From Joshua Chamberlain’s 1871 inaugural address to the 1969 arrival of women … Read More >
Introduction
In the fall of 1971, the first full class of women students arrived on the Bowdoin College campus, ushering in official coeducation. Forty years later, in 2011, when women formed just over 50% of the student body, a group of Bowdoin students took on the task of documenting the history of the College’s move to coeducation.
The information gathered here, based on archival research and oral history interviews and as part of a class project, provides an intriguing, instructive, and in… Continued >
Process of Coeducation
Though women matriculated at Bowdoin beginning in 1971, the process of … Read More >
Curriculum
Greater course offerings, improved academic facilities, and more female faculty … Read More >
Athletics
Women’s athletics at Bowdoin have a long history, one that begins with the … Read More >
Extracurricular Activities
Men in drag? Underground volunteering? The arrival of women on campus changed … Read More >
Social Life and Fraternities
Coeducation complicated Bowdoin’s social scene, which had been dominated by … Read More >
Women’s Resource Center
Nine years after the start of coeducation, Bowdoin gave women students a … Read More >
Timeline
1850-51 Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose husband Calvin (Bowdoin '24) is a … Read More >
Sources
This website was produced by the students in GWS 280 in the fall of 2011 as a … Read More >