Dr. Laura Ettinger

Selected Publications:

BOOK:
• Ettinger, L., Nurse Midwifery: The Birth of a New American Profession (The Ohio State University Press, 2006). [The full book is available here.]
  
  ARTICLES:
• Ettinger, L., "Trailblazing women who broke into engineering in the 1970s reflect on what’s changed – and what hasn’t," The Conversation (widely reprinted, including in The Washington Post) (2021)
• Ettinger, L., Conroy, N., and Barr, W., "What Late Career and Retired Women Engineers Tell Us: Gender Challenges in Historical Context," Engineering Studies, 11: 3 (2019), 217-242, DOI: 10.1080/19378629.2019.1663201.
• Ettinger, L., Conroy, N., and Barr, W., "Then and Now: Women Engineers' Perspectives on Changes and Challenges in the Field Since the 1970s," Society of Women Engineers Magazine. 64: 2 (2018), 68-73.
• Ettinger, L., “Midwives on Horseback: Saddlebags and Science” (2015)
• Ettinger, L. and Hanson, S., "A Very Cold Reception: Rogue Chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi Defies Convention to Admit Women," Ultimate History Project (UHP), an on-line history journal (2013)
• Ettinger, L., "Labor Pangs: The Birth of a New Profession," UHP (2012)
• Ettinger, L. and Ettinger-DeLong, A., "A Very American Story: Introducing Your Child to Genealogy," UHP (2012)
• Ettinger, L., "Inside Out: The Use and Inadvertent Misuse of Oral Histories," in Bâtir de nouveaux ponts: sources, méthodes et interdiciplinarité/ Building New Bridges: Sources, Methods, and Interdisciplinarity (2005)


MEDIA:
• Ettinger, L. (producer) & Miller, Z. (director). Trailblazers: The Untold Stories of Six Women Engineers (2020). This short documentary (19:18 minutes) is aimed at adults and older high school students of all interests and backgrounds. It tells the stories of six trailblazing women engineers as they share their experiences overcoming obstacles and paving the way for the next generation. Their stories are powerful. They help us to understand how individual women in engineering navigated the challenges they encountered, and how institutions might work to address those challenges.
• Ettinger, L. (producer) & Miller, Z. (director). Inspire! Six Trailblazing Women Engineers Inspire the Next Generation (2020). This three-part educational video collection, accompanied by a discussion guide for teachers, guidance counselors, Scout leaders, parents, and others, empowers middle school and early high school girls to explore careers in STEM. All three videos are beneficial for young people regardless of gender identification.

Selected Awards and Recognition:

EXTERNAL:
• Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI), National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant (2019-23)
• PI, National Science Foundation grant, Science, Technology, & Society program (2017-20)
• Society for the History of Technology, Martha Trescott Prize for the best published historical essay on women in technology (2020)
• Documentary, Trailblazers, received Award of Merit, The Impact DOCS Awards Competition (2020), and it was an official selection at the Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Honor Society) STEM Art and Film Festival. (2020)
• Educational video collection, Inspire!, was an official selection at the Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Honor Society) STEM Art and Film Festival. (2020)
• J. William Fulbright Scholar, U.S. State Department, University of Rijeka, Croatia (2012)
• Nurse Midwifery: The Birth of a New American Profession named Outstanding Academic Title in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (2007)

CLARKSON UNIVERSITY:
• Distinction in Faculty Mentoring for Research and Scholarship Award (2022)
• Phalanx Commendable Service Award (Phalanx is the university’s highest honorary society.) (2019)
• "Last Lecture" - invited by the senior class to give a final lecture to the graduating seniors (2017)
• Residence Hall Association Faculty Award (for piloting living-learning communities with first-year students). (2014; 2001)
• Distinguished Teaching Award (2013)
• Phalanx Commendable Leadership Award (2013)
• Outstanding New Teacher Award (2000)



Other Links:

• Dr. Ettinger presents “Then and Now: Pioneers’ Perspectives" (from 41:22 - 1:02:33) at the State of Women in Engineering Session at the Society of Women Engineers Conference in Minneapolis (2018).
• Dr. Ettinger interviews Former Congresswoman Constance Morella (Maryland) before a live audience at Clarkson University. (2014)
• Interview with Laura Ettinger by Derrick Duplessy on Purpose Rockstar, "inspirational stories of people who have found purpose in their careers." (2014)

Reviews of
Nurse Midwifery: The Birth of a New American Profession:

“In this important book, historian Laura E. Ettinger sets out to explain how nurse-midwifery, the mainstay of maternity care in many European countries, has been unable to fulfill its promise in the United States….[T]his is a must-read for historians and students of medicine, health care, women’s studies, and the professions.”
--Ellen S. More, American Historical Review

“Ettinger meticulously researched her subject, and this rich and textured study provides fresh insights into the profession. Through carefully argued analysis, Ettinger uses nurse-midwifery as a lens through which to understand much larger issues of maternity health care. Although not a nurse-midwife, the author displays an impressive understanding of the essence of nurse-midwifery, providing what reads like an insider’s view of the profession. Nurse-midwifery advocates and policy makers would be well advised to read this book in order to inform debates on maternity care practices and resource utilization today.”
--Anne Z. Cockerham, Nursing History Review

“In this meticulous and fascinating historical study, Ettinger details the emergence of American nurse-midwifery and analyzes the trends to the present. The author argues that nurse-midwives across the country who completed advanced education in the 1920s were simultaneously in alliance with and antagonistic to the medicalization of childbirth. Early nurse-midwives served low-income people and lost astonishingly few mothers at a time when maternal mortality was high. However, when childbirth moved from the home to the hospital, nurse-midwives were forced by politics and the hospital hierarchy to accommodate physicians, and thus lost autonomy. The roadblocks that this accommodation created for nurse-midwives are recognizable barriers today. Ettinger argues that nurse-midwives have been and are currently misunderstood and ignored; they continue to face opposition….This well-researched, well-written book is an enjoyable read.
--Diane B. Hamilton, Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries