World Engineering Day: How Damyanti Gupta Became Ford's First Female Engineer

She is a role model every young woman should read about. At a time few women took up science or engineering, Damyanti Hingorani Gupta became the first female degreed engineer ever hired by Ford Motor Company.

Gupta joined the company in 1967 after graduating from the engineering college in India, wherein she was the first woman admitted to the college. She moved to Detroit, Michigan, and began her ground-breaking career with Ford Motors.

Early life of Damyanti Gupta

Born on May 10, 1942 in a small town in British India, Damyanti Gupta had to leave her home country behind following the partition that took place in 1947. The place she called home became part of a new country called Pakistan. At the age of 5, she along with her family fled middle of the night to the coastal town of Karachi, now in Pakistan.

Growing up, her mother Gopibai Hingorani, who herself had only received 4th grade education, assured Damyanti that she would receive a better education. And she emphasised that it would become a possession no one could take away from her.

Gupta found her calling when at the age of 13, she heard the word engineer for the first time. During a visit to her city, then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, called for the young people who would become the future engineers. “After 200 years of British rule, India has no industry and that we need engineers. I’m not just talking to you boys."

‘I’m also talking to you girls,” he added.

That was the day, Damyanti set her sights on becoming one of the first female engineers.

The difficult path to success

Damyanti came closer to her dream when she was admitted as the first woman in an engineering college in India. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Damyanti moved to Düsseldorf, Germany to work. Later, she moved to Oklahoma where she earned a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and once again she was the first female engineer from Oklahoma State University.

Gupta was 19 when she aimed at being part of the company built by Henry Ford after coming across his biography. Her parents handed over their lifetime savings to educate their child and fulfil her lifelong dream. The path to Ford wasn’t easy either, she was rejected when she applied for the first time. However, she held onto her goal and eventually the first female with a Masters in Engineering ever hired by the Ford Motor Company.

Damyanti Gupta met her husband Subhash in the USA and they had two sons, Sanjay and Suneel, who are a practicing neurosurgeon and a lawyer respectively. Currently, she is retired from Ford and lives in Fort Myers.

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