Enabling Circumstances: Women Chemical Engineers at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, 1910-1943

The Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) was the first of its kind when it opened doors in Trondheim in 1910. For the first time, engineers who were perceived as central to the country's industrial development could be educated in Norway. Of the 4,311 students admitted to NTH before 1940, twenty were women who embarked on the course in chemical engineering. In this prosopographical study, I aim to examine closely the first cohorts of women engineers in Norway, their motivations for studying chemical engineering, their career opportunities and choices and the extent to which they were supported by mentors. Sixteen women who completed their degrees have been investigated, and the lives and careers of three women who represent three common chemical industries in Norway during the first third of the twentieth century are studied in depth. I argue that the special place of NTH in Norwegian society prompted ambitious women to seek careers in chemical engineering. Because these candidates' competence was highly valued, they overcame the barriers otherwise experienced by women in Norwegian society in the early twentieth century.