The name Nora Stanton Barney may not be widely known, but in the engineering world, she stands as an unsung hero whose achievements—and controversial history with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)—have only recently earned long-overdue recognition, nearly a century later. Her work became the foundation for understanding dredging production as we know it today.
Childhood
Born Nora Stanton Blatch in Basingstoke, England, in 1883, Nora came from a proud lineage of suffragists, including her mother, Harriot Stanton Blatch, and grandmother, Elizabeth Cady Stanton—both key figures in the women’s rights movement.
Her family frequently traveled to the eastern United States, and after attending Horace Mann School in the Bronx, the family settled permanently in the U.S. in 1902.
Education, Early Career, and Research
After high school, Nora attended Cornell University, where she earned a civil engineering degree and founded a campus suffrage club. In 1905, she graduated as the first female engineering graduate in the U.S. and became the first woman admitted as a junior member of the ASCE.
Shortly after, she worked for the New York City Board of Water Supply and the American Bridge Company.
In 1906, during her time at the Board of Water Supply, Nora conducted the first known slurry transport research—studying how liquids and materials move through pipelines. She also contributed to groundbreaking research in hydrodynamics.
Though aimed at water purification, Nora’s work laid the foundation for advances in the dredging industry. Slurry transport is extremely important in hydraulic dredging, as it tells dredgers what is happening in the pipeline, how far they can pump, and at what production rate. The next known research didn’t occur until 1938.
Eager to expand her expertise, Nora took additional courses at Columbia University in mathematics and electricity, eventually working as a lab assistant under inventor Lee De Forest—who would later become her husband.
Over the following years, she held roles at Radley Steel Construction Company as assistant engineer and chief draftsman, at the New York Public Service Commission as assistant engineer, and with the City of Long Island as a part-time architect and developer.
Although Nora met all the requirements for full ASCE membership, her 1916 application was denied solely because she was a woman. Undeterred, she sued the ASCE, but her case was unsuccessful. While the ASCE eventually opened full membership to women a decade later, Nora never reapplied.
Instead, she turned her attention to women’s rights, following the paths of her mother and grandmother. As president of the Women’s Political Union, she amplified women’s voices and played a key role in the National Women’s Party’s push for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Later Years and Posthumous Recognition
In 1919, Nora married marine architect Morgan Barney and moved to Connecticut, where she worked in real estate development while continuing to advocate for women’s rights. She published numerous articles on social issues, including “Women as Human Beings” (1946).
Nora passed away in 1971 at age 87.
In 2015—99 years after her rejection—the ASCE posthumously granted her full fellow status, finally recognizing her as a pioneering trailblazer in civil engineering and construction.
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