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125
Years of Women at Penn
From
studies to sports--from staff to senior administration-- from
faculty to trustees--Penn women have been there and done that
in the past 125 years. Much has changed since two women broke
with tradition and enrolled at the University in 1876. This Timeline
of Women Pioneers and Women's Achievements at the University of
Pennsylvania is adapted from the extensive website, www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/women/chronbeg.html
compiled and edited in July 2001 by University Archivist Mark
Frazier Lloyd. For more on Women at Penn: 125 Years of History
also see the celebration's website, www.alumni.upenn.edu/celebratewomen/womenatpenn.html
which has a schedule of events
and memories from Penn women.
[click
on thumbnails below to see larger image and details. Photos
courtesy of University Archives]
1876-1879:
Women first appear at Penn as Special Students
1876 |
On
October 13, two women--Gertrude Klein Peirce and Anna Lockhart
Flanigen--enrolled as special students in the Towne Scientific
School (the present-day SEAS). They were the first women to
be admitted to collegiate courses customarily leading to a University
degree. As special students, however, they were not eligible
for a degree but took courses in the Department of Chemistry.
In December, the Trustees established the Department of Music
and adopted the academic requirements for the Bachelor of Music
degree. This was the first academic program at Penn to admit
women from the date of its establishment. |
1877
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In June,
the Trustees closed the Charity School, re-directing the income
of the Charity School trust to collegiate scholarships for
young men and to instruction for "female students" so far
as the Provost thought appropriate at the UniversiIty.
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1879 |
The
Trustees announced that "persons of both sexes are now admitted"
to the classes in English, Classics, History, Social Science,
and Speculative Philosophy (or "Darwinism"), in the College;
to the classes in General Chemistry, Physics, and Analytical
Chemistry, in the School of Engineering; and to all classes
in the Department of Music. They also announced the establishment
of the Bloomfield Moore Fund, the income of which was dedicated
to the education of women who planned to become teachers. The
Bloomfield Moore Fund was the first endowment for women's education
at Penn. |
1880-1900:
Women are first admitted as degree candidates on a limited basis;
programs & schools specifically for women appear
1881 |
The
Wharton School was founded, but did not admit women. |
1882 |
The
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was founded and was the
first to admit women at its establishment to courses leading
to a degree. Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, Bishop of the Episcopal
Diocese of Pennsylvania and also one of the Trustees of the
University, then introduced a resolution explicitly prohibiting
the admission of women to the College. The Trustees adopted
the Bishop's resolution, but also adopted a resolution offered
by another Trustee, George Whitney, "that the Trustees will
organize a separate Collegiate Department for the complete education
of women, so soon as funds are received sufficient to meet the
expense thereof." The Trustees thereby committed themselves
to establishing a college for women at Penn, but more than 50
years passed before the College for Women matriculated its first
students. |
1889 |
In
October, the Senior Class in the College organized a protest
against co-education and presented a petition to the Trustees
signed by virtually all the members of the class. In November,
however, the Trustees accepted the offer of Joseph M. Bennett
to endow a college for women. |
1890 |
In
December, the Trustees formally established the Graduate Department
for Women by adopting a resolution assigning the entire faculty
of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to secondary appointments
in the Graduate Department for Women. |
1894 |
In
July the Trustees established a four-year course, leading to
the degree of Bachelor of Science in Biology and open to men
and women "on equal terms." This was the first, modern, full-time,
four-year, undergraduate course open to women. |
1901-1919:
Women emerge in administrative and academic
positions and as undergraduates begin to create traditions and organizations
parallel to those of men
1912 |
In February,
women students petitioned the Trustees for the appointment
of a Dean of Women. The Trustees referred to the petition
to Provost Edgar Fahs Smith. No action was taken. In May,
the Alumnae Association was founded.
|
1919 |
The
Graduate School of Medicine was founded and matriculation was
open to men and women alike. |
1920-1932:
Women appear on standing faculties and undergraduate women continue
to develop their own college life
1920 |
The
School of Education appointed Edith Baer, B.S., to the faculty
position of Assistant Professor of Home Economics. She was the
first woman to serve as an Officer of Instruction in the School
of Education and the first woman to be a member of Penn's standing
faculty. |
1926 |
In
June, undergraduate women held their own Ivy Day, placing the
first of many ivy stones on the Chancellor Street wall of the
new Bennett Hall. Women had participated in the annual Hey Day
from the time of its establishment in 1916, but in 1926 the
undergraduate men advised the women that they were no longer
welcome. |
1933-1950:
College of Liberal Arts for Women is created
1933 |
The
College of Liberal Arts for Women was founded and admitted women
students only. For the first time in Penn's history, women were
offered a full-time, four-year, liberal arts, undergraduate
degree program. The standing faculty of the College for Women
did not include any women. |
1947 |
The
College of Arts and Sciences appointed Elizabeth Farquhar Flower
(A.M. 1936, Ph.D. 1939) to the position of Assistant Professor
of Philosophy. She was the first woman to join the standing
faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences. In 1956 she was
promoted to Associate Professor and became the first woman to
earn tenure in the College of Arts and Sciences. |
1951-1968:
Men's and women's activities at Penn begin to merge, while a few
women faculty members gain tenure and advancement
1951 |
Women
had also made major advances in the ranks of the faculty. Women
had won appointments to the standing faculty in 13 of Penn's
15 schools. Only the faculties of Law and Engineering had failed
to appoint or promote a woman to the rank of Assistant Professor
or higher. Women held tenured faculty positions in nine of the
15--the School of Medicine, the Wharton School, the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the School
of Fine Arts, the College of Liberal Arts for Women, and the
schools of Social Work, Allied Medical Professions, and Nursing--and
women held full or senior professorships in seven of those nine
(Dr. Florence B. Seibert would not become Professor of Biochemistry
in the School of Medicine until 1955 and no woman would hold
a senior professorship in the School of Fine Arts until 1958).
