Meet Elsie MacGill by Elizabeth MacLeod

Did you know that a woman was responsible for overseeing the manufacturing of Hawker Hurricanes, a small fighter plane used by the British during World War II? That woman was Elsie MacGill, a woman who was born in British Columbia in 1905. Elsie's parents encouraged her to study hard and they believed that girls should have a good education. Elsie's mother was one of the first women to become a judge in Canada!

Elsie took drawing lessons from Emily Carr who would go on to become a world famous painter.She loved to tinker, taking things apart to figure out how they worked. This led Elsie to discover that she wanted to be and engineer and so she enrolled in engineering at university. In 1927 Elsie MacGill graduated with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering.

Her first job was as a junior engineer at the Austin Company in Pontiac, Michigan. Elsie became interested in aeronautics and this interest led her to earn a masters degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Michigan in 1929. However, the day before her graduation Elsie contracted polio, a serious illness that left her without feeling in her legs.

Over the next three years Else made a gradual recovery, learning to walk with a cane. She began working at Fairchild Aircraft Limited in Longueuil, Quebec working on planes. In 1938 she was hired as the chief aeronautical engineer for Canadian Car and Foundry Company. There she designed the Maple Leaf Trainer II, even riding along on the test flights.

With the start of World War II, a war in which airplanes would play a crucial role, Elsie MacGill would also play an important role. During the Battle of Britain, many fighter plane called Hawker Hurricanes were required as England battled in the air for its very existence. Elsie was responsible for co-ordinating production of these planes. She made important changes that would speed up their production.

As her reputation grew, Elsie, opened her own company and after the war became a technical advisor to the United Nation's International Civil Aviation Organization. In the 1960's and '70's she became involved in women's rights, advocating for equal opportunities for women in the sciences. Elsie, like many other trailblazing women, proved that women were just as capable as men when it came to engineering and science.

Discussion

Elizabeth MacLeod's biography on little-known Elsie MacGill is an appealing account of this amazing woman's life.

Elsie benefited greatly from the widespread social changes that were occurring in the early part of the 20th century and just after World War I. It was a time when women were beginning to play a more visible role in society. The right to vote was being won across the country and women were now working towards other changes. In the 1920's it was still unusual for a woman to enter a university to study engineering, the sciences and medicine. But many, like Elsie were demonstrating that women were just as capable as men in these areas.

Elsie came from a family of trail-blazing women: her maternal grandmother, Emma Gregory was a prominent suffragist and her mother was the first woman judge in British Columbia. Elsie's mother was very well educated, even by today's standards. She earned a Bachelor of Music in 1886, the first woman to do so in the British Commonwealth and then a Bachelor and Masters of Art by 1890. Elsie was the first woman to graduate from the University of Toronto with an degree in electrical engineering. She was also the first woman to earn a graduate degree in aeronautics from the University of Michigan. This made her the first woman aeronautical engineer in the world! It's difficult today to comprehend what an accomplishment all of this was in the 1920's, when the disciplines of science and engineering were not so welcoming to women students.

Elsie MacGill

Grady's biography portrays Elsie's strong work ethic, her determination to overcome obstacles both in her own personal life and in work and her creative approach to problems. For example, Elsie worked hard to regain the use of her legs after contracting polio immediately before her graduation at University of Toronto. And during World War II, she knew that efficient production of the Hawker Hurricane fighter plane was essential to Britain in the war against Nazi Germany so she removed inefficiencies that slowed production of the planes. She retrained factory workers and redesigned some basic components.

Mike Deas' illustrations bring life to Elsie's remarkable story. His artwork was created using a combination of digital and traditional methods.  The original sketches were created using a Wacom tablet and Photoshop. They were then traced onto watercolour paper and gouache and watercolour paints were applied. The final touch included using ink to add the black lines. The result is a somewhat comic book look that is appealing to younger readers. Deas has managed to really capture emotions in his artwork, showing Elsie's love working with planes and her determination to succeed.

Elsie MacGill demonstrated that women were more than capable of succeeding in the field of engineering. MacLeod's biography is a must read for young girls interested in science and a possible career in science or engineering. Included is a timeline of Elsie's life and a few photographs.

Image credits:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/elizabeth-muriel-gregory-macgill

Book Details:

Meet Elsie MacGill by Elizabeth MacLeod
Toronto: Scholastic Canada Ltd.     2019