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Women Timeline

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  1. 1890
  2. 1900
  3. 1925
  4. 1950
  5. 1975
  6. 2000
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  1. 1889 Former slave begins 50 year career at university An early female African American employee of the university was "Aunt" Ellen McGuire, who began working at NC State in 1889. McGuire worked at State for 50 years, retiring in 1939. According to a 1939 Technician article, McGuire was born into slavery on a North Carolina plantation. Although McGuire maintained many responsibilities while the College employed her, she spent much of her time working in the infirmary.
  2. 1890 First female employed Sue C. Carroll becomes the first female to be employed by the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. She fills the position of matron, supervising the Cadet Hospital (student health center) and the dormitories.
  3. 6/5/1899 A&M opens to women The Board of Trustees votes to open A&M College to women.
  4. 8/2/1899 Women designated as "Special Students" The Board of Trustees amend their decision from earlier in the year to admit women to A&M, deciding women will be classified as special students, except in textiles courses, where they can be enrolled as regular students.
  5. 1901 Second female student Eula Louisa Dixon takes a course in dairying, becoming the second female student at A&M.
  6. 1901 First female student Margaret Burke becomes the first female student to take a course at A&M (she enrolled in a physics course).
  7. 1902 First female faculty member Adeline Stevens, the wife of Frank Lincoln Stevens, becomes the first female faculty member, as an instructor in biology during the 1902-1903 academic year.
  8. 1903 First female librarian Caroline Baldwin Sherman becomes the first female librarian.
  9. 1903 Women's enrollment grows Women's enrollment continued to increase during the 1903-1904 academic year. Evelyn Byrd Lawrence of Raleigh took a course in architecture, Ivey Roberts of Raleigh took a course in drawing, and Frances Claire Stainback took courses in chemistry and English. This was also the first year that women were listed as summer school students, and more than 200 women attended.
  10. 1911 First female extension agent Jane S. McKimmon becomes the first woman to serve as a state home demonstration agent through the Agricultural Extension program at A&M College.
  11. 1921 First full-time female student Lucille Thomson of Wilmington becomes the first woman to enroll as a full-time student, majoring in electrical engineering.
  12. 2/26/1927 First female Phi Kappa Phi member Jane S. McKimmon becomes the first female inducted into NC State's chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.
  13. 6/7/1927 First degrees conferred to women The first degrees are conferred to women at NC State. Recipients are Jane McKimmon, B.S. in business administration; Charlotte Nelson, B.S. in education; and Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough, M.S. in chemistry. Yarbrough was the first female graduate to have completed all coursework while at NC State, and she went on to become the first woman to earn a master's degree at NC State.
  14. 1928 First female masters degree recipients Lillian P. Wallace becomes the first woman to earn a masters degree in Education. She went on to publish several historical works on politics in Europe. Virginia F. Harris becomes the first woman to earn a masters degree in Rural Sociology.
  15. 9/29/1928 Increased female enrollment Twenty-one female students enroll at State College for the 1928-29 academic year, twice as many as the previous year.
  16. 1930 Phi Epsilon established Phi Epsilon becomes the first local sorority established at State College.
  17. 1930 First female to enroll as a freshman Ada Curtis Spencer becomes the first female to enroll as a freshman and complete a four-year degree from NC State. She majored in social science.
  18. 1932 First female to recieve a degree in Landscape Architecture Elizabeth Lee Lawrence becomes the first woman to earn a B.S. degree in Landscape Architecture.
  19. 1932 First female M.S. recipient in Textiles Lillian Tyler Jones becomes the first female to earn an M.S. degree from the School of Textiles.
  20. 1933 First female M.S. recipient in Economics Katherine W. Sams becomes the first woman to earn an M.S. degree in Economics.
  21. 1933 First female M.S. recipient in Biology Maud K. Schaub becomes the first woman to earn an M.S. degree in Biology.
  22. 10/29/1937 First female Mechanical Engineering student Katharine Stinson, personal friend of Amelia Earhart, is the first woman to enroll in Mechanical Engineering.
  23. 9/30/1938 Chemistry research Female chemist J.C. Richmond of State College is awarded a grant to study the Vitamin C content in goat's milk and the presence of nicotinic acid in cow's milk.
  24. 1940 First female M.S. recipient in Animal Ecology Myrtha M. Wilson becomes the first woman to earn an M.S. degree in animal ecology.
