10-13-2024 W2W - Flipbook - Page 40
BREAKING
Baltimore Polytechnic enrolled
its first female students 50 years ago
By Mike Klingaman
ifty years ago, Baltimore Polytechnic went coed. In September 1974,
a handful of female students paved
the way. The timing was right,
though opinions were split. A bastion of
male learning for 91 years, Poly had both
allies and critics of the move to let women
walk its hallowed halls. For two years
beforehand, readers of The Sun and The
Evening Sun had sounded off.
“I can not believe that Poly can remain
academically high if a female is allowed
to enter this school, for if one tries, there
will surely be others to follow,” an alumnus wrote.
“A direct result of female admittance
to Poly would be a decrease in scholastic
excellence,” offered another.
Others, including Baltimore-area
women’s groups, chimed in to disagree.
Cynics’ worst fears — a collapse of the
school’s academic standards — were typical of the chauvinistic mindset of the times.
One reader wrote:
“Just let a female move into a brainy,
male-dominated area and — whack! Before
she even peeks in the door, the roof falls in.”
A male reader appealed to the baser
instincts of the Poly hard-liners:
“Some male students have said that miniskirts and halter tops would distract them
from their studies. The way to deal with
this issue is not to bar women, but rather
to teach the men how to relate to women
as total human beings, rather than only in
a sexual manner.”
The debate raged on. In 1972, a straw poll
of Poly students, parents and faculty voted
2-to-1 to bar girls from the school’s vaunted
“A” course in engineering. The Sun countered with a scathing editorial, calling such
F
Evelyn Harlee, left, was in the first group
of six girls to graduate from Baltimore
Polytechnic, doing so in 1978. She’s pictured
with her brother, Bruce, who graduated the
same year. BALTIMORE SUN ARCHIVE
a move “a gross injustice” and “a Victorian
notion.”
Even members of the Baltimore City
school board, which held Poly’s fate in its
hands, struggled to concur. In March 1974,
deadlocked on the issue, the board tabled
a motion on whether to allow girls entry
on a full-time basis. One board member, a
woman, seemed determined to keep them
out.
Harlee was one of the first
women to graduate from
Baltimore Polytechnic after the
school went coed.
PHOTO BY KARL MERTON
FERRON
“For three years, I was the only girl in every class I took.
The [male] teachers showed no prejudice;
they were eager to teach us [girls].”
— Evelyn Harlee, 1978 Poly graduate
40 | 2024 | WOMEN TO WATCH
