One of the fastest ways to reduce a woman's perceived standing in a professional course of study or within the profession itself is to add the suffix "ess" to the title as was done with engineer by Elsie's student colleagues leading to the title Engineeress in the engineering yearbook. Ironically, the use of it in the engineering publication at the University of Toronto was less negative than some previous historical uses in the United States where it also denoted a different and lower level of status in the training received by the woman in question.
Regardless, as time went on, Elsie would stand very firmly on the point that she was an engineer period. To her, the fact she was a woman was not worth considering by her, her colleagues or the client(s) in question.
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