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Women At Tech

Since the beginning of Georgia Tech women have been one of the most discriminated groups at tech. From Georgia Tech’s establishment in 1885 to 1952 women weren’t even allowed to attend Georgia Tech as students. It wasn't until the board of regents for the state of Georgia voted to overturn this no women policy, that they were finally allowed to attend. However despite being finally allowed to enroll at tech, they still faced discrimination and persecution that their male counterparts did not. In fact the only reason that women were allowed to attend tech at this time was because Georgia Tech offered a few majors that no other college in Georgia offered. As such, the first women at tech were strictly limited to those majors. It took women 16 more years to be granted the freedom to major in whatever major they want.

                The first semester that tech allowed females to enroll there were a grand total of two women, Elizabeth Herndon and Barbara Diane Miche , that attended the school. Acceptance into the Georgia Institute of Technology was only half the battle though. This pioneer group of women faced extreme challenges once at Tech. They were thrown into a school that had been entirely male for 64 years. For years after Tech started letting females in they still lacked the necessary resources to accommodate them appropriately. The first dorm for females didn’t even open until 1969 and often times there weren’t even female bathrooms in buildings. For years women had to take this degradation and sexual harassment in hopes of graduating with a Tech degree.

                Gradually women began to experience more and more freedoms and less of a minority. The number of women at Tech has skyrocketed from 2 to a whopping 4000. This is just the number of female students at tech too, the number of female faculty has risen from 7 percent of the total faculty in 1979 to the 21 percent that it is now. Women at tech have not only grown in numbers but they have become increasingly influential at Tech over the years. As a result of the harsh treatment against early female students, Tech has become a center for women’s rights organizations. Women have bonded together to overcome these hardships, creating groups such as the Women’s Union, Society of Women Engineers, and several sororities. In the past couple decades these groups, the increasing number of women, and greater awareness of sexual equality have all culminated in women finally having the same opportunities as males as tech. Many women have risen above the discrimination over recent years to become very influential in academics, sports, and offices at tech. For example since basketball became the first funded intercollegiate sport for women in 1981, women at tech have won a national championship in both tennis and softball. Women have also become increasingly prevalent in the higher offices of Georgia Tech’s faculty, holding such positions as student government president, president of the alumni association, academic dean, and chair of Georgia Tech’s national advisory board.

                In my opinion this transition of discrimination to assimilation amongst the female population at tech is consistent with the same trend we can see with desegregation within our society. As with desegregation of African Americans, it is hard to change the mindset and prejudices of the population. However as time went on the rights of the desegregated group increase exponentially as acceptance among people within American society became more widespread over time.

African Americans At Tech

Just as women were discriminated and oppressed during the early years of the Georgia Institute of Technology, many races were discriminated against as well. For example as long as it took Georgia Tech to allow women to enroll it wasn’t until 9 years later in 1961 that African Americans were allowed to attend. This was even after of 25 years of campaigning by the NAACP to desegregate colleges in Georgia.  However despite allowing African Americans admittance into Tech so late, the society at the time can be seen as a major factor to this delay. At that time the civil rights movement was just beginning and segregation in the southern states was not an uncommon occurrence. In this way racial discrimination at tech was heavily influenced by the outlook of society. At the time southern society still had lingering racial biases against African Americans and regarded them as slightly  inferior.

In spite of this socially accepted discrimination, the first African Americans were able to make great strides at tech. African Americans experienced an amount of freedom at tech that they did not find many other places at this time. In fact the Georgia Institute of Technology was the first university in Georgia to voluntary implement desegregation. They even went a step farther and banned the press from campus and had extra police officers on hand to ensure a peaceful integration. Fortunately none of the extra police officers were needed and the student body greeted the new students with open arms.

Discrimination against African Americans has been at a minimum ever since their successful desegregation at Tech. One of the main reasons for this has been Georgia Tech’s strict guidelines on discrimination and the punishments that come from violating this anti-discrimination policy. As a result of this there have been only sporadic individual cases of racial discrimination over the years and many of them have occurred between students.

Just as stated in the other blog post, I believe that Tech’s treatment of African Americans has been consistent with societies views over the years. Georgia Tech did not allow African Americans to enroll until the beginning of the civil rights movement, which was also the time in American society where desegregation and racial equality began to become prevalent.  As American society shifted more and more towards for equality, Georgia Tech has proven to be one of the leading advocates of this equality.