For Valentine’s Day, SWE members are recognizing their husbands and other loved ones for all of the support they give to help women engineers succeed. If you have a supportive significant other, please tell us all about it using the hashtag #VDay2017 and tag us @SWEtalk.
I joined SWE my first semester at Iowa State and met David my second semester, so I always say he knew what he was getting into with me and SWE. In all seriousness, David has supported me from day one. Some of our first dates were in the SWE office on campus. He always encouraged me to take leadership opportunities while at Iowa State and that continued into my professional career.
Some moments that stand out for me with David’s support is when our first daughter was born. She was only a few months old when I was going to be the section president in Minnesota and I was so worried about how I was going to “do it all” and he just reassured me and said you got this. And I did.
Fast forward two years and our other daughter was soon to arrive… I was worried about applying for new role (promotion) at work and interested in becoming Region Governor, again, he just reassured me as always and said you got this. And I did.
But when I wanted to run for Society President then surely he would say this is too much and maybe you should wait until the girls are older or you aren’t so busy at work. But no, all he said was “I knew this was the plan when I met you at Iowa State” and he just reassured me as always and said you got this. And I did.
As I have moved through SWE leadership and have gone on countless trips, I was asked often who is helping David out with the girls while you were away. That always made us laugh because no one asked David when he was traveling who was helping me! Just as David has been an amazing husband to me, he is an amazing father keeping everything going at home when SWE calls for me to be away.
https://alltogether.swe.org/2017/02/real-husbands-swe-marty-landwehr/
