Women at Tech

Celebrating the Past, Present, and Future

By Kelley Freund

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For the first 67 years of its existence, Georgia Tech did not admit women. That changed 70 years ago. Since then, the women who have set foot on campus have earned research grants, been published as undergraduates, set records on athletic fields, led campus organizations, and left the Institute to make an impact in the world beyond. It hasn’t been easy. Along the way female students have had to prove why they belong. But Georgia Tech women know their self-worth. Here we look back at 70 years of women at Georgia Tech—women who have never been afraid to speak out about what they deserve, women who have never been afraid to make change.

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Past

 
Dianna Shelander

The First Letter

Last year, when a panel of prominent Georgia Tech athletes and coaches came together for the 50th anniversary of Title IX, they were asked a question: What was your favorite spot on campus? And when one women answered "the women's locker room," Dianna Shelander, Aphys 76, the Institute's first female letter winner, couldn't help but laugh.

The locker room Shelander remembers as the sole woman on the men's diving team from 1973 to 1976 was dreary and cramped. (Cramped, even though Shelander was often the only one in it, since there were no women's athletic teams on campus.) It was in the old Heisman gymnasium along with the team's pool, and Shelander would have to make the long walk from the women's dorms, restricted to the northwest side of campus, to get to practice on the southeast side. At away competitions, she was invited to attend only if they were in the Atlanta area. At one such meet, her teammates, as the visiting team, used the opposing school's women's locker room while Shelander changed in a closet that housed first-aid supplies. If she went out with her friends for a fun evening her freshman year, she was expected back to her dorm at a certain time even though her male teammates did not have curfews. And at some point during her time at Tech, while she was earning her degree in physics, the ratio of men to women was 18:1.

But Shelander wasn't fazed by any of it. By her junior year, she was winning first place most meets—against men. (She competed against another women just once.) During one meet, a male opponent who she had beaten commented it was unfair that he has to dive against a girl.

"And I thought, how fair is it that for all these years women didn't event have the opportunity to dive or participate in any sport they wanted?" Shelander says.

Title IX's passage in 1972 would change that for some. The 1970s saw other important milestones for women, including the Roe v. Wade ruling, the creation of Take Back the Night marches, and the launch of the first women's studies department at San Diego State University. It was also in the late 1970s that women began to outnumber men in college programs. Back at Tech, in 1974 basketball became the first women's sport at the Institute to receive varsity status. But the school did not add a women's swimming and diving team until 2001, 28 years after Shelander earned her first letter with the men's organization.

"Times were changing," Shelander says of the college years. "And they were at Tech, too—just very slowly."

A New Center

When Stephanie Ray joined Georgia Tech's staff as the inaugural associate dean and director for student diversity programs in 1997, the female population on campus was just over 19 percent. Ray likes to jokes that her supervisor, Gail DiSabatino, left out a key item on the list of responsibilities the job entailed. Soon after her new employee arrived on campus at the end of March, DiSabatino said, "Did I mention you have to start a women's resource center?"

"As a matter of fact, you didn't," Ray replied. "But tell me more."

It was the Women's Student Union who pushed the Institute's administrators to start a women's center on campus. The organization, which participated in marches, provided escort services for the women's health center, and offered workshops on reproductive health and self-defense, was one the first ones Raja Schaar, ID 01, joined as freshman in 1996. (She would later serve as co-president.)

"When I arrived at Tech, there were still a lot of celebrating firsts," Schaar says. "The first woman to do this or that was still happening. It was obvious the culture was still trying to get used to women on campus."

But a unified voice for women at Georgia Tech would help change that. A resource center would offer female students a space where they could be themselves, provide the support and resources needed to be successful in a structure that was based on male students, and foster a sense of community.

When Georgia Tech's Women's Resource Center (WRC) opened in 1998, Schaar was one of the organization's first student assistants. These leaders not only helped to establish the center's early programs, but they made WRC's office a welcoming place for students by painting the walls themselves, first in their one-room space, and then their current suite in the Charles A. Smithgall Student Service Building.

In 2000, the WRC hired its inaugural director, Yvette Upton, whose grandmother once asked her if she was one of those "women libbers." When Upton read the description for Tech's new position, she said it was liked reading her own resume. And when she took the position, she told her friends, "I just got hired to raise hell on women's issues."

Present

From left to right, Andrea Laliberte and Raja Schaar

Making Change

From 2000 until she left the Center in 2009, Upton helped further develop the programming for the WRC. But both Ray and Upton recall that a portion of their job in the early days was eradicating the myth that women at Georgia Tech were admitted just because they were women. That was never true, but Upton says it created the feeling for Women at Tech that they had to prove themselves—and that it was a sign of weakness to get help from organizations like the WRC. Thankfully, that mentality has changed. Today there are over 40 women's organizations on campus, such as the Society of Women Engineers and Women in Architecture that provide resources and a sense of community for female students.

"That says to me women are able to be these smart, accomplished students and also to be comfortable being female in this space, however they define that for themselves," Upton says. "It's not something they have to hide or downplay to be successful at Georgia Tech. They can integrate those different parts of themselves. And that's powerful."

For the past 25 years, the organization has worked to advance gender equity across all identities by cultivating opportunities for community building and leadership, and identity development for women at Georgia Tech. Annually in March, the organization celebrates Women's Action Month with a series of programs that address gender equity, provides gender-based education, and recognizes women's accomplishments. RISE (Reimagines, Inspire, Serve, Empower) is a first-year leadership organization for students interested in advancing gender equity and social justice. And the Women's Leadership Conference offers the opportunity for students to develop themselves personally and professionally through speakers, workshops, and networking events. The WRC also partners with the Institute's VOICE organization to host Take Back the Night. (VOICE also now offers resources for survivors of sexual assault, but from 2000 to 2015, the WRC filled that role.)

