Presentation from ICWES 15 Conference - July 2011, Australia

1. CURTISS WRIGHT ENGINEERING CADETTES:
21ST CENTURY QUESTIONS AND ISSUES
15th International Conference for Women Engineers and
Scientists, Adelaide (Austrialia)
July 20, 2011
Anne Perusek, Society of Women Engineers
Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Iowa State University

2. INTRODUCTION

3. “You as the
INTRODUCTION—RECRUITMENT BROCHURE
Curtiss-Wright
Cadette will be
a co-worker
with the
Soldier, the
Sailor, and the
Marine, and will
share with
them the
responsibility
of the war
effort.
This is your
opportunity to
add your name
to the role of
individual
service, to give
our valiant men
the weapons to
save America!”

4. INTRODUCTION
Curtiss Wright
Corporation
1940-1944:
13,738 P-40
Hawks
142,840 aircraft
engines
146,468 electric
propellors
29, 269 planes

5. RECRUITMENT AND COURSES

6. RECRUITMENT
Academic
ability
Attitude
Interest
Qualifications:
2 years of
college
1 year of math
18 years old
Better than
average record

7. COURSEWORK
“They gave us
all of the
physics of
mechanics, ho
w things
worked, how
motors worked.
They gave us
all of
aeronautical
information, an
d they
crammed about
2 ½ years of
aeronautical
engineering, in
a normal
course, into 10
months.”
Betty Goettsch

8. INTRODUCTION
Cornell
University
Iowa State
College
Penn State
Purdue
University
Rensselaer
Polytechnic
Institute
University of
Minnesota
University of
Texas

9. CURTISS WRIGHT WORK
EXPERIENCE

10. WORK EXPERIENCE
“I was working on
some rather
complicated, not
corrections, but
re-dos, change
orders…At one
point I
thought, why
don’t they scratch
this whole thing
and start from
scratch, it gets
too complicated
to change orders
on top of change
orders on top of
change orders.
But it was
modifying
propeller
design, and
starting with what
was there and
reworking the
drawings. Just
propellers…”
Eunice Bray

11. WORK EXPEREINCE
In Arlene
Hanley’s
words: “I think
we saw this as
one way to
break into a
man’s world.”
But, she
continued:
“I think all of us
knew that it
wouldn’t last….
I think most of
us realized with
the end of the
war and with
jets coming in
we would have
to learn a new
technology.”

12. “I saw myself as
WORK EXPERIENCE
an engineer in
training…I don’t
think the men felt
that we were, but
we felt that we
were. Actually, we
were probably
better trained than
some of the men
in the
department.”
-Jeanette Tremlin
Wickes

13. CONCLUSIONS

14. CONCLUSIONS
While there is little
evidence that the
Cadettes directly
set the stage for
women to enter
engineering in the
post-war period but
the experience was
significant in other
ways. It is clear
that the Curtiss-
Wright experience
had a positive, and
in some cases
profound, effect on
the individual
women.
A Cadette
remembers:
“How sharp they
were. How well
they had chosen
women that could
be successful in
whatever they
wanted to do. They
were just brain
trusts. Each one of
them outstanding in
some individual
way. But just really
sharp, just sharp.
And no sissies
among us.”
Mary Ellen
Goettsch
.

15. But, in many
CONCLUSIONS
ways, the
Curtiss-Wright
Engineering
Cadette
Program
represented
something
new and
unique in
American
academia, and
the doors
would never
again be shut
quite so tightly
against
women
engineers.

16. QUESTIONS?
Contact us:
Anne
Perusek, Society
of Women
Engineers
anne.perusek@
swe.org
Tanya Zanish-
Belcher, Archives
of Women in
Science and
Engineering (Iowa
State University)
tzanish@iastate.
edu
 Original C-
W plane
model, Iow
a State
University

17. RESOURCES
 Bix, Amy Sue. "Engineering National Defense: Technical Education at Land-
Grant Institutions during World War II," in Engineering in a Land-Grant
Context: The Past, Present, and Future of an Idea. West Lafayette, IN:
Purdue University Press, 2005.
 Cole, C. Wilson, Final Assessment Report, Curtiss-Wright Engineering
Cadette Records, RS 13/16/1, University Archives, Iowa State University
Library.
 Curtiss-Wright Engineering Cadettes Records, RS 13/16/1, University
Archives, Iowa State University Library.
 McIntire, Natalie Marie. “Curtiss Wright-Cadettes: A Case Study of the Effect
of the World War II Labor Shortage on Women in Engineering.” MA
Thesis, University of Minnesota, 1993.
 Meiksins, Peter. Oral History Interviews, 1996, Cleveland State University.
 Rossiter, Margaret. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action
1940-1972. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.