HP Innovation Journal Issue 14: Spring 2020 | Page 70

REMEMBER WHEN
1963
WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE
The 1950s and ’60s were a time when few
women pursued careers in technology and
even fewer businesses hired them. HP was
one of the rare exceptions. After World
War II, when women had been hired to fill
production and assembly roles, HP contin-
ued to actively recruit and train its female
workforce. In 1958, HP launched a voluntary
training course in electronic tech produc-
tion for women, and by the mid-1960s,
37% of all HP employees were women.
The women in this 1963 photograph were
working on frequency synthesizer production
assembly at the company’s Palo Alto site.
While the majority of women in tech roles
at HP were in electronic tech production
and assembly, HP also employed pioneering
female engineers. In 1953, Edna MacLean
became HP’s first female engineer after
graduating from Stanford. Throughout
her time at HP, she encouraged women
to pursue careers in technical fields and
engineering. Jane Evans, an applications
engineer and product manager, who began
her 25-year career at HP in 1965, was
inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering
Hall of Fame in 1999. Today, HP is one of the
top tech companies for women in executive
positions, and women make up 42% of the
HP Board of Directors.
­— Andrea Bell-Matthews