BLACKSBURG, Va. – It’s been a century since women were first allowed to attend Virginia Tech. In honor of Women’s History Month, the university is paying tribute to the legacy they left behind.
Staff members at the school created a virtual timeline — using digitized documents — detailing how women made their mark on Virginia Tech. One hundred years of photos, yearbooks and milestones.
“Women helped build Virginia Tech into the institution that it is and we continue to contribute in significant ways and those stories need to be told,” said Anna LoMascolo, the co-director of the Women’s Center at Virginia Tech, who was tapped for the project.
Kira Dietz, the assistant director of Special Collections and University Archives with University Libraries, was enlisted to help research.
“We wanted to start digging deeper,” said Dietz.
White women weren’t allowed to attend Virginia Tech as full-time students until 1921. Black women not until 1966.
The very first class of five women – graduating in 1925 – were rebels in their own way: majoring in chemistry, biology and civil engineering.
Women couldn’t go into the bookstore, eat inside the dining hall or walk through certain parts of campus. Women couldn’t go into the bookstore, eat inside the dining hall or walk through certain parts of campus. And the first female dorm– Hillcrest Hall– didn’t open until 1940.
Forced to build their own community, these ladies started the school’s women’s basketball team called the “Turkey Hens.”
They even created their own yearbook “The Tin Horn” – a spin-off the men’s yearbook “The Bugle,” which didn’t formally acknowledge female students until 1947.
“Women weren’t invited in in the beginning. They weren’t telling women’s stories. They were very marginalized and kind of over to the side. And so they found ways to tell their own stories,” said LoMascolo.
A far cry from the experiences of current juniors Madeline Deck and Molly Fasco.
“I feel very welcomed here,” said Fasco. “I don’t really notice like the difference between men and women here.”
However, some of the challenges women faced back then are still present today.
“There still are boundaries with the pay gap,” said Deck. “They’re just a little less visible than they have been before, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”
A group of trailblazers whose work lives on.
“It’s not about creating change tomorrow,” said LoMascolo. “It’s taking another step towards change for the future.”
The timeline is an ongoing project. If you have any photos or documents regarding women’s history at Virginia Tech you’d like to share, contact Kira Dietz by emailing her at: kadietz@vt.edu.