Evelyn J. Fields

"I have spent my career working very hard, I have spent the right time doing the right kinds of jobs and obviously have been in the right kind of assignments to put me in the position to be here. The fact that I’m female is nice; the fact that I’m black is nice, but I don’t think those were the reasons I was selected."

"Men think in terms of only men knowing how engines work, but once the engineers began to explain things to me, I could just see the amazement in their eyes when I was able to ask [intelligent] questions."

"Science organizations in the 1960s and '70s -- and the timeframe is a key part -- did not have a big female population, I can't tell you how many meetings I was the only female there. That's just how it was. But that was getting better by the time I left."