Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

A Class Project of GWS 280 - Fall 2011

  • Prehistory
  • Process
  • Curriculum
  • Athletics
  • Extracurriculars
  • Social Life & Fraternities
  • Women’s Resource Center
  • Timeline

Orient: Chauvinistic Oinkings

In the years following coeducation, the presence of women students raised many unanticipated questions for the College. These ranged greatly in scale, from large issues, like gynecological health and coeducational fraternities, to much more quotidian matters, like intramural sports.

This Orient editorial, which appeared in the April 27, 1973 edition (Document AW, 48), illuminates some of the unexpected complications that accompanied coeducation—specifically, the implications of coeducational fraternities on interfraternity athletic competitions. Having women on a fraternity’s track team, it argues, gives an unfair advantage to the coeducational fraternities; however, not allowing women means an unfair disadvantage. The author suggests that a separate White Key competition should be established for women, just as there are less competitive leagues for male athletes who do not have varsity-level skills.

Although the tone of the article is light—its title comes from a tongue-in-cheek joke—it does bring up some of the questions that coeducation raised for the Greek system, besides the obvious ones of membership and housing. As trustee Ellen Schuman ’76 said, Bowdoin’s administration “in some ways they had no idea what they were doing” when they began the process of coeducation, and often, issues were confronted and solved on an ad hoc basis (Trustee Focus Group, 3:20-3:54).

AW48 - Orient: Chauvinistic Oinkings
AW48 - Orient: Chauvinistic Oinkings

Filed Under: Documents, Social Life & Fraternities Tagged With: 1973, AW48, Deke, Ellen Schuman, Kappa Sigma, Orient, Psi U, White Key Committee

Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks

Before they were phased out, beginning in the late 1990s, fraternities were an important part of Bowdoin’s social life. This article, which outlines the history of Greek life at the College, ran on the front page of the Orient on September 28, 1973 (Document AW, 49). It notes, “fraternities at Bowdoin have never been quite as exclusive as they have been at other schools. By and large…any student who had the inclination could belong to a fraternity.”

Even before the advent of coeducation at Bowdoin, however, there were some flaws in the fraternity system: “most, if not all” Bowdoin fraternities discriminated against black, Catholic, and Jewish students, in part as a result of the national fraternities’ regulations. A local fraternity, Alpha Rho Upsilon (whose letters were chosen to stand for “All Races United”), was founded in 1936 in response to this exclusion.

While over 95% of the Bowdoin student body was composed of fraternity brothers in the late sixties, by 1971, only 50% of freshmen joined a fraternity. In the late 1970s, however, years after this article’s publication, fraternity membership once again rose, and comprised a solid majority of the student body.

The article notes, “coeducation presented the most serious threat to the fraternities’ dominance at Bowdoin.” At the time of this article’s writing, “most fraternities” accepted women, and “a large percentage of women” chose to join them. Even so, the very word “fraternity” suggests some fundamental incompatibility with a coeducational institution, particularly since there were no sororities on campus. Although women students did pledge as brothers, they were often limited to local or social memberships rather than full voting memberships.

The essentially exclusive nature of fraternities was an important factor in the College’s March 1997 decision to phase them out.

AW49-1 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks
AW49-1 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks
AW49-2 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks
AW49-2 - Orient: Golden Age for Bowdoin Greeks

Filed Under: Documents, Social Life & Fraternities Tagged With: 1936, 1973, 1997, Alpha Rho Upsilon, AW49, black, Catholic, Frat, Fraternity, Jewish, Orient

Orient Article: Women’s Sports Expand to Seven

In this December, 1973 article (Document JH, 57), Debbie Swiss discusses the growth of women’s athletics at Bowdoin since their introduction in 1971. She demonstrates the initial small number of women participating in some athletics at the College, explaining for example, that the women’s swimming program was under scrutiny because of a lack of participation. One interesting problem women athletes faced was a lack of competitions; women’s teams played against the Brunswick Women’s Recreation Center and Brunswick High School, rather than against other colleges. Coaches also faced high demands, as they were often responsible for scheduling games that were to be played with little practice time beforehand. Even so, a willingness on the part of the coaches and players rings clear throughout the article.

