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

DKE Member Photo

In addition to administrative and practical concerns, coeducation at Bowdoin presented complications for campus social life, which was, at the time, dominated by fraternities. Even though women had been on campus, and were often bused in from women’s colleges across New England for parties, they now had to be incorporated into the College’s residential system, as well.

In the early years of coeducation, women students were permitted to join fraternities as local “social members” of the organizations, who could attend parties and some (though not all) meetings. Many women readily joined the fraternities as “brothers,” but some chose to pledge as a matter of necessity: at the time, the only dining hall on campus was Moulton Union, and students by and large relied on the fraternities for meals.

By the 1980s, however, women had been far more integrated into the College’s fraternity system. In this 1985 photograph (Document AW, 52), two female members of Delta Kappa Epsilon pose at an annual “boxer shorts” party. Some fraternities disassociated themselves from their national chapters so that women could join as full voting members.

In the mid-eighties, when this photograph was taken, fraternities continued to dominate the social scene for both men and women, although the fraternities continued to be, themselves, most often dominated by male students.

AW52 - DKE Member Photo
AW52 - DKE Member Photo

Filed Under: Documents, Social Life & Fraternities Tagged With: 1985, AW52, Deke, Delta Kappa Epsilon, DKE, Fraternity, Party, Photo

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
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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

Masque and Gown Photos – 1920 – 1924 – 1960 – 1976

A visual documentation of Bowdoin’s progression from an all-male college to a coeducational one can be found in the archives of Masque and Gown. Masque and Gown is a student run theater organization founded in 1903, sixty eight years before the arrival of women students on campus.  The photos featured here illustrate Masque and Gown at three distinct points in time: when the college was an all-male institution, when the Masque and Gown began casting Brunswick women in female roles, and when the College became a coeducational institution.

AG37.1 - Masque and Gown Photo  (1920 Merchant of Venice)
AG37.1 - Masque and Gown Photo (1920 Merchant of Venice)

The first two photos [DocumentAG, 37.1 and DocumentAG, 37.2] are group shots from a 1920 production of The Merchant of Venice and a 1924 production of Macbeth. These photos were taken in the years when Masque and Gown productions consisted of all male casts. In 1927 Masque and Gown began casting Brunswick women in female roles, with a few exceptions.

AG37.2 - Masque and Gown Photo  (1924 MacBeth)
AG37.2 - Masque and Gown Photo (1924 MacBeth)

Eventually, Masque and Gown also allowed Bowdoin female staff members and faculty wives to participate in their productions.  Edith Elliott, a Registered Nurse at the Bowdoin infirmary appeared as the only female in the 1937 production of Yellow Jack. The third image [DocumentAG, 37.3] shows women of the Brunswick community in the 1960 production of Playboy of the Western World. Although the names of the five women in the image are not specified, the female roles in the play are as follows. Four village girls: Susan Brady, Nelly Leahy, Honor Blake, and Sara Tansey played by Betsi Black, Cecilia Stehle, Paula Black, and Linda Sarkis respectively,  Margaret Flaherty played by Paula DeCaesar and Widow Quin played by Irma Black.

AG37.3 - Masque and Gown Photo   (1960 Player of the Western World)
AG37.3 - Masque and Gown Photo (1960 Player of the Western World)

The final photo [DocumentAG, 37.4] is of the 1976 production of A Slight Ache. The  particularly small cast is made up of only Bowdoin students. Brunswick women and faculty wives were eventually phased out as actresses in Masque and Gown plays and female students became the primary actresses in campus productions.

AG37.4 - Masque and Gown Photo (1976 A Slight Ache)
AG37.4 - Masque and Gown Photo (1976 A Slight Ache)

The inclusion of women of the Brunswick community as well as the participation of female staff members and faculty wives raises an interesting question: When and to what degree did women become members of the Bowdoin community? Women were not students until the 1970’s, yet before coeducation, women participated in college programs and found ways of creating communities with other women through Bowdoin. An excellent example of such a group of women is the Society of Bowdoin Women. The Society began in the 1920’s and its members consisted of women in the Brunswick community, women staff members, and faculty wives, with the only requirement for membership being that “she love a Bowdoin man.” Theodora Penny Martin suggests in “On the Outskirts: A Case Study for Kin Work in Academe” that such a society allowed women to become a part of the Bowdoin community by “defin[ing] herself in the tradition of her family”. Similarly the women who participated in Masque and Gown productions post 1927 and before coeducation were, if only for a short amount of time, part of the Bowdoin community.

Filed Under: Documents, Extracurriculars Tagged With: 1920, 1924, 1960, 1976, A Slight Ache, AG37.1, AG37.2, AG37.3, MacBeth, Masque and Gown, Merchant of Venice, Photo, Player of the Western World

In Father’s Footsteps – Sue Jacobson and President Howell

Susan Jacobson, Bowdoin’s first college graduate, is pictured sitting next to President Dr. Roger Howell peering at her father’s signature in Bowdoin’s famous matriculation book (Document 18, GB).  Jacobson, who recently passed away on October 4, 2011 graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English, then pursued a masters in library science at Simmons. She then worked at Yale and Youngstown State University as an acquisition librarian.

Native of Portland, Jacobson attended Bowdoin through the Twelve College Exchange Program and eventually transferred to Bowdoin from Connecticut College.  Along with her interest in the small but highly touted English department at Bowdoin, Jacobson also wanted to attend the same college her father enjoyed during his undergraduate years.  The administration of Bowdoin allowed alumni’s daughters a chance to attend Bowdoin helped the college transition to coeducation.  Alumni would be in favor of coeducation because it was giving their daughters an opportunity to their alma mater.

Jacobson’s signature proudly holds its place as one of the first female names in this matriculation book.  The tradition of signing the matriculation book at Bowdoin still holds firm where students meet briefly with the President of Bowdoin before signing the famous book themselves.  Students have a brief one on one conversation with the President and are then invited to sign the book to become a part of Bowdoin’s history.  The signing now takes place during orientation for freshman every fall.

GB18 - In Father's Footsteps - Sue Jacobson and President Howell
GB18 - In Father's Footsteps - Sue Jacobson and President Howell

Filed Under: Documents, Prehistory Tagged With: GB18, Jacobson, Photo, President Howell, Susan Jacobson

Categories

  • Athletics (9)
    • Documents (6)
    • Focus Group (1)
    • Oral History Interview (2)
  • Curriculum (8)
    • Documents (6)
    • Focus Group (1)
    • Oral History Interview (1)
  • Extracurriculars (10)
    • Documents (6)
    • Oral History Interview (3)
  • Prehistory (20)
    • Documents (18)
    • Oral History Interview (2)
  • Process (22)
    • Documents (12)
    • Focus Group (3)
    • Oral History Interview (7)
  • Social Life & Fraternities (20)
    • Documents (12)
    • Focus Group (3)
    • Oral History Interview (5)
  • Women’s Resource Center (8)
    • Documents (6)
    • Focus Group (1)
    • Oral History Interview (1)
  • Sources
  • Acknowledgments

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