Just three years after the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill that enabled white women to enroll in "professional" and graduate programs at UVA, Lois Ketcham Carwile became the first woman to earn an undergraduate degree from the College of Arts & Sciences, a B.S. in Mathematics (1923). She then became the first woman graduate student in Physics at UVA, earning her Masters (1924) and PhD (1927). The Physics Department celebrates her role in helping to break down barriers to equality in educational opportunities for women, and will be hanging her portrait in the main conference room to honor her remarkable accomplishments.

See:

https://uvamagazine.org/articles/women_experiences_coeducation_uva

https://news.virginia.edu/content/retold-celebrates-women-uva-and-1970