Born: 17 August 1895, United Kingdom
Died: 4 January 1957
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
The following is republished with permission from Magnificent Women in Engineering and was written by Nina C. Baker.
Caroline Haslett, engineer, founding Secretary and President of the Women’s Engineering Society.
Dame Caroline Haslett was arguably the woman who had the most impact on the founding and continued success of the Women’s Engineering Society. Born in Sussex in 1895, her father Robert Haslett was a railway fitter. This perhaps explains why, on leaving school and getting a very junior clerical job with the Cochran Boiler Company in Annan, Scotland, she was so dissatisfied with the job that she asked if she could move to the shopfloor and learn the technical side.
In 1918, she answered an advertisement for a ‘Lady with some experience in engineering works as organizing secretary for a women’s engineering society.’This was the Women’s Engineering Society, and she would go on to be the guiding influence of the Society, editing the Journal and becoming President in 1941. She also co-founded the Electrical Association for Women, an organisation formed to reduce the drudgery of women’s everyday lives by encouraging the use of electricity in the home. She edited its journal, the Electrical Age, for 30 years and the 6 editions of Electrical Handbook for Women. When she retired from the EAW the association had 14,000 members, most of them housewives, domestic science teachers, and educationists, organized in 160 branches. It flourished into the 1980s and many women remember their mothers attending its courses, evidenced by one of the distinctive explanatory tea towels.
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Haslett was very much the voice for women in engineering in the UK and worldwide, advised the Government on planning in the Second World War, and was the only woman member of the Council of the British Institute of Management. In 1953-1954 she became the first female Chairman of the British Electrical Development Association, was the only woman member of the British Electricity Authority from 1947-1956 – leading to them naming one of their collier ships after her. Haslett was also the first Chairman of the British Federation of Business and Professional Women and the first British President of the International Federation. She served on numerous advisory bodies and wrote extensively.
In recognition of her work, Caroline Haslett was awarded a CBE in 1932 and a DBE in 1947. A primary school Milton Keynes and street in Crawley are named after her and there is also a blue plaque there/In her final years she lived with her widowed sister who was also active on the political side of electricity supply, and who wrote Caroline’s biography. She died in 1957.
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Dame Caroline Harriet Haslett was a distinguished English electrical engineer and advocate for women’s rights. She was the first secretary of the Women’s Engineering Society and the founder as well as editor of its journal, The Woman Engineer. Alongside Laura Annie Willson and with the support of Margaret, Lady Moir, she co-founded the Electrical Association for Women, a groundbreaking organization that introduced innovations like the All-Electric House in Bristol in 1935. In 1925, she became the first director of the Electrical Association for Women. Caroline Haslett’s primary focus was on leveraging electrical power to liberate women from household tasks, enabling them to pursue their aspirations beyond domestic responsibilities. During the early 1920s, electrical amenities were a luxury, with only a few homes having access to electric light or heating, and the National Grid had not yet come into being.
‘Way is being made by electricity for a higher order of women – women set free from drudgery, who have time for reflection; for self-respect. We are coming to an age when the spiritual and higher state of life will have freer development, and this is only possible when women are liberated from soul-destroying drudgery … I want [every woman] to have leisure to acquaint herself more profoundly with the topics of the day.’
— Caroline Haslett