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Junko Chodos (born 1939) is a contemporary artist born and educated in Japan and residing in the United States since 1968. Her works represent a wide variety of techniques and styles, ranging from pencil, pen, and collage, to works done with acrylic.

Chodos has had solo exhibitions featured at the Tokyo Central Museum, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the USC Pacific Asia Museum, the Fresno Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art in St. Louis, and numerous other museums and galleries in Japan and in the United States.

Life and career

Junko Chodos was born Junko Takahashi in Tokyo, Japan, in 1939. Her experience during World War II affected her later life and art. She grew up in a household where Shinto, Buddhism and Christianity were strong influences. She was a member of the first post-war generation of "commoners" allowed to attend the Gakushūin, the Imperial school.

Dead Flower Series, No. 8, Byoobu, Pen-and-ink with wash. Permanent Collection of the Pacific Asia Museum.

Chodos studied at Tokyo's Waseda University from 1963-1968. She graduated with a BA in Art History and Philosophy. At Waseda, she studied under Professor Shigeo Ueda, noted translator of Martin Buber into Japanese, and took an interest in his writings of philosophy.

After leaving Japan in 1968, Chodos migrated to California, calling herself a "spiritual refugee". She then attended the State University of New York, Buffalo. Later, in 1971 she married Rafael Chodos, a lawyer and author in biblical studies and the aesthetics of fine art.

In an article in the Winter 2003 issue of CrossCurrents, Chodos wrote:

To seek justice, to be courageous, to be ethical in other words, to choose rational universal standards over loyalty towards the group is to be a traitor in Japan, and these individuals break the biggest taboos of the totalitarian society. I experienced these aspects of Japanese society as a form of persecution and as a threat to my own integrity. That is why I left Japan and became a spiritual refugee.

As Junko Chodos developed her style. she coined the term Centripetal Art to describe the philosophical basis of her art, which she defined as art created by an artist who strives towards her center and encounters divine presence there.

Exhibitions and Publications

Chodos' solo exhibit "In the Forest of Amida Budda" was described by William Wilson in the Los Angeles Times as a "small but impressive solo." This exhibition featured works that appeared similar to Japanese scrolls. Chodos painted on top of Mylar with inks and acrylics to get a unique texture for these works.

In 2002, Chodos published: Metamorphoses: The Transformative Vision of Junko Chodos, a catalog of the one-person exhibition of the art of Junko Chodos at the Long Beach Museum of Art in the Fall of 2001. The book featured full-color high-quality reproductions and five critical essays. The works included a selection from collages to mylars included in her "Esoteric Buddhism" series, inside CD jewel boxes. The book won "Best Art Book of the Year - First Prize"" from Independent Publisher in 2002.

In 2005, the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art in Missouri presented a 30-year retrospective of her work titled "Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness". The exhibition title referenced a recurrent image in her work: the lungs. The exhibition included complex drawings of roots and dead flowers and works from a 1991 series, "Requiem for an Executed Bird".

Her influences include Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Matthias Grünewald, Albrecht Dürer and Japanese calligraphy, as well as the authors Rainer Maria Rilke, Herbert Read and Martin Buber. In 2010, Chodos was named a Fellow of the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture.

Centripetal Art

Junko Chodos has termed her art as "Centripetal" in nature. The New Republic defines centripetal artists as artists "whose preoccupation is directed to a dramatization of their accidental or willful individualism". A centripetal painter "believes in self-illumination, improvisation, speaking for himself alone", they "look to museums when not at mirrors". Junko Chodos herself defines it as "art created by an artist who strives towards her center and encounters Divine Presence there, where people go beyond the barriers of ethnicity, gender, religious denominations, dogma, and of confined ideas of blood and soil.

In 2008, Junko and her husband formed the Foundation for Centripetal Art to spread its ideas.

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization in the United States. SWE has over 37,000 members in nearly 100 professional sections and 300 student sections throughout the United States.

Antecedents

The SWE Archives contain a series of letters from the Elsie Eaves Papers (bequeathed to the Society), which document how in 1919, a group of women at the University of Colorado helped establish a small community of women with an engineering or science background. While this organization was recognized within the campus community, it did set the foundation for the development of the Society of Women Engineers. This group included Lou Alta Melton, Hilda Counts, and Elsie Eaves. The women wrote letters to engineering schools across the nation, asking for information on female engineering students and graduates. They received responses from 139 women in 23 universities . They also received many negative responses from schools that did not admit women into their engineering programs. From the University of North Carolina, Thorndike Saville, Associate Professor of Sanitary Engineering wrote: "I would state that we have not now, have never had, and do not expect to have in the near future, any women students registered in our engineering department ." Some responses were supportive of women in engineering, but not of a separate society.

