Inclusive Excellence - STEM & Beyond

This is a text version of the timeline above:

1920

• The first seven women engineering students are admitted to the cooperative courses in commercial engineering (business) and chemical engineering.
• Black and white photograph showing seven young, White women - four seated in front and three standing - posed for a portrait. Text reads: The first class of women co-ops. Seated, from left: Kathryn Gillis, Margaret Maynard, Helen Norris and Myrtle Hay. Standing, from left: Ruby Schoen, Charlotte Atherton and Ruth McFarlan.

1921

• Four of the original seven returned to campus, along with a new first-year class made up of Sarah Conover, Mary Blood, and twins Lillian and Anna Roettger.

1922

• Two additional programs, dietetics and architecture were opened to women as co-ops. There were twenty-six women beginning their firsy year as "co-eps."
• "Co-ep" is a combination of co-ed and co-op. It can be used interchangeably with "co-op" and is more frequently seen before World War 2, when men were a vast majority of the field.
• Black and white photograph showing twenty-two young, White women, seated and standing, posed for a portrait. Text reads: The first co-ep club.

1924

• These pioneering women in the college started their own organization, Pi Chi Epsilon, the women's honorary professional society in engineering.

1925

• Three of the original seven graduated in 1925, two in commercial engineering (Kathryn Gillis and Ruth McFarlan) and one in chemical engineering (Helen Norris Moore). These three received a co-op pin upon graduation as personal gifts from Dean Schneider.

1932

• Louise McCarren Herring graduated from the Commercial Engineering program. She later becomes the "Mother of Credit Unions."

1934

• Commercial Engineering program is now Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. While these women are no longer classified under the engineering program, they are still co-ops.

1936

• Eighty-eight women have graduated from the co-op program.

1937

• The Alumnae of the Engineering and Commerce College group is formed to support female graduates from the co-oping program. They have unique challenges of being hindered from many opportunities due to the depression, and the lack of executive roles for women. They formed the group to share career observations and contacts in their fields.

1942

• Ruth Mueller is the first "co-ep" to receive the C ring graduation honor.
• Esther Yeckel graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from evening college. Bussing in from Dayton, where she worked full-time as a chemist, during her higher education career. She worked as an Analytical Chemist at Mallinckrodt for 23 years.

1943

• Due to the pressures of WWII on campus, women students trained through certificate programs for war-related work, and by the fall of 1943, women were for the first time admitted to all departments of the college.

1946

• There are 29 women students in the college of engineering for the '46-'47 academic year out of a total of 2073 students in the college.

1948

• Betty Zukerman receives B.S. in General Engineering.

1949

• 2 women with Mechanical Engineering degrees: Joan Kornau Corbin and Lorraine Dowling. 2 women graduating from Electrical Engineering: June Fennell McClintock, and Rose Ellen Stephens.

1950

• Maralyn E. Yount graduates with a Metallurgical Engineering degree.
• Betty Jane Dooley was the first woman to graduate from UC with an Aeronautical Engineering degree. After graduation she started her career at Boeing in Seattle, then worked for 15 years for NASA contractors responsible for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters. In 1950 she was 1 of only 3 women to graduate with any type of engineering degree at UC, and the second woman nationally to receive an Aeronautical degree. After she and her husband retired, they became marathon runner and triathletes! In fact, they both qualified for and participated in the Senior Olympics. She ultimately ran thirty marathons (at least 12 with her husband who she inevitably beat). At one point, she held every Alabama state record for women, ages 65-69, for every distance from 100m sprint to 26 miles.
• Black and white portrait of a young, White women with dark, shoulder-length hair. Text reads: Betty Jane Dooley's school photo.

1958

• 1 woman graduated out of 202 total Engineering Degrees.

1964

• The College of Engineering switched from awarding the professional degree of engineer to the bachelor of science in each field as the undergraduate degree.

1965

• Beverly Ann Troescher in Aerospace Engineering.
• Image of a card on which is printed name, address, and work information. Also includes a black and white portrait of a young, White woman with short, blonde hair. Text reads: Beverly's co-op card.

1969

• OCAS-OMIEC, the combined day and night schools of the Ohio Mechanics Institute, becomes the last private college to join the University of Cincinnati.

1970

• Katherine D. Cannon recieved Master's in Science in Engineering, she earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1973.

1973

• Elizabeth Zureick, graduated cum laude with B.S. in Civil Engineering.

1975

• 58 women are enrolled in UC's college of engineering (Wallace, 1975). This doubles the number enrolled in the previous academic year.

1976

• Society of Women Engineers (SWE) chartered on UC campus.

1978

• 54 women attend OCAS during the day, and 134 at night.

1979

• Inception of National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) at UC.
• BS in Nuclear Engineering, Martha Ann Berding and Mary J. Wise.

1980

• Lisa G. Henderson, first Black woman to earn a degree in Aerospace Engineering from UC. She was the first recipient of a scholarship from the Minority Tuition Assistance Fund.
• Tamara Ann Russell Industrial Engineering.

1983

• Rhonda Jackson: Associate of Applied Science in Chemical Technology.

1984

• Kimberly Ann Oswald, Bachelor's of Science in Applied Mechanics.

1986

• PhD Graduate Kiki Ikossi-Anastasiou (UC Master's in 1982).

1987

• BS in Engineering Mechanics, Kamala Jane Budd
• Color photograph of seven older, White women wearing colorful dresses and blouses - four standing and four seated. Text reads: Class of 1936 reunion for Commercial Engineering.

1992

• Jody Lee Combs, Computer Engineering.

1993

• Melanie Bowser, Lora Cintavey and Jane Overholser BS in Materials Engineering.

1997

• Three women compose the first 4 graduates to receive their B.S. in Chemical Technology (OCAS), Gina Blum, Lisa Soni, and Tonya Lewis.
• Black and white photograph of three young women in caps and gowns. The first is shorter than the others, White, with dark hair. The one in the middle is Black, with shoulder-length hair and the one on the end is White with long blonde hair and bangs. Text reads: Lisa Soni, Tonya Lewis and Gina Blum during their graduation ceremony.

2004

• Biomedical Engineering degree, Cynthia Wen Chiang and Michelle Renee Donato.
• Computer Science Technology Bachelor's (OCAS), Amy Beam and Gabrielle Bradnax.

2009

• OMI-CAS and the College of Engineering combine as the new College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS).

2012

• Computer Science Bachelor's, Chelsea Chase and Kaitlin Welch.

2013

• Evvan Morton Bachelor's in Material Engineering. Co-founder of BioGals, AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, and National Science Foundation IGERT-SUN Fellow.
• Color portrait of a young Black woman with short hair and pearl earings weating a blazer in front of a bookshelf. Text reads: Evvan Morton is working to empower women of color in STEM as the co-founder of non-profit organization BioGals.

2022

• Ali Zieglet, BS in Biomedical Engineering. Awarded Outstanding Senior for CEAS, driving force to implement a homage to women trailblazers in the college.

UC Women in Engineering

A UC program housed in the CEAS Office of Inclusive Excellence and Community Engagement.

UC SWE

The University of Cincinnati’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (UC SWE). UC SWE is just one chapter of many collegiate and professional SWE sections.

100 Years of Women in Co-op

Article providing a brief history - with photos - of the involvement of women in UC's co-op program.