(432a) Celebrating Women in Chemical Engineering: Past and Present

In June of 2005, six women graduated from the California Institute of Technology and became the first and only all-female class of chemical engineers to graduate from a co-ed American university. Together, these women spent four years navigating the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum at Caltech — growing and maturing as a team without male chemical engineering classmates. The Caltech 6 met in September of 2001 as an ethnically and geographically diverse group of women, and from there, they went on to defy all odds.

Engineering remains a male-dominated field; in classes, in companies and throughout the industry. In this world of men, there has only ever been one entirely female class of chemical engineers, and the Caltech 6 is it. Each woman has overcome her own individual struggles, from those that were self imposed to those born of societal presumptions. These challenges were easier to overcome because the Caltech 6 had the support system of women helping women. Their joint education was never a competition — it was only ever a collaboration. In this presentation, the undergraduate experiences of the Caltech 6 will be highlighted and the impact of this highly unusual chemical engineering undergraduate education on their post Caltech lives will be explored.