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From Engineering Pathway:
Today in History - March 14, 1927 - First female engineer in ASCE. Elsie Eaves was the first woman in the US to be elected as a full member to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
When ASCE was founded in 1852, its membership was restricted to men, a policy which eventually led to a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed in 1916 by Nora Stanton Blatch DeForest, the granddaughter of women's rights advocate Elizabeth Cady Stanton. DeForest was an engineering graduate of Cornell University and was admitted to junior membership in ASCE in 1905. In 1915, when she no longer qualified as a junior member as she had surpassed the legal age limit per the ASCE bylaws, DeForest applied for associate membership. ASCE turned down her request for an associate membership and terminated her membership. DeForest filed a lawsuit. The case was tried in the New York Supreme Court, but the court ruled in favor of the Society, citing its status as a private organization. it would be another 11 years later, in 1927, Elsie Eaves became the first woman to be admitted as a regular member of ASCE.
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