
Society’s forthcoming publication would be cared for by “chief nursemaids,” publication director Alma Kuppinger Forman, P.E., F.SWE, and editor Rheta Kudroff, and several governess assistants, including advisory editor Elsie Eaves, P.E., F.SWE. RIGHT: The journal was renamed the SWE Newsletter in 1954, reflecting the publication’s primary focus on sharing news of the Society and its members, rather than technical articles.
In the late 1940s, several groups of engineering students and professionals emerged on the East Coast, each calling themselves the “Society of Women Engineers.” They joined together at SWE’s founding meeting May 27–28, 1950, where, in addition to electing a governing board of directors and establishing committees, the founding members appointed a team responsible for producing a Society-wide publication to share news about SWE and its members.
In the 1950 summer special issue of its newsletter, the New York City District of SWE (as it was called then) cheekily issued a birth announcement for the Society’s forthcoming but unnamed publication: “Weight: Heavy, we hope. Sex – Female, of course.” While the estimated due date was a few months off, the Journal of the Society of Women Engineers debuted in spring 1951, providing a critical platform for SWE to share news about itself and its members, and a direct lineage to today’s SWE Magazine.


“Scrapbook: Announcing a New Arrival” was written by Troy Eller English, SWE Archivist. This article appears in the 2020 spring issue of SWE Magazine.
Read more from the 2020 spring issue of SWE Magazine:
- Feature: Toward More Accessible Work Environments
- Feature: Engineering for Good
- Feature: Inclusive Design for Living Longer
- Feature: Women Engineers You Should Know
- SWE Forum: From Congressional Visits to the “New Normal” Brought by COVID-19
- Opening Thoughts: Access: A Matter of Human Rights
- News & Advocacy: COVID-19: STEM Strikes Back
- News & Advocacy: Momentum, Authenticity, and Pivoting: The State of Women in Politics
- News & Advocacy: Visiting Congress During a Global Health Crisis
- News & Advocacy: People
- Career Pathways: Shelter-at-Home Orders Put Spotlight on Disability Accommodations
- President’s Note: Joy and Relevance in the SWE Mission
- Life and Work: Is Sitting the New Smoking?
- Reinvention: From Fixing up My Home to Helping Others Construct Theirs
- Media: Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
- Viewpoint: Then and Now: Personal Reflections on Accessibility
- In Memoriam: Marta Kindya, 1946-2019
- Closing Thoughts: Community in Times of Crisis