1975 – Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

Fall 1975 Rush Booklet

Bowdoin’s Interfraternity Council issued annual rush booklets (Document SS, 50), which served as an introduction to the college’s fraternities. After an introduction and some rules, the booklets gave individual fraternities the opportunity to describe themselves to the students. Most of these features are about three paragraphs in length. John Cross ’76, the then Interfraternity Council president, wrote the introduction to the fall ’75 rush book, in which he states, “The image of small, snobby clique does not apply to Bowdoin’s fraternities.” This blanket statement of inclusivity is interesting as, in 1975, women were still quite new to the college.

By 1975 the fraternities as a whole were not single-minded in their approach to women. The institutions range from praising themselves on remaining single-sex (Alpha Kappa Sigma), to devoting several sentences to women and stating that women could live in the fraternity houses and be full members (Delta Sigma). Most fraternities fell somewhere in between. Most felt the need to mention women in their profiles, but would not grant them full membership. They limited women to social membership, which meant that they could engage fully in social activities associated with the fraternities. Social members typically did not live in the fraternity houses and were not permitted to vote on fraternity matters. The way these fraternities addressed women shows that the Bowdoin social scene, in which fraternities predominated, still did not grant women the same privileges as it did men.

1975 Funding Request and Constitution for the Bowdoin Women’s Association

“Co-education remained controversial and while less hostile with the senior class gone, there was still an atmosphere that we were guests at a male college.”

– Patricia Geller ‘75

The Bowdoin Women’s Association (BWA), a student led campus organization, began informally in the fall of 1972. Patricia “Barney” Geller ‘75 and Liza Graves ‘76, two of the clubs founding members, began organizing meetings before petitioning the student government for funding as an official campus organization. BWA was intended to help build community among male and female students while bringing to the forefront women’s issues that had not yet been addressed by the college. The organization tackled institutional and social issues, advocating the need for more female faculty and addressing what Patricia Geller called a “concern that some of the new students were taking what we [Geller and Graves] saw a(s) subservient roles in some of the frats and were not allowed to be full members.”

BWA’s constitution [DocumentAG, 40] describes the group as both a social and educational organization. Funding was used to sponsor social events that allowed women to gather informally, creating a space where women could articulate some of the issues they encountered at a traditionally male school. Funding was also used to sponsor non-academic educational programs on sex education and birth control. The second initiative was of considerable importance given that the College was largely unprepared for the arrival of women on campus, particularly in the department of women’s health. Geller recalls both a rule at the infirmary requiring women to wear a bra in order to be seen and the lack of a gynecologist available to women on campus.

BWA was also instrumental in educating students and raising awareness about issues of sexual harassment and abuse. Plans outlined in BWA’s 1975 budget proposal seek to bring speakers to campus in the fall of 1976 including the Executive Director of the National Organization for the Prevention of Rape and Assault. Other proposed speakers include women politicians, speakers on women’s history, and artists and writers on issues pertinent to women. Although many of the events hosted by BWA were focused on women, they were open to men as well.

BWA’s presence on campus during the early years of coeducation was important both in creating a space where women could meet and discuss the issues they encountered on a daily basis and in educating students, men and women alike, about issues that were likely not addressed prior to the arrival of women on campus.

AG40.1 - 1975 Funding Request and Constitution for the Bowdoin Women's Association

AG40.2 - 1975 Funding Request and Constitution for the Bowdoin Women's Association

AG40.3 - 1975 Funding Request and Constitution for the Bowdoin Women's Association

AG40.4 - 1975 Funding Request and Constitution for the Bowdoin Women's Association

AG40.5 - 1975 Funding Request and Constitution for the Bowdoin Women's Association

AG40.6 - 1975 Funding Request and Constitution for the Bowdoin Women's Association

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 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.