Investigating the History of Women in Australian Engineering

This year we welcomed to the History and Philosophy of Science Program new graduate student, Kathryn Laurentis, who joins us with more than twenty-five years of industry experience as a chemical engineer and applied mathematician. Her research will draw on her experience in industry as well as STEM advocacy to explore the hidden history of women in Australian engineering up to 1970, with a particular focus on how women’s technical contributions were recorded, represented, or overlooked.

In this interview, Professor Cordelia Fine speaks with Kathryn about the experiences that first drew her to engineering, the benefits of studies in History and Philosophy of Science, and her current project uncovering women’s early contributions to engineering in Australia.

Kathryn, you come to the University with many years of experience as an engineer. Before we turn to your research angle on the field, I’ll start by asking, what first drew you to engineering?

There were a few elements that drew me to engineering. When I was about eight years old, I did a school project on C.Y. O’Connor, a well-known Western Australian engineer who worked around the end of the 1800s. He was responsible for the Fremantle port development and building the pipeline that took water from the Perth Hills, where I was living at the time, to my birthplace, Kalgoorlie — a 10-hour drive away, the site of the state goldrush at the time and an incredibly arid place. His story was fascinating and tragic — a brilliant pioneer responsible for building a state but whose untimely suicide was brought on through hounding by the press. I really engaged with the narrative, and it was the first time engineering appeared on my radar.

I was also always a builder and tinkerer. I remember designing and building the family Nativity set at age ten and loving the spatial problem-solving. I asked my parents, post-war European migrants, what profession this was. They said, “Be an engineer.” They raised us in a progressive way, encouraging me to pursue engineering despite gender norms at the time.

Then, in Year 10, I did work experience with a female engineer who took me under her wing. She was assertive, confident, and determined, and when she heard that I was curious about working as an engineer, she told her manager to make space for me in the office. It was very inspirational — the work was pretty minor, but I loved everything about it, the idea of creating and solving problems. That combination is what set me on my path.

Has that original vision been fulfilled in your career?

In a different way than my younger self imagined. My projects haven’t been physical bridges or buildings that I can travel across or look at with some sense of ownership, but I’ve worked on some of Australia’s major energy projects — the kind that keep the country running. Careers take funny turns; there’s still plenty of problem-solving, but the design and engineering focus has shifted over time.

You studied History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) during your degree. Did it give you a particular lens on your working life?

Absolutely. It taught me to think critically, not take things at face value, and connect ideas across disciplines. I think it has been incredibly useful, and I would recommend it to any engineering or science student.

I have to admit the type of engineering I do isn’t a very typical form. Most engineering is very well controlled — products in, products out.  The work I do involves studying rock and fluid systems three kilometres below the sea floor, with high levels of uncertainty, so the philosophical side of questioning what you know, and how you construct that knowledge, is invaluable.

HPS has made me a better engineer. Day to day I work with things that are just so far removed from what we can experience and measure. As engineers and scientists, we question not only the rigor of the small amount of data we have but also the reality we’ve constructed to enable us to make decisions. We talk about bias and anchoring and paradigms. So, HPS has been very informative, I think, for what I do and made me a better engineer as a result. I highly recommend it.

Well, that’s fantastic to hear. And turning now to the HPS side of things, what motivates you to take on your current research, exploring the history of women in engineering in Australia?

I’ve always loved HPS. Over the years, that interest continued through podcasts. I particularly like the HPS podcast, books, and personal reading. Visiting the University of Melbourne with my daughter on Open Day 2024 reminded me how much I enjoyed it, and I wanted in on the fun!

The idea to specifically explore the history of women in Australian engineering started really fermenting when, at a time in life when I was looking for strength, I found myself drawn to female role models and their stories of resilience and inspiration. But I found that, on International Women’s Day, for instance, we put out the cupcakes and pull out the same old role models. So, I started reading and finding other examples, Australian ones that, even as a practicing engineer myself, I wasn’t aware of. I felt a pull to uncover their achievements and share them with the profession, nation and next generation.

What drew me to this study is that I love the fact that I can have a voice, fill a void and offer up some new thought. I realised the world didn’t need another engineer with an MBA, but I could create something new and fill a gap. This work extends my commitment to supporting women in STEM and STEM education, and it’s personally very fulfilling.

That nicely leads me to my next question, which is, are there particular aspects of the research ahead that you’re most looking forward to?

Oh, I have loved everything about this process. I feel like the government should prompt people when they get to midlife, send them a letter in the mail, asking: have you ever thought about contributing to research? What in your field could you contribute to?

The research energises me. I cannot wait to wake up in the morning, hit the books, and do the work. I’m excited to be part of the University of Melbourne community, especially the History and Philosophy of Science program and the engineering faculty, and to meet new colleagues. Even the routine processes have been a breath of fresh air.

As far as the research goes, I’m really excited to catalogue the first female graduates in engineering for Australia. But I’m especially drawn to the women who worked creatively without formal qualifications – inventors, business owners, women who found ways around barriers. I can’t wait to find more of these inspirational women, and learn more about their process and their journey.

Fantastic. Now, you recently attended the International Congress for the History of Science and Technology, and took part in the Convention on Gender in the History of Science. What did you learn from that?

That was an incredible experience to connect with other people studying gender and science worldwide. I found that the diversity of interests represented was incredibly broad, for instance, at lunchtime there’d be discussions between people studying French travelling carnival theatrical science, indigenous navigation methods, and colonial medical journals, and that same observation applied to the diversity of the ways in which gender is studied.

I was surprised at the number of academics, about 40 or 50 people at the convention, working in the field of gender, and I was really pleased to see that there were some men in the audience.

It was also nice to compare research battle scars with colleagues. We shared common challenges, like the difficulty of tracking women when records omit their first names or their voices are absent. We also exchanged methodologies and discovered strikingly similar themes across diverse fields.

Quite often, our HPS graduate students come to us with considerable professional experience. What do you think your own professional experience will bring to the project?

My technical background will help me recognise engineering work that might be hidden behind other job titles or written out of history. For example, historical reports may record these women as ‘librarians’; my role will be to critically interrogate those descriptions, remaining open to the possibility of technical depth or overlooked achievements.

In a broader sense, I’ve got a network of colleagues to draw on to help uncover information or point me in the right direction. Once my research is completed, I also hope to use my professional connections to amplify these women’s stories within engineering and beyond.

Most of all, I’m looking forward to creating impact, offering these Australia-specific historical resources to the profession and more widely within the Australian community. I hope that a richer understanding of women’s roles and contributions will not only give my profession a deeper appreciation of its own history, but also provide useful insights for contemporary debates about what engineering is, and about women’s present and future status in the field.

There are many ways to measure the success of this project. For me, the most meaningful outcome would be to inspire a wide sense of pride and belonging across the profession. Recently, an Engineers Australia board member challenged me to make one measure of success the commissioning of a statue of an Australian woman engineer. It’s a bold goal, but I can’t deny it makes me smile to think of it! I’m determined to take it on.

Follow Kathryn’s research project via Instagram at @EngineeringHerStory for insights into the hidden history of women engineers, archival discoveries, and media from her research journey.