Documents – Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

Report of C.E.P. Sub-committee on Coeducation

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, many single-sex colleges across the country began to consider transitioning into coeducational institutions. In 1969, Bowdoin became one of twelve colleges to participate in a Twelve College Exchange program that allowed male and female students to spend a semester to a full year studying at a college from which their sex had previously been excluded. Through the exchange program, the colleges involved hoped to learn more about the changes that would occur and the new facilities and/or provisions that would be necessary for the admission of predominantly female students, but in general, students of the opposite sex. Bowdoin considered and evaluated the many modifications required as a result of women’s potential admission by forming various sub-committees within, for example, the Committee on Preparatory Schools and Admissions, the Committee on Student life, and notably, within the Curriculum and Education Policy Committee (C.E.P.).

The report presented here (Document, SW, 31) is from the C.E.P. subcommittee on Coeducation. It addresses the general and specific curricular implications the entrance of women to Bowdoin could have based on the subcommittee’s reviews of “extensive reports prepared by the faculty and administrative groups at Kenyon, Vassar, Wesleyan, Williams, and Yale,” institutions that were all coeducational by 1970 and some of whom were members of the College Exchange.

According to this report, the C.E.P. subcommittee on Coeducation favored the admission of women to Bowdoin, asserting that women, “as students and as faculty” would “improve and enrich the cultural and intellectual climate of the College.” With regards to curricular implications, the subcommittee claims that, despite the finding that “girls do not necessarily ‘bunch up’ in the humanities courses and avoid the natural sciences,” it still might be necessary to give “wider offerings in music, art, and languages” and provide an “extension of the offerings in psychology to meet the interests of women in child development and clinical psychology.” In addition, they state that greater demands may be made on the faculty based on the evidence that “academically able women” are often very interested in independent study

Report of C.E.P. Sub-committee on Coeducation

Memorandum to President Howell

In considering the transition to coeducation, colleges and universities around the United States began to reflect on the many changes that would occur or be required in admitting the “opposite sex”. Prospective changes included those to living facilities and dormitories, dining halls, infirmary and athletic buildings, and notably, college curricula. Bowdoin addressed the anticipation of women entering the student body by creating an Ad Hoc Committee on Coeducation. The role of the subcommittee was to examine the various changes within the aforementioned areas that would result due to women’s admission.

Like many of its collegiate and university counterparts, Bowdoin anticipated specific curricular modifications that the entrance of women would necessitate. On August 26, 1970, the Ad Hoc Committee wrote this memorandum (Document SW, 32) to President Howell to discuss the introduction of 300 undergraduate women in two stages, and in particular, to address the changes for both faculty and staff, and academic buildings they felt the entrance of women would require.

Akin to the views of other higher educational institutions at the time, the Ad Hoc Committee asserts that an increase in faculty members was not initially necessary. Rather they contend that a greater monitoring of the curriculum provisions by the Curriculum and Education Policy (C.E.P.) committee is needed since they believe the admission of women would lead not only to a general “inflation in course offerings” but also to the reduction of various academic departments such that “others (presumably those who course offerings are most relevant to women undergraduates) [would be] permitted to expand.” The Ad Hoc Committee also suggests the expansion of the current art instruction facilities is “advisable” regardless of the introduction of women but “imperative” given their anticipated admission.

SW32 - Page 1 - Memorandum to President Howell

SW32 - Page 2 - Memorandum to President Howell

SW32 - Page 3 - Memorandum to President Howell

SW32 - Page 4 - Memorandum to President Howell

SW32 - Page 5 - Memorandum to President Howell

Orient: Greason Attacks

In 1969, two years prior to the admission of women to the College, Bowdoin decided to drop its distribution requirements. After that decision, and then in light of the transition to coeducation, Bowdoin’s curriculum underwent significant scrutiny in the early 1970s. In this Orient article, (Document SW, 34), the author documents Dean of the College, A. LeRoy Greason’s argument that the “faculty are to blame for the [at the time] present abuses of Bowdoin’s free curriculum,” a curriculum he felt had no “coherent policy acceptable to both faculty and students.”

