Women in vehicle engineering

Females have made significant progress cracking the predominantly male domain of automotive engineering. They're now chief engineers, VPs, even a CEO. But why are there still so few of them?

Cindy Hess rocketed through the Auburn University College of Engineering in just three years. Graduating as an electrical engineer in 1977, she turned down job offers from aerospace giants Boeing and General Dynamics to join Chrysler Electronics as its first-ever female engineer. In 1981, she was assigned to the automaker's Highland Park, MI, complex.

“I was the sixth woman within a workforce of about 6000 engineers at Chrysler at the time,” she recalled. “And it's incredible when I think about what we had to endure to do our jobs in those days.”