Female Civil Engineers

Apart from being a socialite, Emily Warren Roebling was also a skilled engineer. She took over the reins of designing the Brooklyn Bridge when her husband, the chief engineer of the project, Washington Augustus Roebling, was rendered bedridden. She went against the grain and earned a law certificate, too.

One of the first female engineers in the US, Nora Stanton Blatch Barney was also a leading suffragist and the granddaughter of women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She was also the first woman to graduate in engineering from Cornell and sued the ASCE for denying her a full-membership.

While she initially studied engineering, Claire Barratt later gained fame as an industrial archaeologist. She has a degree in conservation of industrial heritage. She also has a parallel career as a TV presenter and has been part of shows such as Salvage Squad and Britain's Secret Treasures.

A qualified civil engineer, Ethiopian politician Aisha Mohammed Mussa is the country’s current minister of irrigation and lowland areas development. She has previously led the country as its first female defense minister and has also been Ethiopia’s minister of urban development and construction.

Olive Dennis was an American engineer whose innovations played a huge role in making railways what it is today. The first female member to become a part of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA), Olive Dennis is credited with introducing comforts, such as stain-resistant upholstery, ceiling lights, and air-conditioned compartments in passenger cars.  

Elmina Wilson was an American civil engineer best known as the first American female to successfully complete a four-year degree in civil engineering. Wilson then went on to become the first female professor to work and teach engineering at the prestigious Iowa State University (ISU) after receiving the first master's degree in civil engineering.