1946

Assuming the role of Assistant Registrar, Margaret Keily Lennon becomes the first woman with administrative status to serve on the professional staff of La Salle College.

1963

The Sisters Science Workshop began at La Salle, as 63 Sisters who taught science in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, enrolled in enrichment classes. Although a handful of coeds had taken a special reading course at La Salle in the late 1950s, the Sisters’ presence on the campus—repeated during the next two summers—was the first publicized coeducation milestone in La Salle’s history.

1965

Hired to teach English, Shirley Ann Eriksson becomes the first female instructor in the Evening Division.

1967

Diane Blumenthal in the Foreign Language Department and Minna Weinstein in the History Department are hired as the first two full-time female professors.

Women are first accepted into La Salle’s Evening Division.

1968

Kathryn Fitzgerald, admitted as a transfer student from the University of Barcelona, becomes first woman to graduate from La Salle with a bachelor’s degree.

1969

Minna Weinstein becomes first female faculty member to win the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching

La Salle admits 33 students from Germantown Hospital School of Nursing, making them the first women to enroll in daytime classes at La Salle on a full-time basis.

1970

Phyllis A. Montgomery is appointed Dean of Student Life, making her the first female dean in the college’s history.

First women take up residence in St. Edward’s Residence Hall.

La Salle hosts its first Women’s Liberation meeting on campus.

1971

University sets aside third floors of St. Bernard, St. Denis, and St. George for women.

The Evening Collegian appoints Nancy Durkin as its first female editor-in-chief.

Barbara Jean Arthur is named the college’s first woman admission counselor.

1972

Women’s field hockey officially begins on campus.

La Salle establishes a Women’s Center on campus.

University sets aside third floors of St. Albert and St. Cassian for women.

Mary S. O’Connor becomes first Coordinator of Women’s Athletics and assumes the additional role of women’s basketball coach.

1973

Roni Gordon and Tish Bergmaier become the first coeds admitted to La Salle’s Army ROTC.

Caryn Musil and Judith Newton of the English Department take the first steps toward a Women’s Studies concentration in the curriculum by offering the first Women’s Studies course, “The Image of Women in British and American Culture, 1792–1973.”

1974

La Salle establishes the Continuing Education for Women program, designed to ease the transition for adult women 24 years or older who wish to begin or resume their college education. Judith Newton, is appointed as the coordinator of the program, available in the both the college’s day and evening divisions.

1976

Kathie Martin becomes first female editor-in-chief of The Collegian.

1985

Field hockey player Diane Moyer, ’80, becomes first female athlete inducted into the Hall of Athletes.

1986

Barbara Millard of the English Department is elected as the first female President of La Salle’s Faculty Senate.

1987

Women’s Studies is approved as a minor under the new curriculum.

1991

Marianne Salmon Gauss, ’74, MBA ’87, is elected the first female President of La Salle’s Alumni Association.

1993

Barbara Millard becomes the first woman to hold a high academic office at La Salle as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences as well as the first faculty member other than a Christian Brother to hold the position.

1996

Elizabeth Heenan becomes the University’s first female Director of the Office of Continuing Studies.

2006

La Salle University’s Association of Women MBAs is established.

2013

Appointed as Vice President for Mission, Margaret McGuinness becomes the first female vice president at La Salle.

2015

La Salle selects Colleen Hanycz, Ph.D., as its first lay president and the first woman to hold this office.