The engineering and mathematics she was pursuing were at the highest levels available — she was not stopping at the computational work, she was moving toward the engineering side of the work as rapidly as the circumstances allowed.

In 1949, she became a licensed professional engineer in the state of California.

The license mattered.

It was not a formality.

In a period when the engineering profession was almost entirely male and where the barriers to women practicing as engineers — even women who had the mathematical and technical skills — were significant, a professional engineering license was a credential that was difficult to dismiss.

It said, in the most official and unambiguous terms available: she is an engineer.