"There are many lines of work needed to be done in the world which men and women may do equally well. Equal opportunities should be given for the education of each in the direction efficient performance of these lines of work.
-Lorenzo Dow Harvey
(President of the Stout Institute from 1903-1922)
Timeline of Women's' History at Stout (Pictures from Stout Stories)
(It looks long but it actually pretty interesting and it's just a bunch of interesting facts that I found about women's history at Stout.)
(It looks long but it actually pretty interesting and it's just a bunch of interesting facts that I found about women's history at Stout.)
1891
- James Huff Stout introduces manual training and domestic science into the Menomonie Public Schools through the Stout Manual Training School (first school in Wisconsin devoted exclusively to the areas of both manual training and domestic science).
- Laura G. Day took position as Director of the Training School for Domestic Science Teachers until 1910 where she was given a salary of $1,400 while her counterpart, George B. Buxton (Director of the Manual Training School) recieved $2,000.
- Kindergarten Training School opens to meet need for kindergarten teachers.
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| The Kindergarten Training School was one of the earliest programs of its kinds in the country. from http://www.uwstout.edu/about/history/stories.cfm |
1901
- Senator Stout establishes School of Physical Culture ( follow this link for more History of Women's Sports at Stout) for public school physical training and opens the facility to community use. Carolyn Bornheim became N.J. MacArthur (Director), and the first woman physical education teacher at Stout. However, there are no records of womens' sports from 1910-1920s.
1907
- Homemaker's School opens sharing equipment and faculty with Stout Training Schools ( follow this link for more Stout's Training School for Home Makers)
- The Girls' Hiking Club was organized (lasted one year, but re-established in 1914).
- The Girls' German Club (the men had their own club).
- Kindergarten Training School discontinued.
- Girls' Glee Club was organized (In 1925 member Jane Hamsley wrote the "Alma Mater to the Stout Institute").
- The manual training boys, "believing that the larger number of domestic science girls needed more of the social side of life," organize the Stout Dancing Club.
- The first Stout Orchestra was organized (20 members all together and 4 were women)
- Women students were required to make and wear blue and white striped uniforms which were called "convict suits" by male students. For physical education they were required to wear gymnasium suits (black bloomers and a white middy). Check out page 2 of Chapter 6 of this link to see what these "convict suits" looked like.
- The Philomathean Literary Society was organized where women members gathered together for debates, discussions, musical performances. and friendship.
- Daisy Kugel (head of the household arts department) gives a lecture to domestic science girls on how much hair to have and how to wear it.
- Stout Institute gymnasium classes present a public Gymnastics Exhibition and Kirmess featuring tumbling, wrestling, boxing, gymnastics exercises, flag and barbell drills, and folk dances.
- World War I begins.
- The Homemakers Cottage was started as a place where students could try out the theories they learned in class. This was later called the Home Management House.
- World War I begins, so on campus, men were required to take military drill, and women were required to take Red Cross training.
- Summer session picnic features nail driving and button sewing contests.
- Helen Keller gave her address on "Happiness" to the Stout students in what the Stoutonia terms "perhaps the most unusual and interesting lecture ever heard."
- Open house and dedication ceremonies held for Home Economics building (now Harvey Hall).
- New Lynwood Hall rules limit girls to attend one dance at Rusk per evening, lights out at 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
- Sufferage Movement started at Stout where branches of local suffrage Committee immediately began a campaign to sway voters in the 10th Congressional District of Wisconsin (Suffrage Committee) They played an active role in passage of 19th Amendment. Some members were Katherine Hahn (librarian), Miss Field, Gladys Harvey, President Harvey's daughter (interior decoration instructor and president of the Dunn County Suffrage party).
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Members of the Stout Suffrage Committee |
1918
- Stout Institute offers first four-year programs -- bachelor's degrees in Home Economics Education, and Industrial Arts.
- Stout Institute granted its first bachelor of science degree to one woman
- Amendments put prohibition and nationwide women's vote into effect.
- The Girls' Hikers Club became the Girls' Athletic Association (in 1927 it became known as the Women's Athletic Association). The club promoted the hiking, swimming, canoeing, baseball, basketball and tennis, and gave a letter "S" to every member who hiked 100 miles during the school year.
