Why the gender dynamics changed
Up until the late 20th century, women rarely participated in athletic events. Historical events from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s dramatically challenged the gender inequality in athletics at the time in the United States. In Particular, the Seneca Falls Convention, followed by the Women’s Suffrage Movement, WWII, and the Civil Rights Movements all significantly changed the social scene (DuBose).
In addition to the gender inequality in athletics, as an engineering school, Poly also had an unequal gender ratio. To start with, Poly started as a school for young men, until 1958. Poly admitted Janet Rosenberg into the spring semester of the undergraduate physics department in 1958. Before Poly was officially coed, many women attended and graduated during WWII, when the industry was in desperate need of engineers. Companies began to recruit women but soon realized that they could not find enough women trained for technical work. Due to this reason, seven colleges agreed to work with a firm and teach its specially prepared curriculum to more than 600 women, introducing “engineeresses” into the industry (Bix). Under the broader social background at the time, it was “odd” for women to study or work in engineering. In the 1960s, women comprised less than 1% of engineering students in the United States (Bix).
Combining both the broader context, it seems reasonable why Poly did not have its first all-female athletic sports team until the late 20th century. Despite the increasing advocacy for gender equality and women’s participation in more fields in the larger social scene, criticism and opposition continued to exist. Two opposing sides lead to reluctance in some women to participate in athletics or engineering, or both.
Nevertheless, society made huge efforts for higher inclusivity and equality for female athletes. In 1972, Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments, prohibiting “sex discrimination in any educational programs or activity receiving any type of financial aid” (“Title IX”). The picture on the right shows Representative Patsy Mink in Washington D.C., the major author and sponsor of the bill. The passage of Title IX is a major achievement for female athletes, giving female athletes the right to equal opportunities and encouraging involvement in athletics.
Poly, specifically, began to have female athletes after the major historical events. While many still believe that “a particular sport is a man’s game” and that “only a man is capable of performing in a competition”, women broke the sport’s barrier. By December 1973, Poly was also moving towards the era of “woman’s lib” where “the female enrollment at Poly has increased” over the past years. The article from The Polytechnic Reporter recognized the courage the female has to make her presence known in athletics through such persistence and encouraging for more females to participate in sports, hoping that “someday in the near future man will finally accept the fact that woman; too, is capable of participating in sports.”
Poly’s call for an era of “woman’s lib” continued but in a more sarcastic manner. After the school changed into co-ed, it hoped that female students would “become involved in all facets of Poly life,” including sports, but instead “they have become mere wall fixtures” in the halls (Davis). As the article suggests, the previous calls for women to participate in sports was not very successful. Though, some progress has been made. Few girls participated as the team manager, although there were only five of them, so the manager for each team was almost the same. This time, Poly tried to call female students to join athletics from a different perspective. Looking at the “practical side” of joining athletics, students can receive gym credit and the opportunity to “meet a virile, athletic, and smart male” (Davis). Jokes aside, Poly had strong hopes and encouragement for the female students to speak up, step in, become active, and support the school.