Many of the women contacted as a result of the inquiries wrote about their support for such an organization. Besides the Hazel Quick letter from Michigan, there was a reply from Alice Goff, expressing her support of the idea of a society for women in engineering and architecture, "Undoubtedly an organization of such a nature would be of great benefit to all members, especially to those just entering the profession." The women in Michigan organized a group in 1914 called the T-Square Society. Although it was not clear if this group was a business, honorary, or social organization, it was proposed as a safe space for women to share and collaborate their ideas comfortably.

History

Though the Society of Women Engineers did not become a formal organization until 1950, its origins are in the late 1940s when shortages of men due to World War II provided the new opportunities for women to pursue employment in engineering. Female student groups at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, Cooper Union and City College of New York in New York City, began forming local meetings and networking activities. On April 3rd, 1949 seventy students attended a conference at Drexel to start organizing. These seventy students traveled from 19 universities.

On the weekend of May 27–28, 1950, about fifty women representing the four original districts of the Society of Women Engineers; New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Boston, met for the first national meeting at The Cooper Union's Green Engineering Camp in northern New Jersey. During this first meeting, the society elected the first president of SWE, Dr. Beatrice A. Hicks. The first official annual meeting was held in 1951, in New York City.

It wasn't until the 1960s after Russia launched Sputnik and interest in technological research and development intensified that many engineering schools began admitting women. Membership in SWE doubled to 1,200 and SWE moved its headquarters to the United Engineering Center in New York City.

After WWII women were discouraged from entering into engineering. During the war, their efforts were seen as a patriotic duty. After the war, women in engineering were seen as an abnormality.

Over the next decade, an increasing number of young women chose engineering as a profession, but few were able to rise to management-level positions. SWE inaugurated a series of conferences (dubbed the Henniker Conferences after the meeting site in New Hampshire) on the status of women in engineering and in 1973, signed an agreement with the National Society of Professional Engineers in hopes of recruiting a larger percentage of working women and students to its ranks.

At the same time, SWE increasingly became involved in the spirit and activities of the larger women's movement. In 1972, a number of representatives from women's scientific and technical committees and societies (including SWE) met to form an alliance and discuss equity for women in science and engineering. This inaugural meeting eventually led to the formation of the Federation of Organizations of Professional Women (FOPW). In addition, SWE's Council resolved in 1973 to endorse ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and a few years later, resolved not to hold national conventions in non-ERA-ratified states. The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed by Alice Paul in the 1920s, after women gained the right to vote, and still has not been ratified to this day. In 1973, SWE signed an agreement with the National Society of Professional Engineers to recruit more women engineers and students as members.

By 1982, the Society had swelled to 13,000 graduate and student members spread out in 250 sections across the country. The Council of Section Representatives, which in partnership with an Executive Committee had governed the Society since 1959, had become so large SWE adopted a regionalization plan designed to bring the leadership closer to the membership. Today, SWE has over 17,000 student, graduate, and corporate members, and continues its mission as a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational service organization.

The Society of Women Engineers organization exists today largely because the gender balance in Engineering does not proportionally reflect population breakdowns of men and women in the United States. Encouragement of female students and promotion of Engineering as a field of study for women is a necessary and fundamental function of the organization. Engineering and related fields are heavily male-dominated, in part because of gender socialization and artificially reinforced gender norms. Theories such as the STEM pipeline seek to understand and balance how different science, math, and engineering fields tend to over- or under-represent different groups of people in this country.

Mission

Its mission statement, adopted in 1986, is to "stimulate women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life, demonstrate the value of diversity." The organization was open to every gender and background in an effort to support and promote diversity.

The Society of Women Engineers, a not-for-profit organization, awards multiple scholarships each year to women in undergraduate and graduate STEM degree programs. About 233 scholarships were awarded for the 2017 school year amounting to $715,000. SWE's CEO and executive director Karen Horting stated that SWE "could not have such a successful program without our corporate and foundation partners and generous individuals who support our scholarships, and our hope is to continue to grow the program and provide financial resources to those studying for a career in engineering and technology."

Archives

While developing the society, the organizers had assembled masses of information that they decided to assemble into archives. The committee for these archives was established in 1953 and is currently located at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Some of the media includes information about a short lived society involving both architects and engineers from 1920. The archives include the history and creation of SWE as an organization, and the history of women's involvement in engineering. Due to these collections of women's work on scientific projects, the archives show an alternate perspective on events such as the 'Space Race'.

