Historic First for Caltech: Most of Its Incoming Undergraduates Are Women

In the fall of 1970, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) enrolled its first female undergraduate students since the university’s establishment in 1891. Now, five decades later, the prestigious research university has reached a historic milestone: At least half of the incoming undergraduates are women.

The class of 2028 includes 113 women and 109 men, according to admissions data released by the university.

Caltech attributes the achievement to “sustained efforts to improve gender equity” on campus and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This includes several strategic initiatives to “recruit and retain women” and diversify incoming classes.

“Caltech aims to be the destination of choice for the most talented, creative individuals from every background and perspective, and to build a community where everyone can reach their full potential,” Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum said in a press release.

“Our ability to remain a top research and educational institution crucially depends on finding and attracting gifted students, postdocs, and faculty. Achieving gender equity in the same year that we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of our first graduating class of undergraduate women is especially resonant.”

Caltech is not the only STEM-focused institution to pursue gender parity. The incoming class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) includes 50% men and 46% women, with 3% identifying as another gender. Women accounted for 49% of undergraduate students during the 2023-2024 academic year.

In 2023, Harvey Mudd College had a near-perfect split, with women making up 49.6% of fall enrollment. The science and engineering-focused liberal arts college also had more female STEM majors in more male-dominated areas of study compared to other institutions.

In 2018, 58% of physics graduates and 56% of computer science graduates at Harvey Mudd were women. In contrast, nationally, only 22% of physics graduates and 20% of computer science graduates were women.

In 1973, Stephanie Charles, Deborah Chung, Sharon Long, and Flora Wu became the first women to graduate with bachelor’s degrees from Caltech. All four women transferred into the university, as Caltech did not accept female students when they were applying to colleges.

“Caltech was truly my first choice from the beginning, but they said they were not accepting women [in 1969], and to try again next year. When they admitted me in 1970, it was a no-brainer that I would attend,” Charles said in an interview with Caltech’s Alumni Association publication.

While female undergraduates were not allowed at Caltech until 1970, Dorothy Ann Semenow became the first woman to join a graduate program at Caltech almost two decades earlier.

Semenow was invited to join Caltech as the university’s only female student by John D. Roberts, a professor of chemistry at the time, according to Caltech Magazine. She graduated with a Ph.D. in chemistry and biology in 1955.

In a 1985 interview, Roberts said he had to convince the administration to change the rule that banned women from enrolling. A 1955 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette stated Semenow was allowed to enroll after the school “let down the barrier against her sex in favor of ‘women who give promise of great scientific contributions.'”

The class of 1974 was the first graduating class to have women who were admitted as first-year students. It took nearly 20 years, until 1993, for Caltech to have a graduating class with over 25% women.

The university describes the effort to reach gender parity as an “uphill battle,” saying the “historic exclusion of women from the institute’s undergraduate program had lingering effects,” even after the university began admitting women as undergraduates.

To combat this, the university has focused on recruiting female applicants and supporting them during their time at Caltech.

“We have been intentional in our efforts to communicate to exceptional female students that Caltech is a place where they can thrive intellectually and where they will grow as scientists and engineers,” Ashley Pallie, dean of admissions, said in the release.

According to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF), women earned the majority of bachelor’s degrees in social and behavioral sciences (66%) and agricultural and biological sciences (64%) in 2020.

However, that same year, women earned only 26% of computer and mathematical science bachelor’s degrees and 24% of engineering bachelor’s degrees.

The gender disparity in STEM fields is mirrored in STEM careers. In 2021, 61% of social and related scientists were women, but they only made up 26% of computer and mathematical scientists and 16% of engineers, according to NSF.

Overall, women account for just 35% of the STEM workforce, and women in racial and ethnic minority groups hold few of those roles.

Just under 15% of women working in STEM are African American/Black, and 10% are Asian. American Indian/Alaska Native and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women collectively account for less than 1% of women in STEM, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Caltech is addressing the importance of more women in STEM by providing academic and career counseling, mental health resources, as well as affinity groups that “provide community, mentorship, and advocacy on campus.”

The university also offers a free, overnight summer preview opportunity for rising high school juniors and seniors “whose gender identity has been historically underrepresented in STEM,” including female, nonbinary, and gender expansive students.

The annual Women in STEM, or WiSTEM, event offers prospective students tours of the campus and labs, mock lectures, informational panels about student life at Caltech, and social events with the other attendees.

“We want to make sure students know that Caltech is a place where they will be embraced as their most authentic selves, where they will be seen in all the multitudes and different facets of their identities,” said Sophia Stills, WiSTEM director and assistant director of undergraduate admissions.

Adoniya Paul, who attended WiSTEM last year and chose to go to Caltech because of the program, will be one of the 113 women in this fall’s incoming first-year class.

“Even though 50% is just a statistic, it represents much more than an equal number of men and women. It represents the fact that women are no longer limited by our surroundings or a lack of support, that women are now empowered to pursue what we are interested in,” she said in the release.

“When we say, ‘women in STEM,’ it’s not just about getting more women in the workforce, it’s about making a safe and supportive environment for everyone.”