The author notes that Greason’s argument concerning the curriculum is particularly relevant to, if not rooted in, Bowdoin’s recent transition to coeducation. The author writes that “Greason’s strongest criticism” concerned the faculty’s inability to confront the “implications of the College’s decisions to admit a more diversified student body and to drop distribution requirements.” Greason asserts that the combination of these two decisions is responsible for the “growing number of students who concentrate heavily in music and the arts” and avoid “other areas of the curriculum.” Consequently, Greason contends that in failing to develop a “coherent curriculum,” or a curriculum that mandates taking classes in a variety of disciplines, the faculty is essentially preventing the student body from receiving the true breadth of focus a liberal arts education should warrant.

In general, Greason’s argument that the faculty has failed to address the curricular effects of dropping the distribution requirements and recently admitting women demonstrates one of the ways Bowdoin’s shift to coeducation complicated the College’s understanding of how to best and appropriately provide a diverse liberal arts education. Although Bowdoin did not reverse its move toward coeducation, it did retract its decision to drop distribution requirements. Currently, however, male and female students at Bowdoin must take courses in five different distribution areas in order to graduate.

Survey of Data on Entering Freshmen

Since the end of World War I, many colleges and universities across the United States have recorded data on their incoming first-year classes. The surveys still in evidence at Bowdoin cover a wide range of topics including race, family educational background, religious preference, marital status, home location, and reasons for attending college. Until the early 1970s, the data Bowdoin collected was, for obvious reasons, not broken down by gender. In the fall of 1971, however, Bowdoin admitted its first coeducational class and began to tally responses according to sex. The page of the survey (Document SW, 35) presented here documents the probable major field of study and career occupation, for the incoming freshmen for fall of 1975.

In terms of likely major field of study, men and women make up similar percentages in the responses of biological sciences, education, physical sciences, social sciences, and other nontechnical fields. While men make up notably higher percentages in choosing business, history/political science, and mathematics and statistics, women make up notably higher percentages in selecting English, humanities, and undecided.

In terms of probable career occupation, men and women have similar percentages in indicating educator (college teacher), health professional (non M.D.), and farmer or forester. Men make up notably higher percentages in selecting businessman, doctor, and lawyer, while women make up notably higher percentages choosing artist, research assistant, and “other occupation”. It is also important to note that roughly 20% of male responses and 25% of female responses remain undecided.

As this survey data indicates, from the start of its transition to coeducation, the women who entered Bowdoin’s student body had a range of academic and career interests that they hoped to pursue while at, and after attending, the College.

SW35 - Survey of Data on Entering Freshmen

Distribution Tables, Number of Freshmen and Courses Taken by Majors

Three years after the official announcement of Bowdoin’s transition to coeducation, specifically in August 1974, a committee entitled the Special Committee on the Curriculum began its operation. Although initially comprised of ten members and a consultant, by the time the data part of the report presented here was released, that is, on March 10, 1976, it was comprised of only seven regular members, three of whom were often absent. As a result of its dwindling numbers, the Special Committee was unable to make specific recommendations in every area of the curriculum in this report but still asserted its belief that the curriculum needs to “remain the object of on-going study and of periodic adjustments.”

Within this thirty-page report, the Special Committee on the Curriculum addresses and makes recommendations on topics such as the “Liberal Arts Curriculum,” “Distribution and Requirements,” and a “Freshman-Sophomore Program” and provides various data tables pertaining to these subjects areas at the end of the report, including the two presented here. The first distribution table entitled, “Number of Freshmen…” (Document SW, 36.1), reveals that after the admission of women in 1971, in almost every single course area, except for French, German, Russian, and Biology, enrollment increased, if not substantially so, by 1974. The second distribution table entitled, “Courses taken by majors…” (Document SW, 36.2), reveals that, after three years of women’s admission to Bowdoin, the dominant majors were Government, History, Psychology, Biology and English, and that students were still taking a relatively equal amount of courses outside their majors.

Thus, although Bowdoin anticipated many curricular modifications occurring as a result of women’s admission to the College, as these distribution tables expose, very few changes actually took place besides a general increase in class enrollments.

SW36.1 Distribution Table, Number of Freshmen

SW36.2 - Distribution Table, Number of Freshmen

SW36.2 - Distribution Table, Courses Taken by Majors