Women in Science and Engineering at Yale (2020 Edition)

Elga Ruth Wasserman (1924–2014), JD, Ph.D.

Photo: jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wasserman-elga-ruth

If you're a woman studying at Yale, thank Elga Wasserman. Best remembered "as being instrumental in opening the college to women in 1969," (Grenier, 2015) Elga Wasserman was a chemist, lawyer, writer, professor, and university administrator. She was married to Yale chemistry faculty member Harry Wasserman. She became an advocate for women as they emerged into academia and the workforce. In 1962, she became an assistant dean at the Yale Graduate School and seven years later, President Kingman Brewster, Jr. '41 appointed her as special assistant on the education of women and Chair of the Committee on Coeducation. She left administration for law school, followed by practicing family law. In her 2000 book, The Door In the Dream, she interviewed women members of the National Academy of Sciences.