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

Report To the President and Trustees and to the Overseers of Bowdoin College (The Pierce Report)

Pierce Report (PDF)
Pierce Report (PDF)

This document (Document SB, 10) is a report of the Study Committee on Underclass Campus Environment, presented in May of 1969. The committee consisted of members of the governing boards, faculty, alums and undergraduates. The document recommends the remodeling of fraternities, the growth of Bowdoin, and the admission of women undergraduates. Pages 26-50 of The Pierce Report are devoted to the positives of admitting women. The Committee saw no positive value in continuing the tradition of an entirely male campus.

The Pierce Report is thought to be the document or even the event that seriously began Bowdoin’s shift towards coeducation. It deems the admission of women “one of the most pressing needs of the College” for a number of reasons. Many comparable New England colleges were going coed at the time and the authors noted that “almost all of [its’] principal competitors will have admitted women” within five years. They feared that Bowdoin’s “ability to continue to attract male students of high quality” would be affected because male students would be more likely to apply to the more progressive coed colleges. The Pierce Report authors suggest that women would improve student-faculty relationships because of women’s “generally superior ability to handle social situations.” Whether or not this was true, the Pierce Report received a great deal of support from the campus.

On September 25, 1970, the Governing Board voted to implement the Pierce Report. This decision was a catalyst for many changes across the campus. Female dorms were created and along with them, the first women’s restrooms. Bowdoin has become what it is today in part because of The Pierce Report.

Report To the President and Trustees and to the Overseers of Bowdoin College (The Pierce Report) (sb-10) PDF

SB 10

Pierce Report (PDF)
Pierce Report (PDF)

Filed Under: Documents, Prehistory Tagged With: 1969, Overseers, President, SB10, Study Committee on Underclass Campus Environment, The Pierce Report, Trustees

“Coeducation Plan is Proposed” The Bowdoin Orient February 13, 1970

The Pierce Report attempted to anticipate many changes that coeducation would usher in at the college.  The committee’s general plan included considerations of admissions, housing, facilities, and curriculum (Document GB, 12).  One major decision by the committee was to admit transfers as well as first year students in an attempt to spread the women among the classes.  In the first year, Bowdoin admitted 29 junior transfers and 39 exchange women to supplement the 66 members of the first year class of 1975.

This committee attempted to consider nearly every area of the college that would be impacted by coeducation.  By publishing this excerpt in the student newspaper, the committee attempted to share its findings with the entire student body. Oral histories of women from the early years clearly reveal that even with this input, however, Bowdoin’s understanding of what coeducation would really mean.  As women arrived, Bowdoin learned that additional changes were needed to make women feel more at home in this environment. For example, one demand by the early classes of women was to have working locks on every door of their residence.  Other demands would follow.

GB12 - "Coeducation Plan is Proposed" The Bowdoin Orient February 13, 1970
GB12 - "Coeducation Plan is Proposed" The Bowdoin Orient February 13, 1970

Filed Under: Documents, Prehistory Tagged With: 1970, Coeducation, GB12, Orient, The Pierce Report

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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