Further action is required to make this featured image accessible
The below criteria must be satisfied:
- Add featured-image alt tag (in page properties OR on image metadata in the dam)
The image will not display until the issue above is resolved.
A Woman's Place...
The 20s that roared: The women come marching in
In 1920, no school in the United States yet admitted women into preparatory programs for engineering. Herman Schneider and UC changed all that thanks to a young Cincinnatian named Ruth McFarlan and her aunt, Anna McFarlan.
You see, the aunt was acquainted with Schneiders secretary and asked the secretary, Anna Teasdale, to approach Dean Herman Schneider on behalf of young Ruth who wanted to study engineering. The upshot: Come fall 1920, seven young women with shoulders broad enough to bear the sobriquet of co-eps and even co-eppettes as they were called entered the UC co-op course as either chemical engineering or commercial engineering (business) students, the only two programs pried open for them in the
.
These women and those who followed after them couldnt skirt the challenges they faced in braving the stronghold of gears, grease and manhood. Of these seven original girl gearheads, four stayed the course.
1950s: What the heck are you doing in engineering?
Without the aid of a slide rule, I estimate my having been asked this question at least one hundred times in the last two years
. On every Registration Day, I am met with the now-familiar query, Are you still here? I thought you would be married by this time
. One of these fateful days, Im going to brush aside the restrictions placed on me by my convent upbringing and utter, What the */! do you care? Of course, that will ruin the impression Ive made of being a good-natured, sweet co-ed who had mistakenly stood in the wrong line on registration day
. I suppose it will show me for what I really am a normal, happy-go-lucky girl with a shattered sense of humor.
Mary Lou Brueckner, 1958
Alone at lunch
There was a certain amount of social isolation caused by my being the only woman in the department
Men and women rarely ate lunch at the same table. Generally, the [secretarial] women worked together, knew each other well, and ate together at lunch. The [professional engineer] men did likewise. This put me in an awkward position. Though the men were friendly in the office, I did not feel entirely welcome at their lunch table. Yet, I did not know any of the women, and they usually had different lunch hours than I.
Most puzzling was the attitude of some of the women toward me. One of the secretaries was consistently reluctant to help with my work although she was always eager to help the men. Another woman, who apparently assumed I was incapable of doing my own work, asked if I enjoyed my job of tracing the mens drawings.
Linda Wallace, 1975
Return to main page of "Co-op Special Report."
Return to main page of excerpts from The Ivory Tower and The Smokestack.
Related Stories
UC researchers develop speech therapy video game
May 7, 2024
With ultrasound and a video game featuring a goat on roller skates, researchers at the University of Cincinnati are developing methods to help children overcome difficulties in pronouncing certain sounds, including the difficult “R.”
UC engineering students can co-op in research labs around the...
May 7, 2024
More than 100 years ago, cooperative education (co-op) was invented at the University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering and Applied Science. Since then, UC has spent the last century fine-tuning and improving the program. The Global Research Labs Program is one of the most recent advancements in co-op opportunities for students.
Local news highlights UC's artificial intelligence programs
May 6, 2024
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science Professor Ali Minai tells WLWT and WVXU that AI is becoming a popular subject among new students.