Catherine Anselm “Kate” Gleason (1865-1933) made her mark as one of the first women to enter the field of engineering and construction technology.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s woman in the driver’s seat was an entrepreneur, engineer, and philanthropist. She made her mark as one of the first women to enter the field of engineering and construction technology. Her innovative thinking laid the groundwork for the low-cost housing blueprints still used today. Please welcome Kate Anselm Gleason.
Catherine, or Kate, was born in Rochester, New York on November 25th, 1865. She was the first of four children born to Irish immigrants Ellen and William Gleason. Both were supporters of women’s rights in the era: William, a mechanical engineer, taught Kate his craft alongside her brothers. Ellen regularly had her close friend Susan B. Anthony over the house.
As the daughter of staunch Catholics, Kate attended parochial school before enrolling in her local public high school. Growing up, Kate had an independent streak-- she wore her hair short and straight instead of in Victorian curls, and challenged schoolmates to feats of bravery. As she’d say years down the road, “if we were jumping from the shed roof, I chose the highest spot. If we vaulted fences, I picked the tallest.”
Soon after Kate was born, William opened a local business specializing in mechanical toolmaking. After Kate’s older half-brother died, Kate decided she would take on a role in the family business. At just 11 years old, she walked down to the shop, took a seat, and demanded to work. At the end of the day, she earned her first dollar… which she lost on her way home.
By the time she was 14, Kate had gotten a bit more business-savvy and worked as the shop’s bookkeeper. In 1884, she enrolled as the first female student in Cornell University’s engineering program. Unfortunately, after she stepped away from the family business, profits took a downturn. Kate had to drop out of school and return home.
On the shop floor, Kate found her calling. A few years earlier, William had designed an automatic planer for beveled gears. His invention automated the production of gears, which were usually a hand-manufactured product. Though the tool was initially used for bicycle manufacturing, Kate saw its potential in the expanding automobile industry. When an economic recession hit in 1893, Kate encouraged her father to focus his efforts on gear-cutting machines. It was a successful bet.
As business picked up, Kate became the business’ primary marketer. She traveled across the U.S. and Europe presenting Gleason Works products to rousing success. In 1900, she represented the company at the Paris Exposition.
Kate became the first female machine parts seller. She had entered an almost entirely male-dominated field, but she quickly rose to prominence as one of the top sellers by working to her strengths. She crafted her sales pitches through clever stories and made her fashion a central part of her technique. Kate wore elaborate hairdos and memorable clothes. Some of her customers remembered her specifically because of the dresses and hats she wore while making a sale.
As the automobile industry grew, Gleason Works grew with it and eventually monopolized the gear-cutting market. Though Kate hadn’t invented the machine, she became so synonymous with it that Henry Ford once said it was “the most remarkable machine work ever done by a woman.”
In 1913, Kate resigned from Gleason Works over several disagreements about the company’s direction.
In 1914, Kate made history by becoming the first female member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.
Kate continued her career streak by becoming president of the First National Bank of Rochester in 1917. She was one of the first women to take on such a position. There, she took an interest in the project that would define her career. While overseeing several construction projects, Kate noticed that many workers lived in East Rochester where housing was scarce and expensive.
She inherited work on a semi-complete housing project. Kate saw an opportunity to rethink the way home construction functioned in the United States.
Kate took over the housing project with her own capital and approached construction with an automaker’s eye for mass production,. Using a standardized blueprint, unskilled labor, and a base of poured cement, she brought the price of each home down significantly.
Her low-cost housing project became one of the first of its kind in the country. It allowed families otherwise struggling to pay rent, or unable to take on a mortgage, to move in for forty dollars a month. The homes also included new features like gas stoves, hot and cold running water, fridges, and a cookbook.
Kate’s model for low-cost housing projects expanded across the country, including projects in South Carolina and Berkeley, California.
Kate returned to her home in Rochester in her later years. She died there from pneumonia on January 8, 1933.
Throughout her life, Kate was generous with her fortune. In 1912, she promised $1,200 to the women’s suffrage movement, one of its largest pledges ever. When she died, her $1.25 million estate was also given to various charitable causes.
Today, Kate is still remembered as a pioneer for women in engineering. In 1998, the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology, became the first engineering school in the country to be named for a woman.
All month, we’re talking about women in the driver’s seat.
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