What were the lived experiences of the 25 women who were honored as the first Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) Achievement Award recipients? The short answer: very different from the lived experiences of young people starting their careers today. Some of these pioneering engineers were born in the nineteenth century, before electricity. Some of these trailblazers never had a computer to use. Others made the transition to the early, much bulkier computers than today’s exceedingly powerful smartphones but did much of their work using a slide rule. Most were usually one of the few or the only woman in engineering throughout their education and their career. This chapter sets the stage leading up to 1952: the year that the first SWE Achievement Award was presented. It covers the state of technology, the state of women, the genesis of SWE as well as its founding and early years, and the state of culture and laws.