Irene Carswell Peden inspires people because she broke barriers in both engineering and exploration. She was the first American woman engineer or scientist to live and work in the interior of Antarctica, where she used radio waves to study deep glacial ice. Even when people and institutions said that women did not belong in places like Antarctica, she refused to accept those limits and kept pushing forward. Her story shows how someone can start at a small junior college, work their way into electrical engineering, and go on to become the first woman to earn a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford and the first woman engineering professor at the University of Washington. She also became a leader in professional organizations like IEEE and the Society of Women Engineers, always working to open doors for other women. Irene Peden’s persistence, courage, and commitment to fairness in pay, opportunity, and education continue to encourage others in STEM to keep studying, face obstacles with strength, speak up for themselves, and support women in science and engineering.