125 Years of Women at MIT


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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Women's Association (MITWA)

Students

Nettie M Willey '93, C. Belle Kenney '86 Chemistry, and Mabel Warren Sawyer '94 Architecture founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Women's Association (MITWA) in 1899. Its goal was "to promote greater fellowship among Institute women". The women had asked ESR about a group, but she felt it "will never be a success, because we have no dormitory life, no campus, and hence no college spirit.". ESR was appointed the first president and did, in fact, provide much support and advice. 

In 1916, MIT moved to Cambridge from Boston. The women student population had dropped to about 1%. MITWA conducted a second alumnae survey, prepared a register of the 650 former women students, and raised $8,000 to move the Cheney Room across the river.
Elizabeth Greenleaf Pattee '16 designed the landscaping of the Killian (Great) Court. MITWA president Mabel Keyes Babcock '08 designed the President's House gardens, and later, the grounds

Today, as the Association of MIT Alumnae (AMITA)its goal are also:

ESR 1909

ESR maintained an alumnae newsletter. She was the first women elected to eht Ammerican Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (c. 1881). Smith, one of the women's colleges then offering science degrees, awarded her a Ph.D. in 1907. She founded and was first president of the American Home Economics Society in 1908.

Ellen Swallow Richards died in 1911. "Technology Women owe a debt of gratitude to her whose wise brain and willing hand opened the way." (Babcock, 1916)

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