Women Engineers: Many Paths to a Rewarding Life

Jenny Gruber ’99
Landing the Space Shuttle

“The quality of people’s lives are improved by airplanes, cars, space technology. That’s part of the reason I’m here.”

B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering '99

Rhodes Scholar

Ph.D. from Oxford University

Currently an Orbit Flight Dynamics Officer at NASA.

I’m an Orbit Flight Dynamics Officer. We track the shuttle and plan its maneuvers. It’s a glider once it’s done with its mission. We have one shot to get it to the runway from 4,000 miles away and 400,000 feet up. It’s basically in the South Pacific, and we have to get it to Florida.

Growing up I always knew I wanted to be involved in space exploration, but I didn’t hear about engineering until I was taking AP physics and my teacher brought up the subject of doing engineering. He described it as problem solving in a way that uses your math and science skills.

It was continually mentioned to me that there weren’t that many women in engineering. We’ve made such a big deal about telling young women there are not enough women doing it. If you’re good at it -- it’s treated as abnormal.

I go out and talk in schools and explain why I like what I do, and I say, “hey look, I’m a normal looking woman with a husband and a mortgage.”

A big part of engineering is teamwork and socialization. No one gives engineering enough credit for that. Really, it’s a very social profession. The ability to communicate is key. [Women] stereotypically have an advantage with communication.

Young women want to be in professions that are obviously helpful to the rest of society. With engineering, the contributions we make don’t get applied until well into the future. But, the quality of people’s lives are improved by airplanes, cars, space technology. That’s part of the reason I’m here.