Facts about Females at Penn State
1859—Farmers High School is opened and requires students to perform three hours of farm work each day as part of their studies. Elisabeth Hunter and her two daughters serve as superintendents of the college parlors and culinary departments.
1871—Ellen Cross is the first woman to enroll as a degree student in the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, the predecessor to Penn State University. Five other women enrolled along with Cross, making the school the first in the state to admit women. One of those women, Rebecca Ewing, was the first female to graduate from the school when she received her diploma in 1873.
At the time State College was an even more remote locale than it is today. As late as 1882 the town had no sidewalks, sewers, churches, physicians, or schools. Segregation between sexes was also strictly enforced, so much so that women could not attend dances so men danced with other men.
1883—History classes first offered, taught by Professor Harriet McElwain.
1890—Art program formalized into Industrial Art and Design, headed by Anna Redifer.
1894—Fanny Atherton, wife of the university president, starts a literature club that evolved into the Home Economics Department.
1898—Mary Willard is born on campus. Willard went on to get her B.A. and M.S. at Penn State and her Ph.D. at Cornell University. She returned to Penn State to teach chemistry. During her career, she used her scientific knowledge to help the police department solve crimes and won numerous awards, including being named Woman of the Year in 1965.
1907—Margaret MacDonald starts her tenure as the first female head of the chemistry department.
1909—Founding of the School of the Liberal Arts, the precursor to today’s College.
1919—The first Home Management House, or Practice House, opens. The house was set up as a teaching home for students to practice home economics skills. By 1923, to make it more realistic, they moved an infant, usually from a local orphanage, into the house to be cared for by the students.
1920—Teresa Cohen arrives at Penn State and ends up being a math professor for sixty-six years, teaching until age 94. Later she recalled that the only thing she knew about the school before arriving was that they had a good football team.
1920—The first year the Home Economics department offers a course for non-majors, Cooking for Men.
1924—Marie Haidt joins Penn State as director of women’s athletics and works for thirty years to improve athletic offerings for women.
1932—Mildred Settle Bunton is the first black woman to graduate from Penn State. Today's Bunton-Waller fellowships targeted to underrepresented students are named after Bunton and Calvin Hoffman Waller, the first African American student at Penn State, who enrolled in 1899.
1930s—The most popular Home Economics course is Courtship and Marriage.
1943—The first year women outnumbered men, largely due to men serving in the military. 1943 also marks the first appearance of cheerleaders at sporting events, though they were banned after the war. It wasn’t until 1957 that they were reinstated.
1946—The male/female ratio returns to six men for every one woman. Despite this seemingly advantageous situation, the women would joke, “Two are married, two are engaged, the fifth won’t date you and you won’t date the sixth.”
1949—Grace Henderson is named the first female dean of Home Economics.
1953—Penn State College becomes The Pennsylania State University, creating the College of the Liberal Arts.
1958—The ban on women drinking alcohol on campus, in off-campus apartments, and in town bars is lifted.
1964—The university holds its f irst competitive sports event for women in basketball, fencing, field hockey, golf, and gymnastics.
1961—University’s study abroad program created. Professor Margaret Matson serves as the program’s first chaperone.
1966—The first year off-campus dorm room visits between men and women are allowed.
1970—The first year of uniform housing rules for all students, meaning women no longer need to wait until they are 21 to live off campus. They also no longer need a letter from their parents at the start of each year permitting them to visit men’s off-campus apartments.
1972—Lions Paw admits its first woman.
1972—The first year Penn State states that a person’s sex will not be a factor in admissions.
1979—Women’s studies undergraduate minor created; the undergraduate major follows in 1991. Also in 1991, the program begins a graduate minor and in 2001 offers a Ph.D.
1991—Dean Susan Welch joins the College as its first female dean.
Compiled from We Are a Strong, Articulate Voice: A History of Women at Penn State by Carol Sonenklar.