Special Collections and Archives: Through the Decades with GSU Women: 1930-1939

1933

The Evening School becomes independent of Georgia Tech as the "University System of Georgia Evening School." Kathleen "Kay" Crouch enters as a part-time student and on December 1st Nell H. Trotter becomes a part-time instructor. Women's enrollment is less than 100.

Frances Perkins is the first woman in a Presidential cabinet, serving as Secretary of Labor during the entire Roosevelt presidency.

1934

Nell H. Trotter receives a full time teaching appointment. The Woman's Club at the University System of Georgia Evening School is founded by the wives of faculty members.

1935

The Evening School of Commerce becomes the University System of Georgia Extension Center in Atlanta. Nell H. Trotter becomes Dean of Women and Director of Job Placement. For the first time at the school, day classes are taught at what is called "Atlanta Junior College." Night classes are still taught at the "Georgia Evening College."

Margaret Mead's Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies challenges sex-role assumptions.

Mary McLeod Bethune organizes the National Council of Negro Women as a lobbying coalition of black women's groups, and serves as president until 1949. The NCNW becomes foremost at fighting job discrimination, racism, and sexism.

1938

Crystal Bird Fauset of Pennsylvania becomes the first black woman elected to a state legislature, by an overwhelmingly white district.