In 1952, the first female undergraduates enrolled at Tech. In the 73 years since, 50,000 women have graduated from the Institute, comprising 25% of alumni.
Though relatively small in number, female students, staff and faculty have left their mark on Tech.
The Pathway of Progress mosaic joins the countless contributions by women to Tech’s campus. Located outside of John Lewis Student Center and completed this year, the installation is inscribed with women’s unwavering efforts and accomplishments throughout Tech’s history — and left room for future achievements.
Andrea Laliberte, M.S. ISyE 84, the donor and visionary of the project, and Merica May Jensen, M.S. ARCH ‘11), the architect who brought the mosaic to life, sat down with the Technique.
“Part of my inspiration was the fact that there are not many places on campus that tell the stories. The story about how successful women from Georgia Tech have been,” said Laliberte. “Women got to choose what they wanted to describe themselves. The focus is not on the person’s name, it’s on, like, ‘How do they describe themselves?’ and, ‘What is their message?’”
Before women were students at the Institute, they were employees, serving the Tech community. Dorothy M. Crosland, who served as librarian from 1927 to 1971, and Ella Van Leer, Tech’s first lady from 1944 to 1956, campaigned for the admission of women to the Institute and supported Tech’s first female students.
The admission of women into the Institute faced resistance for many years. In 1947, 50 Atlanta-area high school girls went to the registrar’s office to demand admission to Tech but were turned away. Five years later, in 1952, the Board of Regents voted to admit white women but limited them to architecture, engineering, and applied math majors.
Though the first female undergraduate students at Tech had support from women around them, like Crosland and Van Leer, they still faced hardships.
“They had dress codes, and their skirts had to be a certain length and they could be walking around campus and, like, the dress code patrol would come up and measure their skirt lengths,” said Laliberte. “And that just stayed with me.”
Such barriers did not stop women from achieving excellence on campus.
In her 44-year tenure, Crosland expanded Tech’s one-room library into two buildings, and 60 years after Crosland began working at the Institute, the Institute renamed the Graduate Addition to the library in her honor.
As for the first female undergraduates, self-named “Early Girls,” they established the first networks of women on campus while overcoming adversity and doubt.
The first two female graduates of Tech were Diane Michel, ISyE ‘56, and Shirley Clements Mewborn, EE ‘56.
Michel worked alongside four other women and founded the first sorority at Tech, Alpha Xi Delta, in 1954. It was the first national sorority chapter at an engineering school.
Once, a professor told Mewborn that he did not want any women in his class, and he forced her to find a different class. Mewborn became the Alumni Association’s first, and thus far, only female president.
Despite the strides made during this time, it was not until over 10 years after the first women enrolled at Tech that the first women of color enrolled.
“I was enlightened by so many women who provided feedback,” said Jensen. “Our outreach summary document, found on the project website, holds the community’s wishes. Weaving in each perspective made the design stronger and more resilient. I feel like a lucky conduit.”
Sally Lam Woo, CHEM ‘66, became the first minority woman graduate of the College of Engineering. She was one of 30 female undergraduates at the time and the only woman of color on campus.
In 1961, Tech began permitting enrollment of Black students, and the first Black women enrolled at Tech in 1967. One of Tech’s first Black female graduates, Brenda Gullatt Joseph, EES ‘76, found data quantifying the need to establish the Office of Minority Educational Development (OMED), which was founded in 1979 and continues to serve students today.
Though some of Tech’s history is well-documented, incomplete records and archival information reveal gaps and untold stories of many women at Tech.
Alexandra Rodriguez Dalmau, ENVE ‘24, examined international student records to find the first woman from Latin America to attend Tech. Though records suggest the first Latina students did not enroll until 1976, historians believe Rocio Rangel Lancaster to be the first woman from Latin America to attend Tech, enrolling in 1954.
Women remain a minority on campus, comprising 33% of all students and 31% of faculty.
Life for women at Tech has changed since women first enrolled, and it will continue to change. On March 1, Tech dissolved the Women’s Resource Center and several other resources in anticipation of legislation barring DEI programs.
“One of our tiles is the [Women’s] Resource Center. It was initiated by students, women students, who wanted a place that did not exist,” said Jensen. “They worked within the system, they found faculty to sponsor it, they got the administration to agree. It was this huge effort.”
Hopes for the following classes of Tech women are included on the interactive website accompanying the Pathways to Progress.
“Go out and be even more successful than the current generation and the past. And to be able to do something you want to do. I truly believe you have to be excited about what you are doing in life to achieve the highest level of success,” said Laliberte.
The legacy of women at the Institute is continuous, growing with time. While many of the efforts and successes of women at Tech throughout history went undocumented, their work echoes through campus today.
“There are really great women out there. We haven’t told their stories. And guess what? The women students need to hear these stories,” said Laliberte.