Women at VPI
During the First World War thousands of women served in the American military in non-combat roles, assumed civilian jobs which were left vacant due to men entering service, and participated in organizations like the Women’s Land Army to support the war effort. Despite the war and wartime restrictions on free speech, American women activists continued to fight for full female citizenship. Their monumental efforts resulted in the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
The war also fundamentally changed the gendered composition of VPI. When Congress passed the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, VPI’s new president, Julian Burruss, secured funds to create new introductory courses for disabled veterans to earn a vocational education. To teach these courses Burruss hired Anna Campbell in 1920, becoming VPI’s first female instructor. Campbell taught four different entering classes of VPI student veterans and left after spring 1923 to pursue her own collegiate education.
In January 1921, a year after Anna Campbell became VPI’s first female instructor, Burruss prosed to the Board of Visitors that women finally be admitted to VPI. Burruss argued that VPI could no longer reasonably exclude women from admittance to VPI due to the passage of the 19th Amendment and the vital roles that women assumed to help win the war locally, nationally, and abroad. The Board approved Burruss’ proposal and in the fall of 1921 VPI admitted five full-time and seven part-time female students.
The struggle for full-female citizenship and women’s rights did not end in the early 1920s. Women’s rights activists continue to fight for equality today. The war, however, did change VPI and placed it on a fundamentally different course. Today Virginia Tech is home to over 15,000 female students.
