ABSTRACT
Attaining an engineering degree doesn’t necessarily mean that you will become an engineer. Dating back to the late 1800s, the first woman to achieve a bachelor’s degree in engineering never worked as a professional engineer. Kathy Nelson gives us some insight into the history behind female engineers and the impact of having a female mentor at a time that the word STEM didn’t exist. She guides us on the 5 “ups” that are important for anyone entering a STEM-related field. Additionally, she unravels the challenges of trying to fit in with the “boys club” and how it affected her from blossoming into her authentic self until she decided to embrace her unique perspectives and find her voice. Her journey through the boardroom as a power engineer and into the podcast realm is captured in this chapter.
