Engineer as Defined in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (54) "Engineer (professional and kindred). A general term used to designate persons who meet the educational, experience, or legal qualifications established by engineering schools or licensing authorities for the fields of professional engineering. Classifications are made according to field of engineering specialization, as chemical engineer; civil engineer; electrical engineer; industrial engineer; mechanical engineer."

"Chemical engineer (professional and kindred) 0-15.01. A classification title for engineers who apply chemistry and the various branches of the engineering sciences to the design, construction, operation, and improvement of equipment for carrying out chemical processes on a commercial scale. Conducts research to develop new and improved chemical-manufacturing processes. Designs, plans layout, and supervises workers operating equipment, such as condensers, absorption and evaporation towers, columns, and stills for producing synthetic rubber, soap, aluminum, high-octane gasolines, and other products. May specialize in engineering fields, such as consulting, technical sales and service, testing, purchasing, and teaching at the university level."

"Civil engineer (professional and kindred) 0-16.01. A classification title for engineers who plan, design, and supervise construction and maintenance of a large variety of structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipe lines, power plants, water and sewage systems, and waste disposal units."

"Electrical engineer (professional and kindred) 0-17.01. A classification title for engineers who plan and supervise construction and operation of electric-power generating plants, transmission lines, and distribution systems; plan and supervise construction and installation of illumination, wire communication, and electric transportation systems; design and develop radio, television, electronic, and allied equipment and supervise technical operation of broadcasting stations; design and supervise manufacture of various types of electrical machinery and apparatus, such as motors and generators, convertors and regulators, switchgear, and welding equipment. May also specialize in research, consulting, inspection, testing, teaching at the university level, specification and other technical writing, and sales and service of complex electrical equipment."

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"Industrial engineer (professional and kindred) 0-18.01 management engineer. A classification title for engineers who supervise production departments of manufacturing plants, lay out machinery and apparatus, and determine flow of work for most efficient production, conduct and interpret time-and-motion studies, devise means and set up programs to curb industrial accidents and fires, set up personnel policies and procedures and evaluate jobs, and devise and install accounting and inventory-control systems. May specialize in such fields as setting up production cost records and control systems, developing jigs and fixtures, training production personnel, and wage administration."

"Mechanical engineer (professional and kindred) 0-19.01. A classification title for engineers who specialize in design of tools, engines, machines, or industrial equipment; installation and maintenance of industrial equipment; supervision of mechanical industrial processes; or planning and operation of central distribution systems for heat, gas, water, or steam. May also specialize in research, consulting, inspecting, testing, teaching at the university level, technical writing and editing, or technical sales and service."

"Metallurgical engineer. A general term applied to a worker who performs professional duties in the fields of processing or physical metallurgy. Workers are classified according to specialization, as metallurgist, extractive, or metallurgist, physical.”

"Mining engineer; mine analyst; mine expert (anthracite coal mining; bituminous coal mining; metal mining) 0-20.01. Makes preliminary surveys of coal deposits or undeveloped mines and plans their development; examines deposits or mines to determine whether they can be worked at a profit, making geological and topographical surveys to determine location, size, and slope of deposits and character of surrounding strata; lays out plans for development of property, such as shaft, drift, or slope (mine entrance) location, breaker, or tipple location, water supply, and power requirements; evolves method of mining best suited to character, type, and size of deposits, including type of machinery and equipment to be used; makes safety and efficiency surveys of mine work to develop safer working conditions and to coordinate work of men and methods so as to secure maximum production; conducts mine surveys [surveyor, mine]; supervises all mining operations.”

Figure 3.-A civil engineer from Greece engaged in graduate work in her profession at an American university under a grant by the American Association of University Women.

THE OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN IN ENGINEERING

Of all the principal professional occupations, that of engineering is lowest in the proportion of its members who are women. In 1940, less than 0.3 percent of the approximately quarter of a million professional engineers in the United States were women, according to the United States Census. Only 730 women engineers were then employed (43). Although women pioneered in engineering as early as the 1890's, and although many women were trained for work in engineering departments of war production firms during World War II, the number of women who qualified as engineers in 1947 was still less than 1 percent of the national total in this profession.

Engineering shares with medicine and architecture the distinction of being one of the few scientific fields in which provision for legal registration is general in the United States. All States, as well as Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Alaska, have engineering registration laws, most of which require a license to practice "professional engineering," where public safety and health are involved. (For usual requirements for registration see p. 5-75.) Unlike physicians, however, many engineers are not licensed because their employment does not require registration. Most engineers who engage in consulting work or who are responsible for construction, sanitation, or similar projects find registration desirable. In 1946, about 93,000 engineers had applied for and secured licenses to practice professional engineering in the United States, approximately one-third of the number of engineers in 1940. In the 1943 directory of registered professional engineers, only 15 women were distinguishable by their names, although there may be others among the lists from States reporting given names by initial only (65).

To understand the outlook for women in engineering in the future, it is necessary to review their place in engineering in the years before the war as well as during the abnormal war period. This chronological view is followed, in this report, by additional information on women in the principal branches of engineering. In the order of the number of women employed in them at the time of the 1940 census, these branches are as follows: civil, mechanical, electrical, industrial, mining and metallurgical, and chemical (43). The many finer specializations in engineering have been described in detail by the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel.

Transfers from one branch of engineering to another sometimes take place especially at the beginning level, before specialized experi

ence has been obtained, or at the top among those who have gained experience in two or more branches and have broadened the range of their knowledge. One woman, for example, registered as a construction engineer, has done consulting work in the fields of chemical, mechanical, and sanitary engineering. However, specialization usually starts in the second year of the engineering college course, earlier than in any other scientific field, and engineers tend to remain in the branch for which they train (45).

Prewar Distribution

The extent to which women and men were employed in the principal branches of engineering in 1940 is shown in table 1. Women, like men, were more numerous in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering than they were in the chemical, industrial, and mining and metallurgical branches. But, civil engineering outranked mechanical engineering in its employment of women, while the reverse was true for the men. Although each of these two fields employed roughly onethird of all male engineers, each included only one-fourth of all women engineers. The proportion women comprised of all engineers in the other branches was consequently higher, especially in industrial and in mining and metallurgical engineering.

Table 1. Distribution by Branch of Engineering of Men and Women Employed as Professional Engineers, 1940

The places in which engineers worked varied widely in the different branches. In 1934, for example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that chemical, mechanical, and industrial engineers were employed primarily in manufacturing industries (45). Public utilities among electrical engineers and extractive industries among mining and metallurgical engineers combined with manufacturing industries in each case to account for the principal employment in those branches. In civil engineering, Government employment predominated; in the