Celebrating 100 Years of Women at NC State University.

18901901-19191920s1930s1940s1950s1960s1970s1980s1990s2000s



1952

Elizabeth B. Lee was the first woman to receive a degree in architecture from the School of Design at NC State. She later became the first woman licensed to practice architecture in North Carolina.

 

Betty Ann Cline was the first female editor of the Agromeck.


Photo of Betty Ann Cline.

Betty Ann Cline
1952 Agromeck
University Archives, NCSU Libraries


1953


Photo of Emily Brown Blount.

 

Emily Brown Blount was the first woman to receive a B.S. in civil engineering and the first woman to receive a Professional Degree in civil engineering in 1954.

Emily Brown Blount
1953 Agromeck
University Archives, NCSU Libraries



1954

A decade after Stinson had paved the way, the engineering department still had only a few women enrolled in its program. The women pictured here in 1954 are [left to right] Mary Ellen Short of Brevard, Jane Asbill Land (Class of 1957, chemical engineering) of York, S.C., and Emily Brown (Class of 1954, civil engineering) of Wilmington.

 

 

Photo of Mary Ellen Short, Jane Asbill Land, and Emily Brown.

Short, Land, and Brown
Photograph Collection
University Archives, NCSU Libraries

 

   

1955

Fifty-three women and 4,283 men are enrolled.


1956

Patricia Anne Sarvella (genetics) and Sheila Rowley (agricultural economics) were the first women to earn Ph.D. degrees at NC State.

Lillian Lee Vaughn was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from NC State.

 

Photo of Betty Brown.

The first Miss Wolfpack selected from NC State students, Betty Brown, was crowned. Brown was a freshman nuclear engineering major at this time.

Betty Brown
1956 Agromeck
University Archives, NCSU Libraries

1957

The NC State College News reported that almost half the resident Raleigh staff was female but, "not many of our faculty members are women. Mrs. Anna Mae Harris, who teaches Mathematics, represents a small group of devoted women who have taught State College students the fundamentals. Many women work in our laboratories." The alumni magazine continued, "Engineering research may not seem the proper field for a woman, but Mrs. Katherine Sphalski, a graduate of Randolph Macon, finds time to work on problems of the density of water solutions while her husband finishes his degree."


1959

    Nancy Mumford Pencsak and Dorothy Dean Walker were the first women to receive B.S. degrees in engineering mathematics.

 

 

Photo of Nancy Mumford.Photo of Dorothy Walker.

Nancy Mumford
Dorothy Walker
1959 Agromeck
University Archives, NCSU Libraries

 

 

The first chapter of a national sorority, Sigma Kappa, was established.

 

Photo of the Sigma Kappa sorority pledges, 14 March 1960.

NC State Sorority Pledges
Sigma Kappa (Gamma Phi Chapter)
March 14, 1960
Photograph Collection
University Archives, NCSU Libraries
 


Top of Page | Index | Back to Special Collections exhibits page | Special Collections