Standhouden in Delft

Abstract

Keeping up at Delft Technical University Technology is still masculine, and so is the Technical University at Delft. Frequently the question is asked: who were the first woman teacher and woman student? More interesting, however, is the question how women participated in this domain throughout history and how they managed to survive. This article presents a - for lack of sources rather short - biography of Toos Korvezee (1899-1978) and Betty Biegel (1886-1943). Toos Korvezee studied at Delft University and, only after al long career, became professor extraordinary of theoretical chemistry in 1954. She was the first woman professor at Delft. The second was appointed as late as 1981. Betty Biegel made a rather individual and curious academic career outside Delft, from astronomy to psychotechnics. In 1935, as a so-called 'privaatdocent', she succeeded in introducing psychotechnics as a new, non-technical, specialism into the curriculum of Delft Technical University. In the lives of Betty Biegel and Toos Korvezee, both personal circumstances (status and family) and political circumstances (the first feminist movement, the Second World War and the economic situation) played an important part. A crucial factor was the organisation of female students during their studies, and the presence of other women at their work. Therefore some attention is paid to the organisation of students at Delft Technical University and to the presence of women in technical studies, both of which varied with the times. Remarkable is the - partly shifting, partly constant - concentration of women in certain discipline areas.