Process – Page 4 – Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

Faculty Focus Group

This discussion involved four professors who arrived on Bowdoin’s campus either shortly before or after the College began admitting female students in 1971. If you are interested in hearing how Professors Vail, Cafferty, Cerf, and Potholm recount their experiences of Bowdoin’s transition to coeducation with regard to classroom dynamics, course content, student-professor relations, and faculty/departmental interactions, click on this audio link here and/or view these selected video clips.

Audio: click title below to begin listening

Interview with Professor Helen Cafferty by K. Skyler Walley ’12

Finding Her Way Through the Bowdoin Professorial Ranks: A Discussion with Helen Cafferty

As one of the first female professors hired at Bowdoin during its transition to coeducation, and the first female professor to pass through all the ranks, from assistant to associate to full professor, Helen Cafferty has had a remarkable experience as a Bowdoin faculty member. To hear about how she established herself in the German Department, introduced unofficial women’s studies courses, and navigated the still predominantly male Bowdoin campus, listen to the audio below.

Audio: click below to begin listening

Intriguing Pieces:

Time: 00:02:20

Quotation: [In reference to applying to be a professor] “So when it came to Bowdoin, I had a long series of hour interviews with everyone on the faculty committee and they were very cavalier and gracious, and perhaps just a touch patronizing, but with the best motivation I think…”

Time: 00:22:45

Quotation: [In reference to recounting memorable early experiences as a professor] “One time, I think this was in the third year of German language class, I did something differently, I basically lectured in German and wrote on the board a lot…And so I talked about existentialism in German literature in German…and one of the students came up afterwards and said, “Finally you are getting the hang of what it means to be a teacher at Bowdoin!”

Time: 00:39:26

Quotation: [In reference to providing classes, although unofficial at the time, concentrating on women] “I did teach, co-teach, a course on literature and women. And this was a representation of women as well as the cultural status of women, sociological status of women, as in the context of the literature…and then a course on history of German literature with a focus on women…that was very satisfying, these early attempts to have a presence…”

Citation: I, Skyler Walley, interviewed Professor Helen Cafferty on Friday, October 21, 2011, in room 403 of Adams Hall at Bowdoin College. We discussed Professor Cafferty’s experience at Bowdoin as a faculty member, and in particular, as one of the first female faculty members present during Bowdoin’s transition to coeducation.

Interview with Lisa McElaney ’77, Trustee, by Emma Nathaniel ’12

Improving over Time: Lisa McElaney’s Thoughts about Bowdoin since Coeducation

A graduate of the third fully coeducational class at Bowdoin, in 1977, Lisa McElaney is not afraid to admit that her relationship with the College has not always been exclusively positive. However, Lisa returned as a visiting faculty member for a year in the 1980s, was granted the Common Good Award in 1996, and served on the Board of Trustees for ten years in the 2000s. After a not-so-perfect beginning at Bowdoin, what brought Lisa back over the years? Click here to find out!

Audio: click below to begin listening

Intriguing Pieces:

Time: 6:11

Quote: [In reference to her first years at Bowdoin] “In retrospect I think of myself having lost my voice for a while in that first period of time at Bowdoin, a lot of my student experience there the first two years I flailed more than I ever had in life up until then. Things had gone pretty smoothly for me. I’d done well, I’d fallen into the right relationships, and I think it was a question of timing, but when I arrived at Bowdoin, that pattern went in another direction….”

Time: 36:27

Quote: [Describing her junior year as an exchange student at Wellesley] “[My roommate from Bowdoin and I] have come to Wellesley with ten other Bowdoin students as part of the Twelve College Exchange- all of them are male. We are these weird two girls who want to go to a women’s college, and the Wellesley students think we’re weird, too. You know, ‘what are you doing here?’ And I get into this dorm where I have a single, so this is also really exciting…My dorm is comprised of mostly African American, Latina, Native American women, and I am on a floor where I am in a minority…”

Time: 52:20

Quote: [Discussing the Board of Trustees] “My sense is that really great organizations like Bowdoin, and I think the leadership of Bowdoin is really terrific, is cognizant of building a board that is diverse, and I mean diverse in a lot of different ways…”

Citation: I, Emma Nathaniel, interviewed Lisa McElaney ’77 at her office in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Friday, October 21, 2011. We discussed her time at Bowdoin both as a student and later as a visiting professor and trustee.

Interview with William Eccleston ’74, by Genevieve Barlow ’13

This interview attempts to get one perspective of the men who called Bowdoin home during the early years of coeducation. Bill Eccleston class of 1974 shares his stories of what life was like for women here at Bowdoin but from a perspective of a man. He adds an interesting view on every day life at Bowdoin that ranges from fraternities, to athletics, to curriculum. Bill provides a positive view on how Bowdoin changed with the implementation of women.

Audio: click tracks(s) below to begin listening

freshmen registering for the 1970-71 academic year, Bill Eccleston's first year on campus

Interview with Richard Moll, Head of Admissions, by Samuel Shapiro ’14

AK20.1 - Image of first applicants with Dick Moll

Audio: click title below to begin listening

Shaping Coeducation Through Admissions: An Interview With Former Head of Admissions Richard Moll

As the head of admissions during Bowdoin’s coeducational process, Richard Moll was instrumental in ensuring the success of women at Bowdoin. He was given great freedom, allowing him to determine how best to attract women to this newly coeducational institution. To hear how he helped shape the first classes of women at Bowdoin, and hear his take on the entire coeducational process in the context of the time period, click the audio link.

Intriguing Pieces:
Time: 00:02:57
Quotation: [In reference to what role the admissions office had towards the advent of coeducation] “A lot that we didn’t have at Bowdoin College is probably because we didn’t have women. For example we had very limited programs in the arts, in music, we had sort of a raucous social scene and many of us thought it would be somewhat more even and balanced and mature if there were women. And consequently, the administration at the time […] were very interested in hearing what the admissions office had to say…”

Time: 00:11:00
Quotation: [In reference to what changes Bowdoin made to prepare for the arrival of women] “We did not make a lot of changes before a large number of the young women arrived. But we certainly had our ear to the ground on what they wanted that we didn’t have…”

Time: 00:24:05
Quotation: [In reference to the impact of coeducation within the greater context of the time period] “I disagree with the point of going coed being the biggest factor at the time. Clearly our making SATs optional in 1969 was the biggest thing that has ever happened to Bowdoin. The applicant pool tripled almost overnight and suddenly we were considered a progressive college and alone in that progressive category of optional SATs…”

Citation: I, Samuel Shapiro, interviewed former head of admissions Richard Moll on November 2nd, 2011, in his home in Brunswick, Maine. We discussed the role that the admissions office had in the coeducational process, as well the influence administrators had and resulting changes that occurred on campus.