Ellen Swallow Richards Essay

The World has not seen that many good Environmental Engineers, and not that many female engineers, until Ellen Swallow Richards. Before I go into the life of Ellen Swallow Richards, I would like to point a couple of things out. Ellen Swallow Richards was a feminist and she was a great woman to prove feminism existed and that all human beings are created equal.
Ellen Swallow Richards was born on December 3, 1842 in Dunstable, Massachusetts. She was the only child of Peter Swallow and Fanny Gould Taylor, both of whom came from established families of modest means and were believers in the value of education. She was informally educated by her parents who themselves were teachers. Ellen Swallow was educated mainly at home. She briefly attended Westford Academy and also taught school for a time. Ellen then went on to further her education at

Vasser College in the area of chemistry.
Chemistry was a study that Ellen felt would help solve such issues as poor water quality, poor sanitation and poor nutrition. Upon the finishing of her studies at Vasser, she was the first female enrolled into Massachusetts Institute of Technology, making her the first woman in America to be accepted into a scientific school. Three years later she received a second Bachelor’s Degree, a Bachelor's in Science, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a Master’s Degree from Vassar, to which she had submitted a thesis on the chemical analysis of an iron ore. She then continued at MIT with hopes of earning a doctorate, but Massachusetts Institute of Technology was not to award its first Doctorate to a woman until 1886. The first woman to receive a Doctorate was Shirley Ann Jackson.
This set the bar for women all over the United States. This act has given hope to women that were scared to excel beyond what they were taught.
The reason I chose Ellen Swallow Richards was because, she was an Environmental Engineer that got somewhere in her life. She was a very dedicated person to what she loved to do. She's a great inspiration to all females looking for an opportunity in the engineering field and to females around the world trying to prove to males, that females are capable to do the same things that males can do. AND EVEN BETTER!! Even though she believed that women were as capable to do what men could, she stayed circumspect. (cautious; considering all sides)
A quote I found that supports my previous statement about how she loved her job, and she wanted to prove the male figure that women can do the same as them, and even better is, "One of the most disheartening things of the day is to see the waste of time and energy in the occupations of nine-tenths of American women." In the waning years of her life, Ellen Swallow Richards would say that she had tried to show what an average American woman could accomplish.

Be that as it may, her career was anything but average. Ellen Richards was the first woman to graduate from MIT, a pioneer in the fields of sanitary engineering and public health, and the founder of euthenics and home economics.
Ellen Swallow Richards was also "One of America’s first female professional chemists and the first woman to be accepted by a scientific school, Ellen H. Swallow Richards is best known for pioneering the field of sanitary engineering. Richards performed an unprecedented survey in 1890 that led to the first state water-quality standards in the nation. She is credited for making important contributions to the understanding of environmental

systems."

Ellen Swallow Richards abhorred when people told her that because of her sex, she could not do what she wanted. One of my favorite quotes that I live by is, " The only trouble here is they won't let us study enough. They are so afraid we shall break down and you know the reputation of the College is at stake, for the question is, can girls get a college degree without ruining their health?" -Ellen Swallow Richards
This quote to me means that just because we are women, they do not want us to do what men do because they believe that we will take over doing everything. This also means that girls should be able to go to college without the thought of being discriminated. Women before Ellen were scared of stepping out and wanting to do things differently then what they were taught. (ex. Women have to stay home and cook and take care of kids while men work, men being paid more at work) Until just recently, there has been a demand of feminism around the world. In the years that Ellen lived, feminism was seen very little.