March 2022: History of TWU

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How TWU cameto beby Maddie RayTexas Woman’s University has served as a beacon oflight for the education of women in Texas since 1901and has a history of persevering through defeat tobecome the university we know and love today.The University of Texas had opened officially in1883, offering a rounded education in literature andscience, while Texas A&M opened its doors in 1877as a male-only industrial school to train young men inagriculture and mechanics. The lack of an industrialschool for young women proved significant in thecoming years.The first bill to establish a girls’ industrial schoolwas in 1891, which passed in the Senate but failedin the House. President of the Woman’s ChristianTemperance Union, Helen Stoddard, began petitioningfor a girls’ school in 1893, providing some of theneeded traction.“Let our daughters be taught all the labors necessaryto a well-kept, hygienic home and also be trainedto some business… Let us stop the embroidery andpiano lessons long enough to send them to a scientificcooking school,” Stoddard said.As the advocation for the school increased, thereremained opponents. One of which did not want tosupport the bill because it had “female rights writtenall over it,” while another opponent believed thatwomen did not need to be trained in homemakingskills, saying “instinct will take a woman a perfecthousekeeper, a model wife and a wise mother,”according to Thurman.1970’s; All Images Courtesy of the TWU LibrariesWoman’s Collection, Texas Woman’s University,Denton, TX.The battle for the Girls Industrial College was a longand arduous process, with first talks of a women’scollege arising in small groups until master of theTexas State Grange and Patrons of Husbandry A.J.Rose started advocating for the college.“Do [girls] not need an industrial college, too, wherethey can receive a practical education which willprepare them for some vocation in life?” Rose saidaccording to journalist Nita Thurman.In 1900, the Texas Democratic Party called for anindustrial school for girls and finally, in 1901, 10 yearsafter the first bill was filed, the school was approvedand placed in Denton.The college was founded to be for rural and smalltowngirls seeking vocational training to receiveboth liberal education and training for the practicalindustries of that time. Since many of these womenare from rural areas and did not receive a high schooleducation, the first two years of the curriculum werepreparatory, while high school graduates started as ajunior. The first graduate of this college was BeulahKincaid, who studied commercial arts.4
Of the programs offered, many were to give womenthe education to better themselves as housewives orstay-at-home mothers. If they were planning on beinghomemakers, they were expected to learn sanitation,science, cooking, sewing and hygiene. The DomesticArts Department offered classes in laundry andhousekeeping.There were other programs, however, for those whowanted to learn for careers. The Commercial ArtsDepartment offered classes in traditionally maledominatedfields, such as bookkeeping, commerciallaw, stenography and political economy. In the RuralArts department, students could learn beekeeping,floriculture, horticultural and poultry farming.Men began to be admitted into TWU’s undergraduateand graduate health science professions programs inDenton, Dallas and Houston, but were not admitted toall undergraduate degree programs until 1994.In 2013, the Terry Foundation began providingscholarships for TWU students. Chancellor CarineFeyten, Ph.D. became the second chancellor and 11thpresident of TWU in 2014. In 2019, TWU was namedNational Outdoor Champion in the Association ofOutdoor Recreation and Education Campus Challenge.As TWU looks forward to the future, it continues itsthemes of women empowerment and opportunity asthe largest women-focused institution in America.After the renamingof the Girls IndustrialCollege to the Collegeof Industrial Arts,the first Bachelor ofScience degree wasoffered in 1914, whenthe college initiated afour-year curriculum.The university thenchanged its name againto the Texas StateCollege for Women(TSCW) in 1934. In1939, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt attended andparticipated in the dedication ceremony for the LittleChapel-in-the-Woods. In 1943, the first OccupationalTherapy program in the Southwest was founded atTSCW.Finally, in 1957, TCSW was renamed to TexasWoman’s University. The University opened the TWUInstitute of Health Sciences-Houston Center in 1960,with the TWU Institute of Health Sciences-DallasCenter quickly following in 1966. The University alsobegan to be integrated in 1961, with Alsenia Dowellsenrolling at TWU as the first African Americanstudent.The Lasso |5
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March 2022: History of TWU

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