JH57 - Orient Article: Women's Sports Expand to Seven
JH57 - Orient Article: Women's Sports Expand to Seven

 

Filed Under: Athletics, Documents Tagged With: 1973, Debbie Swiss, JH57, Orient

Team Photographs

These photographs of women’s sports teams in the Bowdoin Bugle demonstrate the progress of women’s athletics over the span of the 1970’s. They illustrate the sports women played at and for the College, starting in 1972 with two varsity sports, field hockey and swimming (women were members of the men’s team), and increasing to ten teams by the 1978-79 academic year.

document-jh-60.1
document-jh-60.1
document-jh-60.2
document-jh-60.2
document-jh-60.3
document-jh-60.3
document-jh-60.4
document-jh-60.27

’71-’72: No yearbook photos of women’s teams

’72-’73: Field Hockey (20 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); 3 women included in the Men’s Swimming team photo with Coach Charlie Butt
(Documents JH, 60.1 and 60.2)

’73-’74: Tennis (8 women with Coach Edward Reid); Lacrosse (22 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); Field Hockey (14 women with Coach Sally LaPointe and her assistant); Basketball (10 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); Skiing (6 women); Squash (8 women with Coach Edward Reid); 3 women included in the Men’s Swimming team photo with Coach Charlie Butt
(Documents JH, 60.3, 60.4, 60.5, 60.6, 60.7 60.8, and 60.9)

’74-75: Lacrosse (25 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); Field Hockey (15 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); 2 women included in the Men’s Swimming team photo with Coach Charlie Butt; Basketball (11 women with Coach Sally LaPointe)
(Documents JH, 60.10, 60.11, 60.12, and 60.13)

’75-’76: Swimming (15 women with Coach Charlie Butt); Field Hockey (12 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); Basketball (15 women with Coach Richard Mersereau); Squash (9 women with Coach Edward Reid); JV Field Hockey (12 women with Coach Sally LaPointe)
(Documents JH, 60.14, 60.15, 60.16, 60.17, and 60.18)

’76-’77: Field Hockey (17 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); Basketball (13 women with Coach Richard Mersereau and his assistant); Lacrosse (15 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); Track (10 women with Coach Lynn Ruddy); Tennis (14 women with Coach Edward Reid and his assistant); Squash (8 women with Coach Edward Reid); Swimming (16 women)
(Documents JH, 60.19, 60.20, 60.21, 60.22, 60.23, 60.24, and 60.25)

’77-’78: No team photos, but teams represented include: Field Hockey, Sailing, Swimming, Track, Basketball, Tennis

’78-‘79: Cross Country (10 women with Coach Lynn Ruddy); Ice Hockey (14 women); Swimming (24 women with Coach Charlie Butt and Coach Lynn Ruddy); Indoor Track (9 women with Coach Frank Sabasteanski); Squash (10 women with Coach Edward Reid); Basketball (11 women with Coach Richard Mersereau); Outdoor Track (10 women with Coach Lynn Ruddy); Tennis (10 women with Coach Edward Reid); Field Hockey (14 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); Lacrosse (17 women with Coach Sally LaPointe); Soccer (28 women with Coach Ray Bicknell)
(Documents JH, 60.26, 60.27, 60.28, 60.29, 60.30, 60.31, 60.32, 60.33, 60.34, 60.35, and 60.36)

Filed Under: Athletics, Documents Tagged With: 1972, 1973, Bugle, Field Hockey, JH60.1, Photo, Team Photo, Yearbook

Orient: Focus on Fine Arts and Letters to the Editor

After admitting its first female students in the fall of 1971, Bowdoin began to reassess the demands on departments, courses, and/or facilities that women’s presence on campus introduced. Specifically, Bowdoin sought to revamp its art facilities and to offer more arts and humanities classes. Faced with new or better course options within the realm of painting or dance, students responded in a variety of ways. The two Orient articles presented here, (Documents SW, 33.1, 33.2)  illustrate how some students, e.g., Eric Von Der Luft, felt the “fine arts…are more comparable to football than to scholarly endeavor,” while others, e.g. Cathy Steiner and Paul Smith, assert that the fine arts are a crucial component to higher education, especially because they are “very oriented toward creativity, the recognition of aesthetic orders, and personal growth.”

As the opinions put forth in these Orient articles highlight, Bowdoin students, male and female alike, had much to say about the delineation of academics and academic credit, and how the College’s curriculum should meet them. With the advantage of 20-20 hindsight, we can definitively say that despite his strong and publicized opinion, Von Der Luft’s argument did not win out: starting in 1973 and continuing until the present day, fine arts courses have become an integral part of Bowdoin’s curriculum.

SW33.1 - Orient: Focus on Fine Arts
SW33.1 - Orient: Focus on Fine Arts
SW33.2 - Orient: Letters to the Editor
SW33.2 - Orient: Letters to the Editor

Filed Under: Curriculum, Documents Tagged With: 1973, Arts, Eric Von Der Luft, Fine Arts, Orient, SW33.1, SW33.2

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Categories

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    • Focus Group (1)
    • Oral History Interview (2)
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    • Oral History Interview (5)
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    • Oral History Interview (1)
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  • Acknowledgments

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