Freshmen – Forty Years: The History of Women at Bowdoin

Bowdoin Women’s Association Handbook

The cover of the 1980-1981 Bowdoin Women’s Association Handbook features a picture of four naked women dancing beneath a crescent moon and reads, “Women Rising: Ten Years of Women at Bowdoin.” The word “rising” likely refers to the title of the alma mater, “Rise Sons of Bowdoin” (Document CS, 63). Ever since the arrival of women, daughters of Bowdoin were “rising” alongside its sons. These women featured on the handbook’s cover dance in celebration of 10 years (9 years according to our timeline) of women at the college. By holding hands they join forces as women, supporting and empowering one another.

In addition to providing women with information, this handbook aims to build community around women’s issues at Bowdoin. The writers express a hope for expansion of the Bowdoin Women’s Association. During this one-year, for example, they planned a celebration of ten years of women at Bowdoin, a symposium on life for women after Bowdoin, workshops on self-defense and healthcare, discussion groups and lectures.

The articles in the handbook provide information on a variety of women’s issues at the college. In one, the immediate past president of the Bowdoin Women’s Association and previous vice-president of her fraternity examines the recent history of women’s status in fraternities. She raises the pros and cons of joining a fraternity and is complementary of the choice to remain “independent.” She wishes the best to the incoming class of 1984 and writes, “May Bowdoin be as good to you as it was to me.” Another article lists the numerous options for women’s sports available to students. The authors encourage athletic involvement and mention the discrepancy in funding between male and female athletic programs. A section on healthcare urges Bowdoin women to take advantage of the free gynecological services. The two last sections provide information on security support and political groups on campus.

In a nod to the feminism alive on Bowdoin’s campus in the 1980s, the terms “freshpeople” and “freshpersons” are used throughout the publication instead of the word “freshmen.” Nowadays “freshpeople” are referred to as “first years” at the college.

The paragraph announcing the new Women’s Resource Center describes the center’s abundance of resources for the Bowdoin community. The article mentions event plans, the center’s new library, and the hope that the new headquarters of the Bowdoin Women’s Association will be a space reader’s feel comfortable visiting “for assistance or just conversation.”

The last section of the publication discusses how women had “made their mark at Bowdoin after this first decade.” The student body was now 50/50 male/female, the Bowdoin’s Women’s Association had “become the largest student supported organization on campus,” the Women’s Resource Center was opening this fall, and the results of a report on “the Status of Women at Bowdoin” were to be published. The authors identified the most substantial sign of change as the arrival of 13 new women faculty members.

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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