  25. 1940 First female M.S. recipients in Agricultural Chemistry Margaret Kramer and Martha S. Richard become the first women to receive M.S. degrees in agricultural chemistry.
  26. 1940 First female M.S. recipient in Occupational Information and Guidance Ethel C. Sheridan becomes the first woman to earn an M.S. in Occupational Information and Guidance.
  27. 11/1940 First female full professor and department head Gertrude Cox is hired as Professor of Statistics and head of the Department of Experimental Statistics, becoming the first woman at State College to occupy either rank.
  28. 1941 First female Engineering graduate Katharine Stinson becomes the first woman to graduate from NC State's School of Engineering. Stinson received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree, Aeronautical Option. Stinson was taking flying lessons at the old Raleigh Airport on US-401 when Amelia Earhart flew in for a visit in the early 1930s. When Stinson told Earhart that she wanted to become a pilot, Earhart advised her to become an engineer, a career Stinson pursued in spite of obstacles that prevented most young women from striving for such a degree. Stinson was told she must enter State College as a junior, so she completed forty-eight semester hours in one year at Meredith (including two summer sessions) to attain her goal. Besides being the first woman engineer to graduate from NC State, Stinson was also the first woman engineer hired by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, now the Federal Aviation Administration. By the time she retired from the FAA, as Technical Assistant Chief of the Engineering and Manufacturing Division, she had served as the third president of the Society of Woman Engineers and on a presidential advisory committee for aviation safety under Lyndon Johnson. "I just wanted to be a good engineer . . . I just did my job and most of the men accepted me," Stinson once said.
  29. 1941 Declining women's enrollment In 1941, only twenty women were enrolled at State College alongside 2,406 men.
  30. 1941 First branch library opens The Architecture Library opens as the first branch library, with Grace Sims Dalton as the first librarian. This library is renamed the Harrye B. Lyons Design Library in 1968.
  31. 1942 First Architectural Engineering female graudate Margery Belle Garriss becomes the first woman to graduate in Architectural Engineering.
  32. 1942 Female faculty increases Three women join the faculty at NC State. Ruth Couch Allen and Louise K. Cell become instructors in English, and Ruth Badger Hall becomes an instructor in Modern Languages.
  33. 1942 The library during World War II All male library staff members leave for military service during World War II, with Director Harlan Brown taking a leave of absence until 1946. Reference librarian Reba Clevenger becomes the acting college librarian during this time.
  34. 2/6/1942 Katharine Stinson hired Katharine Stinson, a 1941 graduate of State College, is hired by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (forerunner of the Federal Aviation Administration) as a junior engineer, making her the first woman to hold this position.
  35. 4/24/1942 Higher female enrollment sought Increased enrollment by women needed in engineering courses; urgent appeals are made as the male students leave to fight in the war.
  36. 10/1/1943 Engineering fellowships for women Eighteen young women win a fellowship of $1,425 from Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, which will employ them as engineering aides after they complete a 48-week course offered by State College.
  37. 1944 Textile Library established The Textiles Library is established, with Rachel Penn Lane as the first librarian. The Textiles Library was originally located in the main library, but relocated to Nelson Hall the following year (1945). The library was renamed the Burlington Textiles Library in 1954, when Burlington Industries funded its expansion.
  38. 1945 Women's enrollment increases Fifty-eight women are enrolled at NC State, many taking advantage of special scholarships to provide engineering training to women so they can work in industry during World War II.
  39. 1946 First Experimental Statistics M.S. degree conferred Jeanne Freeman becomes the first person to earn an M.S. degree in Experimental Statistics.
  40. 11/1/1946 Early female band member Lois Madden (on drums) becomes one of the first women to ever join the NC State marching band.
  41. 1948 First female Chemical Engineering graduate Lois Madden became the first woman to graduate with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
  42. 1949 Female faculty increases Twenty-two women are listed on the faculty, most at the instructor or laboratory technician level. Departments with more than one female member include English (six), Statistics (three), Textiles (three), and Modern Languages (two). Women are also on the faculty in Architecture, Agricultural Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Social Studies, Chemistry, Engineering, Research, and Agronomy.
  43. 1956 First female Ph.D. recipient Patricia Anne Sarvella become the first woman to receive a Ph.D. degree at State College (from the Department of Genetics).
