Ruth Schnapp

Ruth Schnapp (; September 19, 1926 – January 1, 2014) was California's first female structural engineer and an equal rights activist.

Early life and education Ruth Gordon was born on September 19, 1926 in Seattle, Washington.

She worked at Boeing over the summers in Seattle, where she was from. However, when the war in Japan ended, Boeing announced that all of the female staff were to be demoted to typist positions at a vastly reduced wage. This was a far cry from the manual work Schnapp was doing and the experience she gained in both design and disaster prevention. In protest, she typed everything given to her as slowly as possible. She also faced discrimination back at university. One instance involved the attire of her and her fellow engineers. Sensibly, Schnapp and her fellow female engineers wore jeans to their class involving welding and because they did not have time to change after they would arrive at the cafeteria for dinner without the traditional/proper "Ladies' Attire". The school enacted a regulation after this that "no women were to be seen on campus without the appropriate attire again".

In 1984, Schnapp made the decision to go into business herself and founded Pegasus Engineering, Inc., a company that performed earthquake and natural disaster structural assessments for the next 17 years.

Personal life Ruth Gordon married Michael Schnapp straight out of college in a house with thirteen bedrooms and seven bathrooms which had previously been owned by Lillian Gilbreth. She had three children. She and her husband enjoyed boating.