About Kate Gleason (1865-1933)

“Kate Gleason, the ideal business woman of whom I dreamed fifty years ago – A worthy daughter of a noble father. May there be many such in the years to come is the wish of Yours affectionately, Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N.Y., Dec. 2, 1903” The above inscription was found within a book that was later donated to the Cary Collection of the RIT Library by Jan Gleason.

Catherine Anselm Gleason was born in Rochester during 1865, the same year that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and the Civil War ended. Her parents, William Gleason and Ellen McDermott Gleason, each emigrated from Ireland to Rochester with their respective families while still in their youth. As a teenager, William became an apprentice and eventually achieved the status of mechanic and tool maker. He married and became a widower, leaving him alone with his young son, Tom. He wed for a second time to Ellen and opened his first machine shop in 1865, shortly before Catherine was born. Catherine was the first of their four children (James, Andrew, and Eleanor).

While growing up in Rochester, Catherine who was commonly called “Kate” was an active, strong-willed child and a proverbial tomboy. She was also intelligent and mechanically inclined, beginning to read books regarding machines and engineering at the age of nine. Her older half brother, Tom, had become his father’s helper in the machine shop. When Kate was eleven years old, Tom developed typhoid and died. The family was distraught over their loss and her father found himself without a helper or the income to hire a suitable replacement. In his anguish, Kate’s father discussed the situation with her mother and she overheard him make the statement “if only Kate were a boy.”

A few days after overhearing her father’s comment, the eleven year old Kate went to his shop to ask him if she could work there. Remarkably, he agreed. Thus began Kate’s career in 1877 within the tool machining industry which lead to her eventually becoming one of the first women engineers in the United States. To establish an historical context for 1877, five years earlier Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in Rochester, indicted in Albany, and tried in Canandaigua. During her trial, the judge ordered the all male jury (women could not lawfully serve as jurors) to find her guilty.

Kate worked very hard and quickly became an asset to the growing business. At the age of fourteen, she requested the company bookkeeping position and her father agreed. As her brothers got older, they too joined the business. In 1884, she became the first woman engineering student to enroll in the Mechanical Arts program at Cornell University. When the firm began to struggle financially, Kate was summoned home. Health issues ended a later return to Cornell and she never graduated, although she earned the title of engineer through training and self-learning.

The realization that she lived in a world that valued men above women did not discourage Kate; rather it compelled her to work harder and take greater risks than her peers. In 1893, at the age of 27, Kate led sales and finance within the business. When the tool business dried up in the US that year, Kate knew the company’s financial needs and reasoned that the European market was still strong; therefore she decided to expand her sales territory to include Europe. Her voyage took two months one-way and she ultimately returned home with orders from England, Scotland, France, and Germany. This successful trip was among the first attempts by any American manufacturer to globalize their business. To put her achievement in perspective for Gleason Works, the company’s international sales currently account for between two-thirds and three-quarters of their overall sales, therefore her creative business practices made a significant, lasting contribution to this long-standing company.

In 1893 Kate left Gleason Works and set out on another series of careers adding to her growing list of “firsts.” In 1914, Kate was the first woman in New York to be named Receiver in Bankruptcy for the Ingle Machine Company in East Rochester. That same year, she was unanimously elected to membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as its first woman member. In 1917, Kate Gleason became President of the First National Bank of East Rochester, another first for an American woman with no family ties to the bank. In later years, Kate left Rochester for business ventures in California and South Carolina. She travelled extensively and eventually purchased an estate in France which she restored while assisting in the town’s recovery after World War I. Remembering that many Gleason Works families lived in inadequate housing, Kate designed affordable housing for the working class in California and New York. Some of this housing is still standing and serving well in East Rochester, NY.

Kate Gleason continues to inspire many who study the story of her life through her associations with Susan B. Anthony and Gleason Works, most notably Jan Gleason whose notes and conversations have been relied upon in the creation of this article. Kate Gleason also serves as an inspirational role model for the engineering students studying within the RIT College named in her honor. Fittingly, the Kate Gleason College of Engineering (KGCOE) is committed to producing engineering graduates who provide innovation in product development, some becoming leaders within our future global engineering community.

Bailey, M. [2008], Kate Gleason:  The Ideal Business Woman,  Rochester Engineering Society (RES) Magazine , Rochester, NY, January.

To see a video about Kate Gleason produced for ASME by Mark Brodie of MIB Mediaworks, click: here.

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