The WRC advances gender equity across all identities, but students can also turn to Tech's Pride Alliance, whose roots go back to 1977, and the LGBTQIA Resource Center, which coordinates programs and events aimed at educating the Georgia Tech community about LGBTQIA issues, diversity, equity and inclusion; and provides safe spaces for students to build a community and explore their identities.

Today, the percentage of women at Georgia Tech has reached 40 percent. But Ray says that no matter the percentage, women at Tech have never fallen short in commitment and service to the Institute and their community.

"To me, that is the essence of a Georgia Tech woman, and that has never changed," she says. "What has changed is women have a better understanding of the contributions they can make at Georgia Tech and beyond."

Women Inspiring Women

Schaar is one such alumna who is making an impact beyond Tech. She came to campus because she thought she wanted to be an engineer—until she discovered the Institute's industrial design program, at the time just one of two in the state. Today, Schaar is the program director and an associate professor for the product design program at Drexel University. Her research focuses on addressing inequalities in maternal health; innovation and entrepreneurship education; biologically inspired design and sustainability; and methods for engaging underrepresented minorities in STEM/STEAM through design and technology. One of her projects, Black Girls STEAM-ing through Dance, is helping to curb the racial and gender disparities that exist within industrial design by introducing girls to the field at an early age. The program, aimed towards girls ages 7 to 12, combines coding, design, and dance.

"Girls have the opportunity to create dance programs and wearable technology, and work with different software," Schaar says. "It's giving them that exposure that I didn't have before I came to Georgia Tech. I had no idea you could have as much fun doing what I do know."

Andrea Laliberte, IE 82, MS IE 84, is another alumna hoping to inspire the next generation of women.

After growing up in a small town in Massachusetts, Laliberte was ready for a change, so she came to the big city of Atlanta for college. She went on to spend 19 years with the fashion company Coach, retiring as senior vice president of distribution.

Twenty-five years after graduating, Laliberte reconnected with her alma mater, moving to Atlanta for a gig as the Edenfield Executive-in-Residence in the School of Industrial and Systems and Engineering. She also served as chair of the Alumni Association and on several Tech boards.

"It was through these positions that I had the opportunity to hear the stories of so many amazing women," Laliberte says. "During those years, it was always in the back of my mind: What can we do to recognize these women and celebrate them?"

She came up with the idea to tell the stories of the women from Georgia Tech through a structure near the John Lewis Student Center, to be formally dedicated this fall. Faculty, staff, and students gave their input for the design, and Merica May Jensen, Mgt 08, M Arch 11, brought it to life.

"It will highlight the history of women at Tech, what women have accomplished after graduating, and celebrate women in a way that inspires future women at Georgia Tech," Laliberte says. "And it's designed so it can be added to for as many years as it exists."

The Future

From left to right, Anushka Chalmeti and Lizzie Wright

The Next Generation

When Schaar did a talk on sustainable menstruation for the WRC's RISE program last year, she was amazed at how well-versed the students were in the issues related to the talk. For Schaar, the event gave her a sense of pride in her alma mater and in the ability of the WRC to nurture young leaders.

Anushka Chalmeti is one such leader. A second-year studying biomedical engineering and pre-law, Chalmeti works as a student assistant in the WRC, greeting visitors and helping with administrative tasks and the center's big events, like Take Back the Night.

In addition to her work at the WRC, Chalmeti also does research on campus at an imaging lab, is completing a bioethics internship with Wellstar Health System, and is a volunteer for Jumpstart, which teaches literary skills to students in underserved communities.

"The experience at Georgia Tech can be isolating if you don't find people who are going through similar things," Chalmeti says. "The WRC, where I can learn about different aspects of feminism, where I'm surrounded by people who are passionate about social equity, is that community for me."

Lizzie Wright, a fourth-year neuroscience major, feels the same way about building relationships.

"One of my main goals coming into college was to establish a strong community of women to support me throughout my time here and hopefully beyond," Wright says. "When I look back on my time at Tech, I don't really focus on my academic success but rather on the people I've had the privilege of becoming friends with. They have different modes of thinking, and they have challenged my perspectives. I feel very fortunate to have found friends and mentors to help me achieve my goals."

Last fall, Wright was selected as Ramblin' Royalty for her community involvement. She is a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority, Campus Outreach, and the Georgia Tech EXCEL mentorship program, which enables students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to earn two certificates during their time at Tech. Wright oversees the organization's mentorship program, which pairs a Georgia Tech student with EXCEL students to help them develop their academic and personal success.

Chalmeti is deciding whether she wants to be a lawyer or policy maker, or work in clinical bioethics. Wright plans to be a doctor in a low-income and/or public health setting. These two represent the next generation of women who have experienced growth and success on the campus of Georgia Tech. They have done so thanks to other empowered women on campus, and thanks to those who fought for change the past 70 years. Perhaps in the next 70 years, there will be a generation of students who, as Chalmeti says, can learn at Georgia Tech without the burden of breaking glass ceilings and fighting stereotypes.

"Women have been having this same conversation for millennia: that women have a right to be here, too, women defending their right to exist," Schaar says.

"My hope is that someday we won't have to make that case. I want to get to a point where we're not talking about women at Georgia Tech, except to celebrate them."