Nora Stanton Blatch Barney was an engineer, women’s rights activist, and architect around the turn of the twentieth century. Raised by women’s rights activist herself (Elizabeth Cady Stanton was her grandmother), she was highly educated for a girl and became the first woman in the United States to earn a degree in Civil Engineering. After graduating from Cornell with her degree, she continued to take further classes at Columbia University to expand her knowledge into electricity. Nora became the first woman to become a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and began working for the American Bridge Company and the New York City Board of Water Supply. She also worked as an assistant for Lee De Forest, the inventor of the radio vacuum tube, before taking more engineering-oriented positions with the Radley Steel Construction Company and the New York Public Service Commission. Later in life, she would continue to work as a real estate developer. Busy civil engineer and architect that she was, Nora still devoted a lot of time to the women’s rights movement, even starting a suffrage club while still in college. She campaigned for women’s rights as a young woman, and took her mother’s place as president of the Women’s Political Union. She helped with the publishing of Women’s Political World periodical and wrote her own pamphlet Women as Human Beings. She enjoyed her work and worked because she wanted to—after she married for the first time, her husband couldn’t understand why she would not simply give up her job and assume her natural womanly role at home. But true to her upbringing, Nora didn’t give up being the first female civil engineer or an architect just because someone else thought she would be better off at home. She exemplified one very important fact that seemed to mystify men—women often seem to derive a sense of pride, accomplishment, and worth from their work, much as men do. Who knew! Nora Stanton Blatch Barney followed in the footsteps of the women that went before her, most specifically her mother and grandmother, and continued to blaze the trail they had started as an intelligent, highly-educated woman; competent engineer; and a steadfast feminist.
Today, be inspired to…Be with people who understand why you do what you do. If your friend or love derides, belittles, or simply refuses to understand why you enjoy your job, hobby, or interests, they are not respecting what is most meaningful to you, and by association, they aren’t respecting you either.
Photo credit: global.britannica.com
She Made A Difference 