In 1916 Marguerite Ingels became UK's first woman engineering graduate. After college she had a long career with the Carrier Corporation retiring in 1952. Ingels excelled as a student and endured the stereotypes that came with her college major and career choice.
Ingels had become interested in the process of condensation as a young girl in her hometown of Paris, Kentucky and set out to learn as much as she could about science and engineering even before entering the University of Kentucky. The Kentucky Alumnus reported that, "Miss Ingels completed the entire four years of the Engineering course, taking her turns in the forge shops and machine shop and doing the other duties of the engineer with the rest of the `boys,' never shirking a duty, however irksome."
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| Marguerite Ingels |
Ingels was a source of fascination to many as a woman engineering major at the university. During her sophomore year, while working in the blacksmith shop along with her fellow engineering students, a reporter observed her work. He noted that "over her daintily embroidered, open-necked waist and her white skirt, she wore a very business- like leathern apron, which dropped to the top of her gunmetal pumps; pulled tightly down over a goodly quantity of wavy, dark brown hair, which persisted in peeping out, was a black sateen workman's cap."
The attention to physical detail continued with the observation that Ingels was not of the "mannish" type. Like others the reporter felt obliged to comment whether women in historically male endeavors were "ladylike" and added that, "She is medium height (about five feet two inches) and of slender figure. She is really pretty; has large, intelligent gray eyes, the slightly tanned complexion of the outdoor girl and the long upper lip that denotes a poetical temperament and a love of ease and luxury. But this feature is given the lie by the strength of her chin and the way she closes her mouth as she works."
Machine shop instructor Joseph Dicker tried to exempt Ingels from the heavy parts of engineering work, "but she would not hear of it." "She keeps pace with the best of her classmates and asks odds of no one. The contour that her tanned arm displays when she grasps the sledge handle shows that she can suit the deed to the will."
When asked whether she supported women's suffrage Ingels reportedly replied, "Yes, don't you?" However, the reporter concluded the article by asserting that Ingels seemed "too absorbed in her work to worry about Votes for Women."
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