  44. 1958 First African-American academic staff member The first African-American female academic staff member, Mrs. Justina Williams, is hired to work in the Department of Genetics' Drosophila research lab. Many African-Americans had worked at State prior to Williams’s appointment, however they primarily worked in custodial or food service positions.
  45. 3/14/1960 First sorority Gamma Phi chapter members of the Sigma Kappa Sorority hold their first pledge dance at the Carolina Hotel. Formed in 1959, this was the first active chapter of a national sorority at NC State.
  46. 5/1960 First African-American female masters' degree recipient Hazel Virginia Clark receives a master's degree in Occupational Information and Guidance, becoming the first African-American woman to receive a master's degree from NC State.
  47. 1961 Coed lounge Women's enrollment reaches 308, and the Erdahl-Cloyd student center features a special "coed" lounge.
  48. 1963 Eloise Cofer becomes the second female full professor Twenty-three years after Gertrude Cox's appointment, Eloise Cofer, Extension Professor of Food Science and Assistant Director of the Agricultural Extension Service becomes the second woman to be appointed as a full professor. In 1980, Cofer was named Home Economist of the Year by the N.C. Home Economics Association.
  49. 1963 Cora Kemp beomes the first female Technician editor
  50. 1964 First female representative on the Honor Code Board Mary Ann Weathers became first female student elected to the Honor Code Board.
  51. 3/3/1964 Status of Women Students report The university produces, for the first time, a "Report on the Status of Women Students."
  52. 9/16/1964 First female dorm opens Watauga Hall opens as NC State's first female dorm, marking the first time women are able to live on campus at NC State. All undergraduate single women are required to live there.
  53. 11/2/1964 Women in science and engineering Two female engineering students from NC State attend a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that discusses the opportunities and difficulties facing women in the fields of science and engineering.
  54. 1965 First African-American instructor with faculty ranking Dorothy Williams becomes the first African-American instructor with faculty ranking, teaching in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
  55. 1966 Third female full professor Doris King becomes the third woman to serve as a full professor, teaching courses in history and education.
  56. 1966 First female African-American undergraduate degree recipient Norma Wright Garcia becomes the first African-American female to receive an undergraduate degree, earning a BA in history.
  57. 1967 Additional female full professors The fourth and fifth female full professors are appointed. Hedwig Hirschmann Triantaphyllou became a full professor of Plant Pathology and Emily Quinn Pugh became a full professor of Adult Education.
  58. 1967 First black Miss North Carolina State University Mary Evelyn Porterfield becomes the first black Miss North Carolina State University.
  59. 1968 Ann B. Goodnight Ann B. Goodnight graduates with a bachelors degree in political science. She later became a businesswoman, philanthropist, and member of the UNC system Board of Governors.
  60. 1970 First female Ph.D. recipient in Nuclear Engineering Samiha Mourad becomes the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering.
  61. 1970 - 1971 Cathy Sterling First female Student Body President
  62. 5/5/1970 First female Student Body President Cathy Sterling is elected Student Body President, becoming the first woman to hold a major campus student elective post. During her presidency, Sterling led the student body in a retreat to protest the invasion of Cambodia. Her report, "Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control," resulted in a greater student role in the spending of student fees. Sterling says of her decision to run for student body president, "A few weeks before the election, a few friends asked me to run for president, and I just did it. I don't know why I did it, but I just did." -- Raleigh Times, Friday, February 1, 1985, p. 1B.
  63. 8/1970 Lee Hall becomes NC State's first co-ed dorm
  64. 1971 First female valedictorian Jane Carol Pickard becomes the first female valedictorian.
  65. 1973 Basketball club organized for women Kathy Bounds, Deb Webb, and Genie Jordan organize a basketball club for women.
  66. 1973 First female African-American Ph.D. recipient Nannette Smith Henderson becomes the first African-American woman to be awarded a Ph.D. at NC State, with a degree in Plant Pathology.
  67. 8/29/1973 First female teaching award recipient Dr. Mary Wheeler becomes the first female recipient of the NC State Outstanding Teacher Award.
  68. 1974 First Women's Basketball team A Women's Basketball team is established for the first time. The team included two African American women, Gwen Jenkins and Cynthia Steele.
  69. 1/1975 Second female department head Barbara Parramore becomes the second female department head, leading the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at its founding.
