Tales from the Archives: Getting from There to Here in Public Policy

SWE members typically head to Washington D.C. around this time each year for Congressional Visits Day, speaking to their legislators about policy issues relevant to STEM education and women in the engineering workforce. SWE has hosted Congressional Visits Day for more than a decade. It’s pretty remarkable, not only because of the impact that members can have in educating policymakers, but also because for much of its history the Society has expressly avoided participating in public policy. So today we’re going back into the archives to explore how SWE’s stance evolved from actively avoiding public policy advocacy in its early years to actively engaging in it.