Process – Page 3 – Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

Alumni Magazine Excerpt

This excerpt from the article “Seven from ’Seventy-Five” (Document EN, 29) from the spring 1975 edition of The Bowdoin Alumnus (Bowdoin’s alumni magazine, which is now known simply as Bowdoin) includes the introduction and one of seven short profiles of women graduating in 1975 after having been “members of the first Bowdoin freshman class to which women were admitted as degree candidates.” The introduction is noteworthy because it not only anoints these women and the other women from their class “pioneers,” but it also posits that “the major aggravations [regarding issues with coeducation] have diminished, it seems, if not disappeared.” This is perhaps a generous view with which some might disagree, but it is clear from the sentiments of the women in the article that the initial issues with coeducation certainly did abate during their four years at Bowdoin.

Patricia “Barney” Geller describes her class as “‘a pretty unique group of women—we could take the heat of being the first class of coeds, although we were overwhelmed at first.’”

Her profile draws attention to the fact that she was the first woman to be elected president of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, during her first year at Bowdoin. While it is certainly impressive that a woman was elected president of a fraternity during the first year of full coeducation at Bowdoin, Geller notes that even in 1975 there was still work to be done for women, which she hoped the Bowdoin Women’s Association could address. Given the founding of the Women’s Resource Center at Bowdoin in 1980, it seems that the College did eventually take seriously the idea of “consciousness-raising for women.” Geller had considered transferring, but she decided to stay because of the ties students developed with the college. “‘I can’t really put my finger on why this is the case,’” she stated. Geller expresses a sentiment that alumni continue to voice to this day.

Deborah Mann Speaks at 1975 Commencement Ceremony

Deborah Mann’s 1975 commencement address offers a unique insight into the day-to-day experience of a Bowdoin woman in the first full graduating class (Document AK, 30). Mann describes some of the more flagrant misogyny remaining on the formerly all-male campus as well as the remarkable tenacity and courage with which this prejudice was met by these early Bowdoin women.

Mann includes an intriguing anecdote that demonstrates some of this discrimination: “An upperclassman, somewhat put out, once told me that he hoped I didn’t misunderstand – he didn’t hate me personally, he simply hated me as a co-ed.” As disturbing as this comment may seem, Mann’s real message is that, “The courage of those first cheerleaders, actresses and champions of the cause of women’s liberation cannot be overestimated.” She laments the “fish bowl” nature of the still male-controlled community at Bowdoin, claiming that “Visibility was something to be avoided […] but notoriety invited instant and universal derision, fame or whatever was deemed warranted by the male student body.” Mann also discusses the tremendous party and alcohol scene – so often cited as a partial impetus behind coeducation in the first place – plus the tenuous dynamic between Bowdoin women and women attending nearby Westbrook College who arrived on weekends to participate in social events, only to leave again each Sunday.

Gratefully, Mann eventually writes, “[…] the female portion of the student body was becoming too large to be teased and taunted with such nonchalance.” With this shift came a lessening of some female solidarity, as the common male enemy, as it were, was no longer behaving quite so terribly. Interestingly, many of the men with whom we have spoken for this project have indicated that while coeducation was important, many other issues eclipsed coeducation as the issue of the day, such as social unrest, the Vietnam war, and the growing drug culture. Mann, however, puts it differently: “Those of us who had had no serious concern with women’s liberation were forced into having no other preoccupation in that first year.”

AK30a - Deborah Mann Speaks at 1975 Commencement Ceremony

AK30b - Deborah Mann Speaks at 1975 Commencement Ceremony

AK30c - Deborah Mann Speaks at 1975 Commencement Ceremony

AK30d - Deborah Mann Speaks at 1975 Commencement Ceremony

AK30e - Deborah Mann Speaks at 1975 Commencement Ceremony

Interview with Rosalyne Spindel Bernstein, Bowdoin Overeer, by Anna Wright ’12

In the fall of 1973, Roz Bernstein was elected to Bowdoin’s Board of Overseers—the first woman to serve in that capacity in the history of the College. Her election was motivated, in part, by the College’s 1971 move to coeducation. She served on the Board for over twenty years, where she was instrumental in the decision to eliminate fraternities. Today, she remains a Board member emerita. Click the audio link below to hear Bernstein’s reflections on her time on the Board—particularly its approach to coeducation, and the questions that she expects it to confront in the future.