  70. 1975 First African-American sorority A chapter of Delta Sigma Theta is established, becoming the first African-American sorority chapter on campus.
  71. 1975 New varsity sports Men's Gymnastics and Women's Softball and Volleyball begin varsity play.
  72. 1975 Gertrude Cox elected to National Academy of Sciences Statistics professor Gertrude Cox is elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
  73. 1975 First woman to receive Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering Alice Cline becomes the first women at NC State to receive a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.
  74. 1976 First female All-American Susan Yow becomes the first NC State female to be named an All-American athlete.
  75. 1/24/1976 Women's Basketball game televised The Wolfpack won the first women's basketball game televised in North Carolina. The team beat UNC-Chapel Hill 68-58.
  76. 1977 Third female department head Mary E. (Betty) Wheeler becomes head of the Department of History, and only the third female to hold a position of department head at NC State.
  77. 2/11/1978 First ACC Women's Basketball tournament The NC State Women's Basketball team participates in the first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Basketball tournament as the top seed. NC State lost in the championship game to Maryland.
  78. 1979 Women's Cross Country championships The Women's Cross Country team wins the first of back-to-back national championships (1979 and 1980).
  79. 1980 First Women's Week Evelyn Reiman, assistant director of student development, sponsors the first NC State Women's Week-- a series of afternoon and evening programs for campus women.
  80. 1980 ACC Athlete of the Year Julie Shea wins the first of two consecutive ACC Athlete of the Year awards, and becomes the first woman to receive the Alumni Athletics trophy at NC State.
  81. 1980 Broderick Cup recipient Women's Cross Country runner Julie Shea is awarded the Broderick Cup by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), as the most outstanding athlete of the year.
  82. 1981 First female president of the Faculty Club Ada B. Dalla Pozza becomes the first woman to serve as president of the Faculty Club (now the University Club).
  83. 1981 Women's Gymnastics becomes a varsity sport
  84. 1983 Increasing female enrollment Approximately 8,000 women students are enrolled in a student body of 22,632. More than one third of the undergraduates are women, the highest percentage of women to be enrolled at NC State to that date.
  85. 1983 First female Alumni Distinguished Professor Katherine W. Klein, Associate Professor of Psychology, becomes the first female faculty member to be named an Alumni Distinguished Professor.
  86. 1983 Women's Golf becomes a varsity sport
  87. 1984 First female faculty recipient of North Carolina Award Lee Smith, Assistant Professor of English, becomes the first female faculty member to receive a North Carolina Award, receiving an award in literature.
  88. 1984 Lee Smith received North Carolina Award Assistant Professor of English Lee Smith became the first female faculty member to receive the prestigious North Carolina Award.
  89. 1985 First female Faculty Senate chair Sondra L. Kirsch, Associate Professor of Recreation Resources Administration becomes the first woman to chair the NC State Faculty Senate.
  90. 1986 First Ph.D. degrees awarded by the School of Veterinary Medicine The degrees are earned by Melinda Hollingshead in August and Cathy Carlson in December.
  91. 1986 Women's enrollment increases In the fall of 1986, women make up thirty-eight percent of the student body, the highest percentage of women enrolled to that time.
  92. 1986 First female Dean of the Graduate School Debra W. Stewart is appointed interim dean of the Graduate School, the first female dean and the first woman to serve as dean of the Graduate School. Her appointment became permanent in 1988.
  93. 1986 First female recipient of the Alumni Research Award Elizabeth C. Theil becomes the first woman to receive the Alumni Research Award.
  94. 1987 Kay Yow is inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame
  95. 1987 Yarbrough Court dedicated Yarbrough Court, the court surrounded by Holladay, Peele, Leazar, and Watauga Halls, is named after Mary E. Yarbrough, the first women to earn a graduate degree from NC State and one of the first three women to graduate from the university.
  96. 1987 Alice Miller is named Assistant Vice Chancellor
  97. 8/1987 Susan Nutter becomes the first female director of the NC State library
  98. 9/25/1987 Women's Soccer Win The NCSU women’s soccer team defeated Erskine College 5-0.
  99. 1988 First female to hold a named professorship Elizabeth C. Theil becomes the first woman at NC State to hold a named professorship, and is honored with the University of North Carolina's O. Max Gardner Award.