- The D.A.K. Club was formed and was renamed the Stout Economic Club in 1928
1927
- "The 7:30 rule," requiring students to be in their rooms by 7:30 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday -- unless they were at church -- is dropped.
- The dean of the School of Home Economics personally signed for "the child," a baby, two to eight months old, who was obtained from the Wisconsin State Welfare Department every fall. The students took care of the baby under the supervision of the director of the Home Management House, who lived there year round because the baby was kept in the Home Management House. After the school year the baby would be put up for adoption.
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| Senior women applied classroom theory in the Home Management House. from http://www.uwstout.edu/about/history/stories.cfm |
- First experimental cookery classes offered.
- Because of the Depression, Stout Institute experiences difficulty placing graduates for the first time.
- A women's Natural Dancing Class, a women's Archery Club, and a women's gymnastics team, called the Stout Tumblers, were organized
- Women's telephone numbers first appear in student directories.
- Enrollment dropped to a low of 400
- Stout received thousands of dollars from the Work Projects Administration for building maintenance and support personnel.
1935
- Stout begins master's degree programs in Home Economics 1938
- World War II begins.
- Enrollment grew to 656 student.
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| The war made interesting changes in the Industrial Education building with women invading the trades department, 1944. from http://www.uwstout.edu/about/history/stories.cfm |
- 1943
- Stout enrollment drops to lowest figures since 1918 of 246 students, only 42 are men because large numbers of the institute's faculty and students joined the military. Many never returned.
- The students that stayed at Stout could participate in the pilot training program and nursing.
- Intercollegiate athletics came to a halt due to a lack of male students (44 in 1943). The traditional homecoming football games were replaced by kittenball (softball) and picnics this year and in 1946.
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| Homecoming 1945 had special meaning with the return of many absent during the war years. from http://www.uwstout.edu/about/history/stories.cfm |
- Stout Institute enrollment jumps from 342 in 1945 to 806, causing shortages in faculty, classrooms, equipment, and student housing because of the G.I. Bill. Many of the GI's had wives, so they were housed in the "temporary" Fair Oaks Housing.
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| Married students and their families found inexpensive housing facilities at Fair Oaks. from http://www.uwstout.edu/about/history/stories.cfm |
- Home Economics started holding open houses attracting about 1,200 high school women in 1955
- Food preparation laboratory was created.
- Lana Pederson was the only woman out of 900 students who was majoring in industrial education or industrial technology
- A Stoutonia editorial chastises women for wearing cut-off blue jeans and sweatshirts to Sunday lunch in the cafeteria.
- The Child and Family Study Center was built.
- Bachelor's degree program in Child Development and Family Life begins.
- University Counseling Center purchased a series of pamphlets to help answer women’s questions about combing career and marriage
- The School of Industry and Technology sponsored a two week summer workshop to acquaint women with industrial teaching and management opportunities.
- A Women's Studies Resource Center is created
- For the first time in Stout’s history two women made All-American in the NNCAA Divison III track meet
- The Blue Devils women's basketball team shared the WWIAC confence title — the first conference championship ever for a Stout women's team.
- Women’s Studies minor was approved and there was a four-day Feminist Art Workshop, which provided women students with the opportunity to explore their feminine creativity
- The Blue Devil Women's basketball team won the WIAC conference title with an 11-5 record.
"I have found that my unusual college training has been very enlightening, proving that women can do anything they set out to accomplish, and that these so-called man-sized jobs are really lady-sized after all."
-Marge Stombeck
(Stout State College junior majoring in industrial education)
Sources: Bigony, B.A. (1991). Women at stout: A centennial retrospective. U.S.A.: University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
Thorie, K. (1990). Interpreting the dream: A stout history. U.S.A.: University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
Click on this link if you want to learn about the History of Women's Sports at Stout
Click on this link if you want to know more about Stout's Training School for Home Makers
Pictures from http://www.uwstout.edu/about/history/stories.cfm sorry if the pictures are not showing up, but you find them with the link.
