In 1970, Barbara Howes, P.Eng., became the first woman engineering graduate from the University of Calgary. She was also the first woman engineer with Amoco Canada Petroleum and the first woman to chair the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s technical society.

Like many pioneering women in the profession, she didn’t set out to break new ground—she simply wanted to be recognized by her peers as a good engineer.

Interviewed in 1995 by APEGA’s The PEGG newspaper, Barbara Howes, P.Eng., shrugged off accolades about her achievements. “If I were a man, I don’t think you would be here interviewing me,” she said. She later served as an APEGA Councillor from 2003 to 2005.

The PEGG June 1995

In 1967, while studying mechanical engineering at the University of Calgary, Barbara Howes, P.Eng., received the Association of Professional Engineers of Alberta Scholarship in Engineering. After a successful 20-year-career as a reservoir engineer, she started a consulting firm in 1989 and received the YWCA’s Woman of Distinction Award in Science and Technology in 1995.

The Alberta Professional Engineer 1967