Edith Clarke, born in a small farming community in Maryland, went to Vassar College at age eighteen to study mathematics and astronomy and graduated in 1908 with honors and as a Phi Beta Kappa. In the fall of 1911, Edith enrolled as a civil engineering student at the University of Wisconsin. At the end of her first year, she took a summer job as a "Computor Assistant" (skilled mathematician) to AT&T research engineer Dr. George Campbell and was so interested in the computing work that she did not return to her studies, but instead stayed on at AT&T to train and direct a group of computors.

In 1918, Edith left to enroll in the EE program at MIT, earning her MSc. degree (the first degree ever awarded by that department to a woman) in June 1919. In 1919, she took a job as a computor for GE in Schenectady, NY, and in 1921 filed a patent for a "graphical calculator" to be employed in solving electric power transmission line problems. Also in 1921, she took a leave from GE to take a position as a professor of physics at the U.S.-founded Constantinople Women's College in Turkey. Returning to GE in 1922 as a salaried electrical engineer, Edith continued there till her first retirement in 1945. In 1947, after a brief first retirement on a farm in Maryland, she accepted an EE professorship at the University of Texas, Austin, and became the first woman to teach engineering there. She worked there as a full professor until her second retirement in 1956.

A New York Times article of Feb. 19, 1956, said, "She believes that women may help solve today's critical need for technical manpower."