    EXHIBIT
    FINDING
A WOMAN'S PLACE AT VIRGINIA TECH 1921-2021

In this exhibit you can explore the different phases of Solitude’s history. We begin during the period when this place was indigenous land, and go on to explore its history as a slave plantation in the nineteenth century.

GROUNDS FOR CONFLICT—MALE RESPONSES TO CO-EDUCATION

They [the professors] just couldn’t take us very seriously.” 
  
––Carrie Sibold ‘25
  
“One of the professors was even so inconsiderate as to say that our class of co-eds was dumb.” 

––Carrie Sibold 1928
  
“I was either invisible or put on the spot, neither of which I enjoyed.” 
  
––Carol Graybeal Chafin ‘69 
  
“We were tolerated because women posed no threat to the job market.”
  ––Eva F. Foster ‘38

From the quotes above, it is clear that female students faced isolation and even contempt from both male professors and fellow students in the first fifty years of co-education. Women outside of Home Economics often faced isolation because they were the only female students in male dominated classes. Prim Jones ‘62, was one of only six women to study engineering in the class of 1962. She recalled that being a female student at Tech could be a very lonely experience. In a 2018 interview with VT Stories, Jones said:

It was predicted, by a campus newspaper, that female students would study gardening and horticulture. In the fall of 1921, 12 women enrolled at VPI and 5 were considered full-time students.  None of these women majored in agricultural areas as previously predicted. The “first five” majored in engineering, chemistry and biology.

Caroline Turner and Harriet Shelton working in a chemistry lab

Caroline Turner and Harriet Shelton work in a chemistry lab, 1950

Dorothy Herndon, who graduated in 1960, recalled arriving in class to hear a male student say, “well there go our jokes for this quarter.” Despite pushback from male students, the women of Virginia Tech persisted. 
Several instances particularly illustrate male responses to the female presence on campus. First, it was tradition at Tech for the Senior class to vote the two students with the highest averages as valedictorian and salutatorian.  However in 1932, the Senior class selected the third ranked student as valedictorian because the top student in the graduating class was Miss F.R. Aldrich. Dr. Carol Newman, wrote to President Burruss to appraise him of the situation, stating “It is easy to see why the class made the selection it did, Miss Aldrich being a girl.” 

Second, during the Depression era, the Home Economics department was closed from 1934-1937 due to lack of funds. All faculty and students of this department were female. It seems likely that gender impacted this decision, because no other academic area was similarly impacted during this time.
  
Third, while Martha Harder was dean of women from 1966-1968,  the number of female students doubled. However, female students still faced pushback from male faculty. One day, Dean Harder received a call from a male faculty member asking her if she knew there were co-eds on the Upper Quad. Harder replied, “I certainly hope so, they live there now.” 

 Some questioned the academic abilities of the co-eds at Virginia Tech. In speech from the 1960s, Dr. Laura Jane Harper emphasized the importance of higher education for women, stating:

“Our educated women will help shape the future of this world just as our educated men will, and the education of women in Virginia depends in part on the shape of education at VPI, Virginia’s land grant university.”

Norma Lee Smith Bobbitt
  
B.S., MHFD-1963
  
M.S., VOED-1967

Mary Biggs
  
B.S., MHFD-1973
  
M.S., MHFD-1979

Last, male professors could be resistant to change and try to intimidate women in their classes. Norma Lee Smith Bobbitt ‘63, ‘67 recalled that some professors would call roll on the first day of class and tell female students to leave. Bobbitt noted that “ I refused to leave, and I found out that by staying and performing, I was treated fairly.” Mary Biggs, who completed a B.S. in ‘73 recalled taking an art class where the professor said, “the damn fall of this university was the admission of women."

Many of the personal recollections used in this exhibit came from the Generations of Women Leaders booklet published in 1996. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of women at Virginia Tech, alumni contributed personal recollections about their experiences at VT, and discussed the impact of a university education on both their life and careers. Many of these personal stories comment on the ways women persisted in higher education despite institutional challenges like those illustrated in the opening quotes. The memories also celebrate the community of women that graduated from the university and went on to make significant contributions in a variety of fields.