Antecedents
The SWE Archives contain a series of letters from the Elsie Eaves Papers, (bequeathed to the Society), which document how in 1919, a group of women at the University of Colorado attempted to organize a women's engineering society. This group included Lou Alta Melton, Hilda Counts and Elsie Eaves. These young women wrote letters to engineering schools across the nation, asking for information on women engineering students and graduates.
They found 63 women enrolled in engineering at 20 universities, 43 of those at the University of Michigan alone. From a letter that Hazel Quick wrote to Hilda Counts, we know that the Michigan women had organized a group in 1914, which they called the T-Square Society, although no one was sure (even then) if it was a business, honorary or social organization.
Many negative responses were received from schools which did not admit women into their engineering programs. From the University of North Carolina, Thorndike Saville, associate Professor of Sanitary Engineering wrote: "I would state that we have not now, have never had, and do not expect to have in the near future, any women students registered in our engineering department."
Some responses were supportive of women in engineering, but not of a separate society. Many of the women contacted as a result of the inquiries wrote about their support for such an organization. Besides the Hazel Quick letter from Michigan, there was a reply from Alice Goff, expressing her support of the idea of a society for women in engineering and architecture, "Undoubtedly an organization of such a nature would be of great benefit to all members, especially to those just entering the profession."
Read more about this topic: Society Of Women Engineers
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