leading important projects and in fact heading multi-millionaire companies. These women could not make us more proud. Talking about women scientists, we have Tessy Thomas who is also known as The ‘Missile Woman’ of India, she was the first woman to lead a missile project in India. Ritu Karidhal was given the title of ‘Rocket Woman’ as she headed the mission- Chandrayaan-2, which was considered one of the biggest lunar projects to be carried out in our country. Some other notable scientists are Mangala Mani and Gagandeep Kang. Even in the corporate world, women engineers are killing it. To name a few, we have Komal Mangtani who is the head of the Business Intelligence Department at Uber. Priya Balasubramaniam, the Vice-President of iPhone operations, Apple in India.

Also Read: 5 Indian Female Gamers Who’re Defeating The Notion That Only Men Are Good At Video Games

Well. undoubtedly women are making a deep mark as engineers, however, the other part of the picture remains that there is still a very handful of them. In India, girls are encouraged to pursue engineering but the problem happens during employment. There still remains a huge question mark on why the Indian engineering industry as a whole does not see balanced participation of women. Nonetheless, nothing will stop our fierce women engineers to make a way for themselves in this world.

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