Mental Floss

Help Us Find These 1970s AT&T Engineers

By Chris Higgins

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In this 1975 AT&T film, five female AT&T engineers are profiled. The film starts with male attitudes towards women working as engineers. There are no surprises there -- the men seem completely opposed to the notion of a woman being an engineer, and many seem to find the idea of a woman working at all a little weird. Things have changed a bit since the Seventies; some of the best engineers I work with are women, though there is certainly still a huge gender gap in engineering.

The twenty-minute film goes on to profile five women who worked at AT&T (well, in the Bell System) in the 1970s. What's most interesting, though, is that AT&T apparently cannot locate any of these five -- they (and I) would like to ask followup questions and learn how things have changed since 1975. I think our readers must have some connection to these five women -- we know engineers and scientists around the world; we must be able to find these folks -- can you help us find them? They are: Carol Latimer at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, Jerri Jackson in the Carolinas, Bev Miles in Colorado, Sharon Fujitani in the Midwest, and Tony Leach in the Pacific Northwest.

From the film's description:

A counterpart to a Bell System film from 1974 called "The Engineer", this film profiles females engineers working in Bell Labs. Filmed in 1975, this film served double-duty as a recruitment film for female engineering students, and was also shown in high schools and colleges. Five women in the Bell System are profiled: Carol Latimer at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, Jerri Jackson in the Carolinas, Bev Miles in Colorado, Sharon Fujitani in the Midwest, and Tony Leach in the Pacific Northwest. We've tried to track down all of these women today to get their impressions of the film, but couldn't find any of them. ...

Do You Know These Engineers?

If so, leave a comment -- I can email you privately to follow up. If you help us find one or more of these women, I promise I'll write a detailed followup article and/or video. If Tony Leach is still in Portland, I'll go interview her in person!