  100. 1988 Kaye Gibbons becomes the first author-in-residence Kaye Gibbons, former NC State student, becomes the NCSU Libraries' first author-in-residence.
  101. 1988 Kay Yow coaches in the Olympics Kay Yow, Women's Basketball coach, coaches the winning Women's Basketball team in the 1988 Olympics.
  102. 1989 Nora Lynn Finch inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame Nora Lynn Finch, associate athletics director, is inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame.
  103. 1989 Women's Studies Program established The Women's Studies Program is established, with Barbara Risman as its first director.
  104. 1989 First College of Engineering female African-American faculty member Christine Grant (Chemical Engineering) becomes the first African-American female faculty member appointed in the College of Engineering.
  105. 1/1989 Women's Resource Coalition established The Women's Resource Coalition is formed as an outgrowth of the Women Students Advisory Board, organized in the fall of 1988.
  106. 1990 The Newsstand is first published The first campus-wide newsletter on women's issues, The Newsstand, is published.
  107. 1990 Collection Management Department established The Collection Management Department is established, with Margaret Hunt as its first head. Hunt had been one of the first African-American librarians hired during the 1970s.
  108. 1991 Women's Center opens The Women's Center opens with Jan Rogers as its coordinator. Rogers began the Women's Leadership Education and Action Program (LEAP), which aimed to enhance the experience of women in nontraditional fields such as math, science, and engineering.
  109. 1992 Sista 2 Sistuh Network established The Sista 2 Sistuh Network is established to support African-American women at NC State.
  110. 1994 First female to receive Holladay Medal Barbara Parramore became the first female faculty member to receive the Holladay Medal for Excellence.
  111. 8/7/1995 Margaret A. Zahn becomes Dean of College of Humanities and Social Sciences Margaret A. Zahn, nationally known for her studies on violence in the United States, becomes Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
  112. 1996 June St. Clair Atkinson awarded doctorate June Atkinson was awarded an Doctor of Education degree. She later became the first woman to serve as North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction.
  113. 1997 A campus street is named after Katharine Stinson Katharine Stinson, the first woman to graduate from NC State's School of Engineering, has a street named after her. Katharine Stinson Drive, formerly North Yarbrough Drive, is one of the longest streets on campus.
  114. 1998 Marye Anne Fox becomes the first female chancellor at NC State
  115. 1998 Chavonda Jacobs-Young awarded a Ph.D. Chavonda Jacobs-Young was awarded a Ph.D. She had previously earned a Bachelors of Science degree (1989) and Masters of Science degree (1992). She was the first African American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in paper science. She later became associate administrator for national programs for the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.
  116. 3/1998 Final Four appearance The Women's Basketball team reaches the Final Four in the NCAA tournament.
  117. 2000 First female Board of Trustees chair Peaches Simpkins is named the first female chair of the university's Board of Trustees.
  118. 2000 Women's Golf is reinstated as a varsity sport Women's Golf is reinstated as a varsity sport. A team was previously fielded from 1980 to 1986.
  119. 2002 Atlantic Coast Conference's 50th Anniversary 134 NC State athletes are named to the ACC's 50th Anniversary Teams in twenty-one sports.
  120. 6/2/2002 Track and Field national championship NC State Track and Field athlete Kristin Price won the individual NCAA championship in the 10,000-meter event. She was a twelve-time All-American in track and cross country.
  121. 9/27/2002 Kay Yow honored NC State Women's Basketball coach Kay Yow is inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Springfield, MA.
  122. 2003 Women in Science and Engineering program established The Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program is established with 56 freshman women with majors in PAMS and the College of Engineering. As of 2009, this “living and learning village” has a full complement of 256 women majoring in five colleges across campus, and a high school chapter has been established at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.
  123. 2005 Librarian of the Year Susan Nutter is named the Librarian of the Year by the Library Journal.
  124. 2007 Kay Yow celebrates 700th Win NC State Women's Basketball coach Kay Yow celebrated her 700th win. The Wolfpack beat Florida State, 68-51. Yow eventually racked up 737 wins, making her the fifth winningest active NCAA Division I basketball coach.
  125. 2010 - 2011 Kelly Hook Student Body President
  126. 5/2010 First woman appointed full professor in College of Textiles Cynthia Istook became the first woman appointed full professor in the College of Textiles.
  127. 2011 - 2012 Chandler Thompson Student Body President