Inspiration — Lynn Conway at The University of Michigan

By Kristina Mayhem

Over one hundred people gathered for a special presentation called Leading Inclusion: Gender in Engineering on November 18^th 2014 in Chesebrough Auditorium on the beautiful University of Michigan North Campus.  It was sponsored by Own It, a UofM organization of student engineers.

Own It wants more inclusiveness in engineering and cited statistics that only 13% of the engineering workforce are women. This presentation addressed the challenges women engineers face using the unique perspectives of two guest speakers: Carolyn Yarina, CEO and Co-Founder of CentriCycle Inc. & Sisu Global Health; and Lynn Conway, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Emerita at The University of Michigan.  Conway is a leading figure in the Transgender community.

Promotional flyers described Conway as “a pioneer in the field of micro-electronics and computer science who revolutionized the design of micro-electronics through the creation of VLSI systems. As a male working for IBM in the 1960s, Lynn invented dynamic instruction scheduling (DIS) which allowed computers to become truly scalar. During the late 1960s Lynn was one of the first patients to ever undergo full gender transition.  After her gender transition, Lynn was forced to rebuild her career in “stealth-mode” under a new name and identity.  Despite some major conflicts over the next decade, Lynn experienced huge amounts of success and served as an Associate Professor at MIT to teach about her revolutionary design.  She became the Associate Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan in 1985 while continuing to do research and teach as a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Now, universities across the world have adopted her text for their microelectronic courses and she is regarded as one of the most influential transgender people in the United States. Lynn has been an activist for transgender for many years and her story is an inspiration to the transgender community and young transsexuals.”

The presentation got underway with an introduction by Angie Farrehi, the Student Advocacy Manager in the School of Engineering.  Farrehi encouraged people to think beyond the usual dimensions of gender. Both speakers connected with the audience, giving interesting perspectives on gender from their experiences in the industry. Conway said at seventy-six years of age she’s witnessing a never-before-seen watershed in history. She says the awakenings in the techno-social world are breathtaking. She says outsiders are finding their voices in unique and interesting ways, and it’s a harbinger of things to come. Many are no longer hiding in the shadows and LGBT people are at the vanguard of this revolution. An exploding techno-exploration is changing hearts and minds and lending form to a chaotic message.

Conway described her recent visit to the White House where she met with Barack Obama. As she waited for the President, she reflected on her gender transition and the challenges she faced. She lost so much, including all social support and her job at IBM. It was a time when someone gender variant could be arrested as a sex offender or be involuntarily hospitalized and forced into electro-shock therapy. She gradually put her life back together and found work, but was still covering up her past. She said she was looking over her shoulder like a spy in a foreign country. At her new job she didn’t mind hiding in the back room. She was thrilled just to labor mightily in the shadows.

In 2012 Conway published her memoirs as a fresh wind of transgender acceptance swept in. Waiting for Barack Obama, she commented to her husband “We’ve come so far so fast.” As they flew home from Washington she reflected on all the remarkable progress. She read a news story about a support group for parents of transgender children, something previously unheard of. Another news story told how two transpeople found love and happiness, and another told how a Navy Seal came out as transgender. Conway remembers when the culture was ‘You don’t have to know me — just don’t kill me.’ She emphasized how much things have changed, recalling a bygone era most can only glimpse from afar, and will never see with such clarity.

Conway said it’s fascinating and satisfying the way interactive media is knitting diverse threads into a single tapestry. Despite this, she said there are many obstacles to overcome, and she cited statistics that LGBT people contemplate suicide at a higher rate. She cited transgender author Janet Mock’s best-selling biography that redefines realness. She compared the struggles transpeople face with what all women face, citing Claire Miller’s recent article Technology’s Man Problem. Conway sparkled with humor as she described how male engineers guffawed at pictures of women’s anatomy. She said a sexist Alpha Male culture marginalizes women, as this ‘tit stare’ echoed through the cybertech world.

The feel was positive as Conway gave inspirational thoughts for the future, stating that the 3D visual tools revolution creates many opportunities for innovation. She said social media will help everyone increase their connectivity. Success won’t be hard if you want to be a player because opportunities will steadily increase. The industry is growing exponentially and humanity depends on providing more life empowerment per person.Instead of isolative consumers a worldwide trend is piercing through outdated concepts to create something meaningful and human within.  She asked students to visualize the future and change it by stepping off the merry-go-round like you are already there.

Yarina and Conway spoke about the challenges women face during the question and answer session. Conway said it’s time for women to step through the barrier and get on the wave, a wave that men won’t see coming. Conway also described her gender variance web site and its worldwide popularity. She said it’s rewarding to get feed-back from gender variant adults and children all over the world.

The presentation ended with an enthusiastic round of applause.

Copies of the Fall 2014 edition of The Michigan Engineer were on hand with an article on Conway entitled Life, Engineered, How Lynn Conway Reinvented Her World and Ours.

Sources Cited

Conway, Lynn (2014).  Lynn Conway’s Homepage.  University of Michigan.

Miller, Claire (2014).  “Technology’s Man Problem.”  New York Times.

Mock, Janet (2014).  “Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More.”  New York: Simon and Schuster.

Moore, Nicole Casal (2014).  “Life, engineered.”  Michigan Engineering; University of Michigan.

Own It Community (2014).  “Leading Inclusion: Gender in Engineering.”  Facebook.

Tags: featured, History, Identity, Lynn Conway, Transgender, Transsexual, transsexualism

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Community News