In 1919, CU Boulder students tried to start engineering society for women

In 1919 — the same year the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote passed the House and the Senate — two University of Colorado women in the engineering department took it upon themselves to organize a society for female engineers.Their...

In 1919, CU Boulder students tried to start engineering society for women

In 1919 — the same year the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote passed the House and the Senate — two University of Colorado women in the engineering department took it upon themselves to organize a society for female engineers.

Their efforts were not well-received.

Lou Alta Melton and Hilda Counts sent letters to every engineering and architecture department they could find and asked for information about women signed up for those courses, according to the Society of Women Engineers and reported by The Atlantic. The Society of Women Engineers was later formally established in 1950.

"In reply to your recent communication, I would state that we have not now, have never had, and do not expect to have in the near future, any women students registered in our engineering department," read a 1919 response from Thorndike Saville, associate professor at the University of North Carolina.

Another response by William Raymond, dean of the college of applied science at the State University of Iowa read: "You ask for information or suggestions. I have only this say, that I suspect the number of women who have undertaken general engineering courses is so few that you will hardly be able to form an organization. However, I may be mistaken."

"I was appalled at some of the specific responses they got to their letters," said Sarah Miller, CU assistant dean for inclusive excellence. "That was just sad."

Miller's job is to promote diversity within the engineering department, so when she saw the letters from these historic alums, her heart swelled.

"My reaction was, 'Yes. Awesome. Proud,' although I can't really say that I'm surprised," Miller said. "It's heartening to see because we say gender equity has been a core value at CU, and now we can point to this as it being a core value for a long time. I'm proud to know the names of these two women."

Incoming CU senior Katie McQuie is the president of the CU chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. She read about Melton and Counts Thursday and felt inspired to keep going.

McQuie is double majoring in environmental and chemical engineering. She's had people tell her the only reason she's gotten an internship is because she's a woman, and she has to push for her ideas to be heard in class. She makes a point of asking questions because she knows some women are hesitant to speak up. Despite these obstacles, she is optimistic about the way her career path is headed when it comes to parity.

"It was very satisfying seeing how much of a change those women have made and how in the last 100 years, we've really come leaps and bounds with women in all kinds of technology," she said. "I think it's definitely getting better."

Bobby Braun, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science, said, statistically, gender equity is improving at the college, although there's always room to grow.

Today, the engineering college is around 27 percent female with an incoming freshman class that has nearly 40 percent of enrollees identifying as women.

"Gender equity is a goal of mine, and I believe we'll be there quite soon," Braun said.

The first woman graduated from CU's civil engineering department in 1903, Braun said, and there wasn't another woman in the department for a while until Counts graduated in 1919.

"The fact that they were trying to establish this society 30 years before it actually got established is remarkable," Braun said. "That these women from Colorado, but not just from Colorado — from my college — were trying to create what is now a very successful international society...clearly they were ahead of their time."

Braun thinks this innovative spirit has remained throughout the years, putting CU above the national average of women in the engineering department of colleges, which is around 20 percent.

"I moved to Colorado because I'm just fascinated by the strength of this college in so many ways," Braun said. "Whether it's the research or our enhancements and progress in diversity of all kinds, I think this college is remarkable."

Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-473-1106, hernandeze@dailycamera.com

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