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1954 |
In
February, Penn announced that in the fall semester, for the
first time, women would be admitted to the undergraduate programs
of SEAS and Wharton. These programs had been the last to exclude
women. In September, 18 women enrolled in Wharton. Barbara G.
Mandell was the first woman to enroll in SEAS. |
1960 |
The
University appointed R. Jean Brownlee (B.S. in Ed., 1934; M.A.,
1936; Ph.D. in Political Science, 1940) as Dean of the College
of Liberal Arts for Women. She was the first woman to be appointed
Dean of that College and the third woman to be named an academic
dean. In May 1959, the University had promoted her to Assistant
Professor of Political Science in the Wharton School, but she
was the only academic dean not to be a tenured member of the
faculty. |
1968 |
After
more than 50 years of separate events, the women's and men's
Hey Day ceremonies were merged in a single, co-educational program.
|
1969-1974:
As more women are elected Trustees, the University deals with sex
discrimination in faculty hiring and promotions
1970 |
The
Faculty Affairs Committee of the University Council established
the ad hoc Committee on the Status of Women. Ten months later
the Committee reported that the total number of fully-affiliated
University faculty of professorial rank was 1,091, but only
77 (or 7.0%) of the total were women and that only 11 women
held full professorships (2.5% of the total number of senior
faculty). Among fully-affiliated officers of instruction at
the lower ranks, however, women held 81 (or 38.2%) of the 212
appointments of lecturers, instructors, and other positions.
In addition, the total number of standing faculty in clinical
medicine was 329, but only 24 (or 6.8%) were women and only
2 women held full professorships (1.7% of the total number of
senior faculty). |
1973 |
In
January, the University's College of Thematic Studies offered
the first Women's Studies program, an interdisciplinary set
of ten courses. In April, an ad hoc group of women conducted
a "Stop Rape" sit-in at College Hall and presented ten demands
to the University administration "for security improvements,
education to prevent rape, and medical, legal, and psychological
support for victims." The number of demonstrators "ranged from
200 by day to 20 overnight" and included students, faculty,
and staff. Negotiations focused on the design of a proposed
Women's Center and the hiring of a security specialist dedicated
full time to women's safety issues, as well as on physical plant
improvements aimed at improving campus safety, such as new outdoor
lighting, additional emergency telephones, and expansion of
University bus service. |
1975-92:
Women students are fully integrated into the
University, while women become ever present in the central and academic
administration.
1975 |
The
College of Liberal Arts for Women merged with the Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences [for
Men], and four social science departments in the Wharton School--Economics,
Political Science, Regional Science, and Sociology--to form
the new School of Arts and Sciences. Associate Professor R.
Jean Brownlee, Dean of the College for Women, was appointed
Dean of Academic Advising Services in the new School. She retired
two years later, in June 1977. In August, the University and
former Assistant Professor Phyllis R. Rackin settled out of
court the litigation brought by Dr. Rackin against the University
in 1973. A December 1974 ruling by the U.S. District Court found
"that the University [was] engaged in state action and that
this [had] profound implications in presenting a challenge to
the University's authority to select and promote members of
the faculty." As a direct result, in January 1975, the University's
legal counsel reported to the full Board of Trustees that "strenuous
efforts [were being] made to reach a fair compromise with the
plaintiff." The terms of the August settlement included agreement
by the University to the promotion of Dr. Rackin to the tenured
faculty position of Associate Professor of English in General
Honors, effective 1 July 1975, as well as the payment of all
legal fees incurred in the litigation. The effect of this litigation
was the opening to women of a more balanced and equitable set
of procedures to be followed in the appointment and promotion
of faculty at Penn. |
1976 |
100
years after women first enrolled in the College as "special
students," Penn had become fully co-educational. Penn's 13 schools
were open to men and women "on equal terms" and women were enrolled
in every degree program offered. Women were likewise members
of the standing faculty in all 13 schools. Women had also entered
the field of senior academic administration and served with
distinction as deans of the schools of the College of Women,
Nursing and Social Work. One of the two Vice Provosts of the
University was a woman and women held two of the senior staff
positions in the Office of the President. Five women were Penn
Trustees. |
1993-present:
Women rise to the Presidency
1993 |
In December, the Trustees elected Judith Seitz Rodin (A.B.,
1966), M.A., Ph.D., Provost of Yale, the seventh President and
Chief Executive of Penn. She is the first alumna to serve as
Penn's President and the first woman to serve as President of
an Ivy League institution. |
Almanac, Vol. 48, No. 10, October 30, 2001
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ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:
Tuesday,
October 30, 2001
Volume 48 Number 10
www.upenn.edu/almanac/
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