Katharine McCormick and MIT

This is Kris, back with another installment on our piece for the 2020  exhibition, Deeds Not Words: Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage. We chose Katharine McCormick as our subject not simply because she was so instrumental in the women’s suffrage movement; she furthered women’s rights wherever she set foot. And the first place she happened to set foot as a young women was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was still located in Boston at that time. Here are some highlights:

McCormick as a Student

MIT was primarily a place for men. In 1896, when McCormick applied to study biology there, there were only 44 women students, and only one woman had ever graduated.* It took her three years of “pre-study” and four more of instruction, but she finally received her degree in 1904. McCormick was the second woman to graduate from MIT and the first woman to graduate with a degree in science (Biology). While accomplishing all this, McCormick managed to become involved in the women’s suffrage movement, joining the College Equal Suffrage League, even though MIT wouldn’t allow the group to meet on campus. Deb and I love the fact that she successfully lobbied the MIT authorities to abolish the rather dangerous rule that required women to wear hats in chemistry classes. This must have been quite revolutionary, since women back then wore hats all the time in public.

 

McCormick as a Benefactor to MIT

In her will, McCormick stated: “Since my graduation in 1904, I have wished to express my gratitude to the Institute for its advanced policy of scientific education for women. This policy gave me the opportunity to obtain the scientific training which has been of inestimable value to me through my life.” I could not pin down how much she gave to MIT over the years, but since the planned giving society at MIT is named after her, we can safely assume it was a lot. But, that’s not all McCormick gave to the university. One important reason women could not get a foothold into MIT, even decades after McCormick graduated, was because there was no housing for them. McCormick changed that by funding the construction of the Stanley McCormick Hall (named after her husband), an all-female dormitory that still exists today (see the photo at the beginning of the post). Don’t you just love the look of the brown living room?

 

McCormick’s Legacy at MIT

Katharine McCormick, in my mind, paved the way for all women to flourish at MIT. While women faculty members still report gender biases at MIT, they have also seen marked improvements for themselves (click here to read more). I’m just impressed that MIT even bothered to commission a study, let alone three to track the progress of gender equity among women faculty members since 1999. Women students have seen even better changes. Click here to play with a really cool interactive map that charts whether or not more women  (salmon dots) or fewer women (teal dots) were enrolled in any one class in 2016. Stay tuned to future posts as we discuss more intriguing aspects about Katharine McCormick’s life.

 

* If you want to read more about Katharine McCormick, we recommend Katharine Dexter McCormick: Pioneer for Women’s Rights, by Armond Fields (Westport, CT: Praeger 2003).