Life as a Poly Woman
Shocking Polytechnic Reporter Articles
Many of the documented experiences of poly female students and faculty while on campus emphasize that there was a tremendous need for change. Several of the articles in the Polytechnic Reporter display this quite clearly and this goes past the tone used in reporting new female enrollments at the university.
One jarring example of this is displayed in this 1960 Polytechnic Reporter article where women were being raffled off as prizes. It is not indicated in the paper whether these women were actually poly students. However an indication of the way poly women were valued is given since they are bound to have had similar undocumented experiences.
Another example displaying a low regard for women can be seen in the attempt at comedy labelled "Poly New Coeds." In this 1960s article, one of the female students, Ophelia Liver is grouped with two animals being a dog and a chicken where it implies that the animals are also "coeds." The names of the animals for the chicken and dog respectively are "Mme. Gobble D' Coq" and "Miss Dalmay Shun". It is not difficult to identify the inappropriateness and offensiveness of this newspaper article. The "coed' students being the subject of a joke on a level of distastefulness as this gives a clear indication of a blatant lack of respect for female students.
A third article that runs parallel to the previous two is an ad where it seems a push-up bra is being advertised. This type of ad displayed in a newspaper whose audience was predominantly male is seriously inappropriate. This is also taking into consideration that even though NYU Tandon's student population is more than 40% females today, an advertisement such as this would not even be thought of, much less allowed.
These past silences are not known of by the student population today and many of these documented examples are only available for viewing in archives and not readily available online or in books.
Oral Histories
Oral histories from past female Poly alumni share alot of light into the experience of women on the campus. One such oral history is given by Dr Eleanor Baum. Dr Eleanor Baum graduated with a PhD in electrical engineering at Brooklyn Poly in 1964. In her oral history Eleanor related that "being the only girl in college classes was not wonderful-- And the reason it’s not wonderful is that you feel extraordinarily conspicuous, and you become all women." She related that as a woman, just getting into colleges was difficult as one school which she applied to denied her based on the fact that they did not have sufficient bathroom facilities for women.
Eleanor also explained her difficulties in searching for jobs. She laughingly related her experience when trying to obtain her first job at a company that she learned required a woman engineer since "they needed someone who knew how to sew." At her actual first job at Sperry Gyroscope, she relayed that since people were not accustomed to female engineers, everyone assumed her to be a secretary. She also explained that simple business conversations with her colleagues were perceived as flirting since a male talking to a male was regarded as a "business conference" but this did not apply for a female talking to a male. She went on to discuss that she eventually adapted to this environment by developing a "thick skin" and learning to laugh some things off and not giving people power over her emotions.
One of the experiences Eleanor shared relating to Brooklyn Poly was when she was graduating with her PhD. She explained that she was due for pregnancy at her graduation ceremony and hence her childbirth was due around the time she was expected to re-enter the job market. Taking time off to care for a baby when entering the working world in those days was heavily frowned upon and she discussed that she was very concerned about being away and losing touch with the rapidly changing technology at the time. Therefore Eleanor was desperate to obtain employment. Knowledgeable of this, her graduate school advisor at Brooklyn Poly offered her a role where she would stay on at the institute and work for him. However the role wouldnt have had a salary since according to the Professor-, "she had a husband." This was very insulting to Eleanor and expectedly so since achieving a PhD is no easy accomplishment. She explains that upon hearing this she stomped out of the advisor's office and reached out to the nearby Pratt Institute where she was offered a paying job.
This experience is quite a testament to the attitude that American society had regarding women engineers in the 1960s. It also emphasises there were alot of improvements to be made at Brooklyn Poly since Pratt Institute did not show the same attitude towards Eleanor.
Another oral history was told by Stella Lawrence Daniels who graduated with a masters in electrical engineering at Brooklyn Poly in 1952. She began teaching electrical circuits at Pratt Institute and physics at the City College of New York during her post-war tenure at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Daniels made the full-time switch to academia a couple of years later, becoming an assistant professor in electrical engineering technology at Bronx Community College, from which she retired as a full time professor in 1988. Stella's oral history does not touch much on her experience at Poly, however she speaks alot about the discrimination she faced in the working world as a Poly alum. Due to the need that she saw for advancement of the women numerical demographic in engineering, Stella actively found herself involved in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). She explained that through her role in the society she was able to educate women on what engineers actually do since ignorance of this is a reason why women don't pursue engineering.
Stella's switch from industry to academia by working as a professor at Bronx Community College also showed that she valued an increase in women representation in engineering education. She also reminisced on her career in engineering very fondly and relayed that her greatest contributions to the field was research at NASA and her particpations in the Electrical Engineering Society and SWE.