Brave New World: 1968


In the days before cyber pirates and dot-coms, Northeastern students had their own high-tech revolution. As the digital age dawned, NU computerheads were being courted by such cutting-edge companies as Honeywell, IBM, and RCA Computers.

But the hearts of math majors Angela Gallagher (left) and Cheryl Mansfield were won by NASA’s Center for Electronics Research, in Cambridge. The Space Race no doubt affected their co-op choice. Local students were eager to help usher the United States over the finish line first.

So Gallagher, LA’70, and Mansfield, LA’71, spent a quarter at the NASA center writing Fortran programs and learning their way around an IBM 7094, the behemoth pictured here, one of the fastest computers of its day.

Not too shabby for a couple of co-eds, especially since women grads were expected to walk down the aisle, not blaze new trails. Even though the 1968 undergraduate catalog touted co-op’s benefits for “girls,” it plainly telegraphed the true social norm: Women “marry and discontinue their roles as members of the . . . working community.”

Given those kinds of messages, small wonder women weren’t rushing to join the tech industry. Mansfield recalls being one of just a few women in a 200-student circuit-theory class.

Still, like many of her peers, Mansfield did opt to stay in the workforce. In fact, she’s currently a web developer. One of the few women in her department. The more things change. . . .