2020 Gumbo Final - Book - Page 20
Women on
the Rise
Story: Ana Block
Photo: LSU Office of Budget and Planning
Design: Chloe Bryars
I
18
LSU female enrollment shows signs of
steady increase for last 14 years
f you asked the average student to guess if
LSU is a male or female dominated campus,
many would incorrectly assume the answer is
male.
There have consistently been more female
students at the University for at least 14 years,
according to the Fall Facts reports, provided by
the University’s Office of Budget and Planning.
The 2004 report showed the gender
population gap between students was around
1,400. However, there were over 2,000 more
female students than male students in 2018,
according to the 2018 Fall Facts report.
As the overall number of females enrolled
at the University has increased, so has the
number of female staff members. This trend
includes administrative, professional, classified
and other academic staff, according to the
reports.
Not only are females just enrolling at
the University, they also are successfully
graduating and entering the work force.
According to the LSU Media Center, a recordbreaking 2,494 degrees were awarded
to female students at the Spring 2019
Commencement Ceremonies.
While the increasing number of females on
campus is highly celebratory, this trend has not
always been this way. There were no female
students admitted at the University from its
founding as a military academy in 1860 to
1904. University students were also taught by
an all-male instructional staff until 1909.
In 1905, the first female student at the
University, Olivia Davis, graduated. This was
followed in 1909 by the hiring of the first
female instructor, Mercedes Garig. These
women paved the way for other females at the
University, according to the Office of Diversity’s
website.
Today, women’s place at the University
is supported and celebrated. Since the
establishment of the LSU Women’s Center
in 1995 as a place to provide support and
information, there have been numerous
projects and programs to not only help women
as students of the University, but also as
individuals of the larger community.
One of the Women’s Center’s most successful
projects has been the Period Project, which
provides free emergency hygiene supplies
at various locations across campus. Women’s
Center Director Summer Steib said the
center is expanding this project to include
an emergency change of clothes to ensure
that students have what they need to stay on
campus and attend daily functions.
“Whenever we were researching the Period
Project to see if this is a need on campus, what
we were learning is that a significant number
of folks on campus who menstruate, most of
them identify as being women, were having to
leave campus,” Steib said. “We know that when
students leave campus, they don’t come back
to campus.”
The Women’s Center, along with the Office
of Diversity, have worked to ensure female
students feel comfortable on campus and are
able to seek help and information in times of
need.