Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin
A Class Project of GWS 280 - Fall 2011
A visual documentation of Bowdoin’s progression from an all-male college to a coeducational one can be found in the archives of Masque and Gown. Masque and Gown is a student run theater organization founded in 1903, sixty eight years before the arrival of women students on campus. The photos featured here illustrate Masque and Gown [...]
Bowdoin Cheerleading Orient Article: November 17, 1972 The first classes of female students at Bowdoin in the early 1970’s were made up of a fairly diverse group of women. Women’s athletic teams, like field hockey and tennis, were taking shape and creating distinctly female spaces for women on campus. The need for such spaces had [...]
Bowdoin Dance Orient Article: October 22, 1971 Is it any surprise that the origin of Dance at Bowdoin coincides with the presence of female students on campus? Prior to 1970, Bowdoin College did not provide male students (or the few female exchange students from the 12-College Exchange) the opportunity to pursue Dance on campus. In [...]
“Co-education remained controversial and while less hostile with the senior class gone, there was still an atmosphere that we were guests at a male college.” - Patricia Geller ‘75 The Bowdoin Women’s Association (BWA), a student led campus organization, began informally in the fall of 1972. Patricia “Barney” Geller ‘75 and Liza Graves ‘76, two [...]
An early perceived benefit of bringing women students to an all-male campus and becoming a coeducational institution was that women would have a “calming influence” on men. Whether this proved true or not is a matter of opinion but women students on Bowdoin’s campus did have an “organizational influence,” at least for the Voluntary [...]
The implementation of coeducation at Bowdoin College undoubtedly changed the social scene at the time, challenging long held fraternity traditions and practices. Coeducation also changed Bowdoin academically. The presence of women faculty at Bowdoin created new possibilities for academic pursuits. Professor Barbara Kaster came to Bowdoin with a position in the English Department. She accepted [...]
