24
Geotechnical News • September 2018
COMPUTING IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
From the GS Board
Women in Canadian Geotechnique
Andrea Lougheed (BGC Engineering Inc.) is a member of the CGS Heritage Committee and its Task Force on Women in
Canadian Geotechnique. It this article, Andrea introduces some of the recent work of that Task Force. Heinrich Heinz, Chair
CGS Heritage Committee
.
Introduction
The geotechnical profession has
historically been male-dominated
and, until relatively recently, female
representation has been minimal or
non-existent. This imbalance was
common in all STEM (science, tech-
nology, engineering and mathematics)
fields, but has been gradually changing
since the mid-1900s. In the Cana-
dian geotechnical field, this change
is reflected in the growing female
enrollment at the undergraduate and
graduate levels, and some universities
are currently seeing gender equality in
their geological programs. Geotechni-
cal consulting firms are also seeing a
growing number of female profession-
als. Anecdotally, in some firms, this
is as high as 50% at the junior level,
and 30% at intermediate and senior
levels. Women, like men, are drawn
to the geotechnical profession through
their love of nature, and their desire to
understand how the world works and
to be a positive force for change.
Currently there are initiatives in
Canada to increase gender diversity
in the STEM fields; for example,
Engineers Canada’s “30 by 30”
initiative to increase the percentage
of female engineers to 30% by 2030.
The percentage of female professional
engineers in Canada has increased
from 9.5% in 2008 to 12.8% in 2016.
In 2016, the number of newly licensed
female engineers increased to 17%.
Within the Canadian geotechni-
cal community, we are also seeing
more women. Female CGS members
have increased from 9% to 12%
between 2008 and 2017. Anecdot-
ally, female delegates at recent CGS
annual conference have been esti-
mated to be roughly 20%. In 1999,
Anne Poshmann and Jean Hutchinson
became the first female CGS Execu-
tive Committee (EC) members (VP
Financial and Division Representative,
respectively). Since then, women have
served in all CGS EC positions. Since
2013, women on the EC have ranged
between 25% and 43%. This year,
22% of the executives of the CGS
sections, and 25% of the CGS Section
Directors, are women.
Although statistics indicate a growth
in women in the Canadian geotechni-
cal profession, their past involvement
and contributions to the geotechnical
community may have been overlooked
and/or underappreciated. The CGS
Heritage Committee has been working
to identify and profile some of the first
women in Canadian geotechnique.
This furthers Anna Burwash’s 1997
Geotechnical News
article entitled
“Breaking New Ground–Women in
Geotechnical Engineering” (Com-
memorative Edition, Vol. 15, No. 4,
p. 69-73, also on the CGS website at
-
tech%20Eng%20in%20canada%20
%20An%20historical%20review.pdf
).
As part of the current Heritage Com-
mittee’s initiative, twelve women were
interviewed about their education,
careers and other professional activi-
ties. A brief profile of four of these
women, all who began their careers
in the 1960s, follows. These four, and
an additional eight women, will be
further profiled at the 71st Canadian
Geotechnical Conference in Edmonton
(GeoEdmonton 2018) in September.
Anna Lankford Burwash
Anna first became acquainted with
geotechnical engineering as an
undergraduate in Civil Engineering
at Carnegie Mellon University (B.Sc.
1968). She found geotechnical papers
interesting to read and reassuringly
practical, and was excited with the
prospect of working with very hetero-
geneous materials like soil, rock, and
muskeg. Anna was the only woman in
her class and possibly only the third
woman to receive a degree in Civil
Engineering at Carnegie Mellon.
Following graduation, Anna moved
to Canada and began research work
with two professors at the University
of New Brunswick and that led to
her working at the Muskeg Research
Institute in 1970. This was followed
by consulting work with Geocon, in
New Brunswick, and Hardy Associ-
ates, in Alberta. In 1980, Anna entered
the management consulting field with
her own company, A.L. Burwash
Consulting.
Anna participated in several profes-
sional organizations over the years,
including the CGS. She attended her
first CGS conference in 1971, was
the CGS Atlantic Region Director
between 1973 and 1976, and founded
the CGS Fredericton Section. Also in
the 1970s, Anna served on the NRC
Associate Committee on Geotechni-
cal Research, and was the first female
Anna Lankford Burwash