Audio: click below to begin listening

Time: 4:18

AW49-1 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks

On the Board’s reaction to her appointment: “When I went to my first meeting, you know, everyone was most cordial, but one guy said to me, ‘I’m very glad to meet you, but you know, I still think women don’t belong at Bowdoin,’ and I said, ‘Well, you know, that may be your opinion, but obviously, you’re in the minority.’ ”

Time: 31:09

On alumni backlash against some of the Board’s decisions: “People have this passion about their college, which is wonderful and has to be maintained, but you know, I don’t pay much attention to the grumbling. There will always be grumblers. But that fades away over time.”

Time: 31:33

On coeducation: “It’s the best thing that ever happened to Bowdoin College…It transformed attitudes on campus; it transformed campus life; it transformed the classroom.”

Citation: I, Anna Wright, interviewed Roz Bernstein on Sunday, October 30, 2011, at her home in Portland, Maine. We discussed her experience as the first woman on the Bowdoin College Board of Overseers, particularly as it related to the College’s change from an all-male institution to a coeducational one.

Interview with Saddie Smith ’75, by Stephanie Bond ’13

An African American Female Student Perspective on Coeducation at Bowdoin: A Discussion with Saddie Smith

As a member of Bowdoin’s first class of admitted women, Saddie Smith had to balance being both a female and an African American student. Failure at Bowdoin was not an option for Smith, a first-generation college student, so she put her nose to the books. Smith credits Bowdoin for the confidence that led her to impressive heights, from a Sewall Latin Prize at Bowdoin, to a degree at Columbia Law School, to the influential VP position she now holds at Consolidated Edison Co. of New York, Inc. To hear Smith tell her story about how she established herself as an African American woman in the first class of women at Bowdoin, listen to the audio links below. You will see how she uses humor to her advantage.

Audio: click tracks(s) below to begin listening

Intriguing Pieces:
Section 1-

Time: 00:21:56

Quotation: [In reference to the practice of bussing women from other schools to Bowdoin for parties] “It was a carryover, cause I was a freshman, so that’s kind of what they did. That was part of the whole social thing is bringing, I guess, busloads of women to campus and they kind of, like, forgot about—well I guess it’s kind of good because they saw us as, like, just one of the guys.”

Section 3-

Time: 00:11:32

Quotation: [In reference to difference between HBC and Bowdoin]“I think it was easier for me to fit in at Bowdoin than it would have been for me to fit in at say, Spellman, because at Bowdoin it was obvious that I was different; a woman, a minority. But in a Historically Black College I think I would have, there would have been more pressure to try to fit because I was one of them.”

Time: 00:16:00

Quotation: [In reference to being both an African American and female]“Black women, we kinda get rolled up into one or the other. Either black or either woman and we never get our little, like, standalone kind of thing and I think it’s a very different dynamic, and a dual personality, and you’re always balancing the African American verses the woman.”

Citation: I, Stephanie Bond, interviewed Saddie Smith ‘75 on Sunday, November, 20 2011, in New York, New York. We discussed how Saddie Smith’s experience as a member of the first admitted class of women at Bowdoin College was shaped by her status as both an African American and female student.

Trustees Focus Group

Several women from the first coeducational classes at Bowdoin now serve on the Board of Trustees. In a focus group, trustees Michele Cyr ’76, Ellen Shuman ’76, Ann Kenyon ’79, and Debbie Barker ’80 discussed their experiences as students in the early years of coeducation at the College, and as alumnae with strong attachments to the school. Click the audio link below to hear their reflections on their triumphs and struggles as undergraduates; the changes that took place in the campus’s academic and social life; and why Bowdoin inspires such fierce loyalty in its alumni.

Audio: click title below to begin listening