With the exception of Corporation President, women currently hold jobs at all levels within Sandia National Laboratories. This has not always been the case. Mirroring the attitudes and practices of American culture and industry, Sandia's female employees in the 1950s and 1960s were found primarily among the administrative and support staff, in fields traditionally populated by women. Like the rest of the country, the Labs only gradually witnessed the growth of opportunities for women in areas of work traditionally held by men.
In 1952, approximately 22% of Sandia Corporation's employees were female. Although a handful of women were among the professional technical staff, most female employees were secretaries, library workers, data reduction clerks, clerical workers, and technical assistants. The few women managers tended to supervise work in these areas.
By 1995, the number of female employees had grown to about 30%. The women's movement, management support, and the deliberate efforts made by women within the Labs to recruit and mentor their colleagues have brought significant changes. The rising numbers of women in the Labs have been accompanied by their increased presence in scientific and technical fields and their move upward into management.
It is important to note that not all women want to work in technical fields or to become managers. Rather, the goal has been to allow women to take full advantage of the range of occupational opportunities available and to be enthusiastic, productive participants in the workforce.
This exhibit's title is a quotation from Pat Newman, an engineering student at the University of New Mexico working at Sandia during the summer of 1958. She received her BS in electrical engineering and went on to earn an additional BA in modern languages. It takes determination as well as hard work for anyone to pursue a degree in engineering, but for a woman in the 1950s it was particularly daunting. Only 0.3% of Bachelors degrees in engineering went to women between 1950 and 1959. Newman's resolve is reflected in her answer to an interviewer's question about being a woman in engineering: "A woman's place is where she wants to be." Easier said than done at the time, perhaps, but becoming more true as time has passed.
Whether or not you run something is not always determined by job title. Rosalie Crawford was secretary to nine Sandia Corporation presidents. When Sandia was separated from Los Alamos in 1949, George Landry became its first president and Crawford was selected to be his secretary. Landry left in 1952 but she stayed on. She retired in 1986 after, as she described it, "37 years without a promotion!"
This cartoon from a 1949 Sandia Labs Bulletin reflects both the male and female stereotypes of the period. Female secretaries were seen as beautiful caretakers and male bosses were helpless without them. The passage of time has modified this view. Secretaries are still invaluable, but now their bosses are sometimes female.
In 1958, Sandia's Personnel Department installed a centralized Telecord system. The system allowed dictation to be made into instruments at various locations, while transcription was done at this central location. Carol Kaemper, Phyllis Johnson, and Mary Ann Naumer transcribe while Ruth Bontrager (standing) troubleshoots.
Dee Fenstermacher was a secretary in Sandia's Motion Picture Division when this 1959 photograph was taken. Secretarial duties vary with the work of the department. Fenstermacher is checking a script against a film's narration.
Betty Brake had a BS in chemistry and was the only female member of the technical staff in her organization when she came to work at Sandia in 1955. Brake says the hardest thing about being a working mother at the time was that "nobody had heard of childcare." She and co-worker Philip Class are shown here using the thermalog computer for a heat transfer study.
Ruth Whan came to Sandia in 1962 with a PhD in physical chemistry. She performed cutting-edge research on radiation effects in semiconductors and was recognized both within the Labs and without as a leader in her field. In this 1967 photograph, Whan and R.S. Neiman are preparing the Van de Graaff accelerator for a test.
Like other technicians in Sandia's Life and Performance Laboratories, Berta Guest conducted a variety of tests on components. In this 1964 photograph, she is shown conducting high potential tests on multiple contact connections.
Helen Walsh announces the "Spread Your Wings" theme of the 1975 secretarial workshop. Walsh came to Sandia as a secretary in 1961 and, in addition to becoming a Certified Professional Secretary, was involved in secretarial training and professionalization programs throughout her career.
In 1976, 15 Sandians were Certified Professional Secretaries. The 13 shown here are: D. Ann Streater, Bobbi Voelker, Helen Walsh, Jean Langston, June Rugh, Marla Kist, Rachel Jackson, Etta Moore, Esther Coffman, Virginia Podvin, Betty Pickel, Wanda Whitham, and Jo Hanna.
In 1974, Sandia began a career counseling program through Employee Relations to enhance the career advice available from employees' supervisors. Bette Graham was the first counselor providing the service. A significant portion of her work entailed matching employees interested in a particular field with individuals currently working in that area.
With a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BA in modern languages, Patricia Newman came to Sandia in 1972 as a translator for the technical library. Her work has contributed to collaborations between scientists in the United States and the former Soviet Union. She was named a Distinguished Member of Sandia's Technical Staff in 1996 and retired in 1999.
Lori Syverson checks an employee's badge at Sandia/New Mexico, in the spring of 1974. In 1972, the first women security guards were hired at Sandia/California, and, in 1974, women security inspectors appeared at the New Mexico site.
Kathleen McCaughey earned her BS in civil engineering and MS in mechanical engineering in the late 1970s, when women were still rare in engineering. She spent her early career as a design engineer before moving into management. She served as site manager at Tonopah Test Range and as program manager for Advanced Manufacturing before attaining her current position as Director.
Ellen Ochoa earned her PhD in electrical engineering and then came to Sandia/California to work on optical methods for image processing. She is shown here in 1986 with Don Sweeney (left) and George Schils in the optical science lab. Ochoa left Sandia to work for NASA, eventually joining their astronaut training program and becoming a shuttle astronaut. She was the first Hispanic woman astronaut.
Jennie Negin has BS and MA degrees in mathematics, training she applied to a successful career in computer programming and management. She has been active in the New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering and has won both a 1987 YWCA "Women on the Move" award and a 1988 Governor's Award for Outstanding Women.
When she started college in 1950, Judy Mead was discouraged from being a chemistry major because she would be the only woman in the class. She went on to receive a Master's degree in chemistry. Mead is shown here with (left to right) Orie Montoya, Vern Willan, and Pete Rand, demonstrating the silicone-based adhesive foam for which they received a patent in 1985.
Sandia members of the New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering meeting with Sandia Vice President Ray Powell to discuss the 1981 "Expanding Your Horizons" conference. Seated, from left: Mary Ann Sweeney, Julia Fu, Suzanne Weissman, Nancy Hall, Betty Brake, and Judith Mead. Standing: Barbara Epstein, Gerda Krefft, Jennie Negin, Ray Powell, Ruth Whan, Sharon Kurtz, and Liz Scott.
Celeste Rohlfing's work at Sandia/California, combines chemical physics theory with Sandia's computer resources to understand fundamental combustion reaction mechanisms. She holds a doctorate in theoretical chemistry and has received several awards, both for her research work and as a role model for younger scientists. She actively promotes science among young women and organized Sandia/California's first "Take Your Daughter to Work" Day.
Carol Ashley and a sample of the glass-like aerogel material used in radioluminescent lights. Much of her Sandia career has been devoted to sol-gel research-work that has earned its research team several awards. In 1990, just as she received a promotion from technician to member of technical staff, Ashley was named Chemical Technician of the Year by the American Chemical Society.
Diana Helgesen prepares to film a test at Sandia's sled track. As a photographer in the photometrics department, Helgesen spends a good deal of the year traveling to test sites in Hawaii, Alaska, and a multitude of other points around the United States. Asked what it's like to work in a field traditionally dominated by men, she says, "I love my job!"
Joan Woodard, right, speaking with Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary in 1993. Woodard began her career at Sandia/California in 1974 with a BS in mathematics and went on to receive a PhD in mechanical engineering through Sandia's educational programs. She was the second woman to become a Vice President at Sandia and the first to be named Executive Vice President.