Building a Legacy
More than 60 women and students gathered on May 27, 1950, hoping to create a unified, national organization supporting and advancing women in engineering. With more than 47,000 members spread across the globe today, the Society of Women Engineers is building on the founders’ legacy to inspire women and help them achieve their full potential as engineers and leaders.
Explore SWE's Legacy Below
Support Our Legacy
In honor of our diamond anniversary, consider making a donation to the new SWE Legacy Endowed Scholarship this year in support of SWE’s ongoing mission. It can and will make all the difference.
Between 1946 and 1949, women engineers and engineering students in New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia created independent organizations, each calling themselves the Society of Women Engineers.
The independent groups came together on May 27-28, 1950, at The Cooper Union’s Green Engineering Camp in Ringwood, N.J, where they voted to form a unified organization.
Founding members of the Society of Women Engineers gather at Camp Green on May 27, 1950.
A list of attendees and guests at the founding meeting of the Society of Women Engineers.
SWE founding President Beatrice Hicks, Irene Kusmiss, and Phyllis Evans Miller gather at the SWE founding meeting. View a video recorded by Morty Gerla, husband of SWE founding member Miriam “Mickey” Gerla.
The Society’s founding members elected Beatrice Hicks as the Society’s first president, set membership dues, adopted an emblem for the Society, and approved honorary membership for Lillian Moller Gilbreth.
Less formal activities at the founding meeting included badminton, baseball, and being awakened by bugle during a late-night “fire drill.” Members had to slide down an escape rope in their pajamas from the second floor of the bunkhouse at Camp Green.