Current Work

Capt. Paz B. Gomez delivers keynote address at the Society of Women Engineers conference in Baltimore

SWE offers support at all levels, from K-12 outreach programs and collegiate sections to professional development in the workplace. Programs are in place to help collegiate and professional members interact with their local communities.

Rear Adm. Gretchen S. Herbert speaks with young women at event sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers.

Conferences

The Society of Women Engineers is organized at the local, regional, national, and international levels. SWE hosts annual We Local regional events across the world. These events connect members in all stages of their careers and hosts similar events to the larger annual conference. SWE hosts one annual conference in a different location each year. Over 11,000 members attend the three-day conference making it the largest event of its kind. . This conference includes professional development workshops, inspirational speakers, and a career fair.

Outreach

Every year, SWE holds GEARS Day event in universities such as University of Pennsylvania to help high school girls understand and explore more about engineering possibly in their future careers. Different workshops are offered, such as Engineering as an Environment Consultant, Bio-pharmaceutical Manufacturing, etc. .

Awards

Individual awards

• Achievement Award the highest award offered by the national organization is granted annually to a woman engineer for outstanding contributions over a significant period of time in any field of engineering.
• Suzanne Jenniches Upward Mobility Award recognizes a women who has succeed in rising to a management position within her organization. Recipients must have 20 years of experience and must have influenced creating a better environment for women in the workplace.
• Resnik Challenger Medal awards an individual who has made a breakthrough in space exploration.
• Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award is given to a man or company who has made an impact on the advancement of women in engineering.
• Distinguished Engineering Educator Award recognizes an engineering and educator who has made contributions to the engineering profession.
• Distinguished New Engineer Award honors those who have shown outstanding characteristics over the first 10 years of their career.
• SWE Fellows
• Distinguished Service Award honors a member who has actively served a SWE section for at least 20 years.
• Entrepreneur Award is given to a women who has started her own STEM-related business.
• Work Life Balance Award recognizes a person who is instrumental in creating a program to help other employees balance their work and family responsibilities.
• Emerging Leaders Award an honor for any women engineer whose career has resulted in significant accomplishments.
• Global Leadership Award goes to a role model who has led an internationally based team.
• Global Team Leadership Award
• Prism Award is given to a women who has at least 15 years of experience and has created her own path throughout her career.
• Advocating Women in Engineering Award
• Spark Award

Collegiate member and adviser awards

• Outstanding SWE Counselor Award
• Outstanding SWE Faculty Advisor Award
• Outstanding Collegiate Member Award

Multicultural awards, collegiate competitions and section awards

• The Boeing Company Multicultural Award
• Motorola Foundation Multicultural Award
• Collegiate Poster Competition
• Collegiate Rapid Fire Competition
• Team Tech Competition

Mission awards

Collegiate and professional

• Best Practice
  • Awards and Recognition
  • Communication
  • Global
  • Membership Retention and Engagement
  • Mentoring
  • Outreach
  • Partnership with Collegiates, Professionals, Industry and Academia
  • Professional Development
  • Public Policy
  • SWE Leadership Development and Mentoring
  • SWE Resource Promotion
• Gold
• Silver
• Bronze

Publications

In 1951 and only a year after the society was first established, the SWE began publishing the Journal of the Society of Women Engineers which included both technical articles and society news. In 1954, the journal was superseded by the SWE Newsletter, a magazine format which focused primarily on SWE and industry news. In 1980, it was again renamed, this time to US Woman Engineer. In 1993, the title was changed yet again to SWE and this remains their current periodical title with the subtitle 'magazine of the Society of Women Engineers'. The fifth volume of SWE was published in 2011 to celebrate the society’s 60th anniversary and to explore SWE's history in more depth using its archives.

Archives

Located at Wayne State University’s Walter P. Reuther Library in Detroit, Michigan, USA, the Society's archives were established in 1957 by the Archives Committee, who voluntarily collected and maintained the Society's records. In 1993, SWE designated the Walter P. Reuther Library as the official repository of its historical materials.

Located within the Carey C. Shuart Women's Archive and Research Collection, the Houston Area Section of the Society of Women Engineers contains correspondence, business and financial records, photographs, and publications of the organization.

See also

• Engineering
• Glossary of engineering
• California Society of Professional Engineers, the NSPE's California affiliate
• Engineering ethics

Sources

• English, Troy Eller. "Society of Women Engineers Publications" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
• SWE History [1]
• Allaback, Sarah, "The First American Women Architects", University of Illinois Press, 2008, (ISBN 0-252-03321-3)., p. 34
• Kindya, Marta Navia, "Four Decades of The Society of Women Engineers", Society of Women Engineers (1990) (ASIN: B0006E93SA)

External links

• Official website