UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For Women's History Month, we feature a video on Penn State's Curtiss-Wright Cadettes.
Unable to hire enough men during World War II, aviation manufacturer Curtiss-Wright Corp. offered to pay for women's technical training in aeronautical engineering at eight institutions of higher education across the country, with the understanding that the "cadettes," as they were called, would then take jobs in the company's defense plants.
Between February 1943 and March 1945, 918 female college students took courses in aerodynamics, engineering and design at the participating institutions.
At Penn State, 104 of these women took advantage of the offer and signed up for the first class. Curtiss-Wright paid for tuition, room and board, books and transportation, and the University provided housing.
The "lady engineers" overall achieved consistently high grades; more than one-third made the dean's list. The program was so successful that other companies emulated it, with more than 90 percent of these students completing their studies and entering employment in the aviation industry.
When it became clear the end of the war was in sight, the program was discontinued. By 1946 the ratio of men to women on campus had returned to the customary six-to-one as thousands of veterans returned to take advantage of the GI Bill.