Pearl Young, the primary woman to work in an engineering role at NASA, broke barriers and created a stir – her legacy continues today

Thirteen years before one other woman joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics—or NACA, NASA's predecessor—in a technical role, a young laboratory assistant was named Pearl Young caused a stir within the agency. Her legacy as an outspoken and tenacious advocate for herself and her team would pave the best way for ladies in science, technology, engineering and arithmetic for a long time to come back.

My interest in Young's story stems from my very own identity as a lady in a STEM field. I find strength in sharing the stories of Women who’ve made lasting change in STEM. I’m the director of the Funded by NASANorth Dakota Space Grant Consortiumwhere we aim to advertise an open and welcoming environment within the STEM field. Youngs The story is a story of perseverance through setbacks, advocating for yourself and others, and constructing a supportive community.

Master challenges right from the beginning

Young was a scientist, educator, technical author and researcher. Born in 1895, she didn’t know the hurdles women faced back then.

At the start of the twentieth century, college degrees in STEM fields were considered “less suitable for ladies“, and graduates with these degrees were are considered unconventional women. Professors who agreed to mentor women in advanced STEM fields within the Nineteen Forties and Nineteen Fifties were often accused of communism.

In 1956, the National Science Foundation even published an article titled: “Women are NOT for engineering.”

Despite society's sexist standards, Young earned a bachelor's degree with honors from the University of North Dakota in 1919 with three majors in physics, mathematics and chemistry. She then began her decade-long profession within the STEM field.

Become a technical author

Despite the misogynistic culture, Young successfully took on several technical roles at NACA. With her diverse expertise, she worked in multiple departments – physics, instrumentation and aerodynamics – and shortly noticed a trend across the agency. Many of the reports her colleagues wrote weren’t written well enough to be useful.

In an interview from 1959Young spoke about her start at NACA: “Those were fruitful years. I was interested in good writing and suggested the need for a technical writer. The engineers didn’t have the time to create readable reports.”

In 1935, three years after making her suggestion, Young was transferred to the newly created role of assistant technical editor within the Publications Department. After six years on this role, Young was given the title of assistant technical editor in 1941.

In 1941, NACA founded the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland, now often known as the NASA Glenn Research Center. This latest field center needed experienced employees, so two years later NACA leadership invited Young to guide a brand new technical writing department there.

It was on the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in 1943 that Young published her most notable engineering work, the Style Manual for Engineering Authors. NASA's history office even referred to Young as Architect of the NACA technical reporting system.

Young's style manual allowed the agency to speak technological advances across the globe. This manual included specific formatting rules for technical writing that will increase consistency for engineers and researchers in reporting their data and experimental results. It was crucial to efficient operations in World War II and has been translated into several languages.

But it was only after this publication that Young finally received the promotion to technical author, eleven years after she expressed the necessity for the position on the agency. She was the primary person to carry this role, but had to start out on the assistant level after which move as much as associate before receiving the total technical author designation.

Pearl Young is causing a stir

Perhaps probably the most remarkable a part of Young's story is her character. While advocating for herself and her colleagues, Young often needed to challenge authority.

She stood up for her editing department when male supervisors unfairly accused them of constructing mistakes. She wrote to official proposals Correctly classify your office into the research area within the aircraft engine research laboratory. She repeatedly recognized the contributions of her entire team for his or her collective achievements.

She also hired additional staff to ease the unbearable workload and wrote official memoranda to be sure that her colleagues received legitimate promotions. Young often referred to those actions as “raising hell.”

The archival documents I analyzed show that Young's performance on the NACA was exemplary throughout her profession. In 1967she was awarded the University of North Dakota prestigious Sioux Award in recognition of their skilled achievements and contributions to the university.

In 1995 and again in 2014, the NASA Langley Research Center dedicated a theater to her. The latest theater is situated in NASA's Integrated Engineering Services Building.

In 2015, Young was added to the inaugural event NASA/NACA Langley Hall of Honor. But over the course of her profession, not all of her colleagues shared this positive view of Young and her work.

In 1930, one in every of Young's superiors found it vital to evaluate her “attitude” and suitability as an worker in her progress report – and justified his position by writing these additional words into the document himself.

Later that 12 months, Young requested a leave of absence – probably for the vacation season – and had one other supervisor write an official memorandum for engineer-in-charge, a position just like that of today's NASA center director. He referred to Young's “attitude” when she asked to make use of her vacation days.

Women aren’t welcome within the STEM field

Although sexism in STEM fields has modified forms over time, gender inequalities still exist. Women in STEM often face microaggressions, Marginalization and hostile work environmentsincluding unequal pay, lack of recognition and extra service expectations.

Women often There is a scarcity of supportive social networks and meet others systemic barriers to profession advancementB. not being recognized as an authority figure or the double standards of being perceived as too aggressive as an alternative of as a pacesetter.

Colored womenWomen who belong to it LGBTQ+ communities and girls with a number of disabilities facing much more barriers rooted in these intersectional identities.

One technique to combat these inequalities is to boost awareness of systemic barriers through sharing Stories of girls who endured in STEM fields – Women like Pearl Young.