Today women outnumber men on college campuses, making up nearly 60% of undergraduate students. This stat makes us feel like higher education has always been a place where women and men have enjoyed equal footing. But this is far from the case. For the Feminae who taught at Brooklyn College before 1980, the quest for education was a subversive act, and the quest to become an intellectual authority (i.e. a professor) was a constant battle.
The first white women were admitted to co-educational colleges in the United States in 1837; for Black women, it was 1862. By 1982, more co-educational doors had opened for women: the Ivy League schools, Oxford, and Cambridge started admitting women by that time. Part of the reason for this delay was that there was an entrenched societal belief that intellectual prowess was incompatible with motherhood.
In fact, Mother’s Day was created in 1914 because, as more women had started to become college educated, the population had begun to decline (in 1800, the average woman birthed 7 children; by 1900, it was 4; by 1920, it was 2). By 1970, 1 of every 8 PhDs was a woman, but only 1 of every 50 full professors was a woman. CUNY was forward-thinking when it began to employ women to teach at its co-ed schools in the 1930s (whereas the first female tenure-track professor was only employed at an Ivy League school in 1968!).
These small strides did not prevent rampant sexism in American academia, though. In 1970, a woman who was the sole female in her undergraduate history seminar at Yale reported that, when she first spoke, “the professor nearly jumped out of his skin,” exclaiming “‘It talks!’” Women at Harvard would regularly get feedback on their papers like: “as a woman, we don’t expect you to be brilliant or original” or “not bad for a woman”; if they were smart, their professors would exclaim “if only you were a man!”
Academic job ads regularly listed positions as “for men only” through the 1960’s. Male professors were called “Doctor” or “Professor” or “Dean” or “President,” but until the 1960s, female professors were called “Miss” or “Mrs” even if they had PhDs, because their faculty positions were explicitly contingent upon their marital status. (Even the president of the women’s college Wellesley was called “Miss” until she was married, and upon marriage, she was asked to resign!)
Women often didn’t write about women’s history in this academic environment because they didn’t want to be considered “odd ducks” or “kooks”—they needed to pass as men. Besides, as one former Brooklyn College professor said, “men loved it when you studied women because then they didn’t have to pay attention to you.”
Today, women make up 43% of tenure track professors and 33% of full professors in the United States. But at least they are regularly called “Professor.”
Dr. Alice Kober’s inscription to Dr. Mario Cosenza (1932)
Like many female professors before the 1950s, Dr. Kober began teaching at Brooklyn College before she finished her Ph.D dissertation, meaning she was often teaching 3 or 4 classes a semester in addition to finishing her research. Upon finishing and publishing her dissertation, she humbly presented her elder male Classics colleague (and academic dean) with a copy, and with the kind of self-effacing and self-deprecating inscription expected of women at the time.
Dr. Lachmann’s Teaching Evaluation (1956)
One of the classes Dr. Vera Lachmann taught at Brooklyn College was Classical Civilization I. In the her Observation of Teaching report, a male professor writes condescendingly about her “motherly” attitude; how her job teaching that class was “workman-like and uninspired”; how she was “painstaking trying to assure herself” and how her “appearance” was "average."
Women in Antiquity: Sex and Civilization Syllabus (1973)
Prof. Marilyn Arthur (called Whitfield in the 70s and Katz today) was one of the founding members of the Women’s Classical Caucus of the American Philological Association. Returning from the first meeting of that caucus in 1972, she went to work putting together this course for Women’s Studies. Other courses from the time included The Jewish Woman, Three Greek Goddesses (Art), Goddess and Bitch: The Heroine in English Literature, and Women in Muslim Societies.
Matrimony preparation (1937)
In 1937, BC held “discussion groups” for “Girls Contemplating Matrimony”; the topics included “the honeymoon,” “sacrifices,” and “clothes for the baby.” Contrast this with the topics discussed by the Women’s Center and the Women’s Studies Program's “consciousness-raising groups” in 1977.
President Gideonese's Self-Evaluation (1965)
This self-evaluation was sent out to college presidents and trustees in higher education as part of a study on their leadership. President Harry Gideonese (in office 1939-1966) participated in the study; we see his responses here. Note that the questions do not allow for the possibility of women in college leadership positions, and indeed, no woman was president of Brooklyn College until 2009.
Some Things Unsaid with Poetry Drafts (1976)
A collection of feminist and lesbian poetry was published in the newsletter of the Brooklyn College Women's Studies Program, Some Things Unsaid. The poetry displayed here was written by students, some of whom were on the steering committee for the Women's Studies Program. The poems explore themes of alienation, self-doubt, identity, and lesbian sexuality. The newsletter shows how the academic program Women’s Studies also served the purpose of finally giving voice to women whose experiences had been previously overlooked.
"A Special Word to Young Women" (1954)
“As individuals, as wives, as mothers, and as participants in the world of affairs, women will find the same values in a Liberal Arts training as men. It is no longer smart for women to be dumb.” This pamphlet published by the English Department concerns itself with the career opportunities that are available to anyone that holds a degree in English; here, women are told that specifically through Liberal Arts they can better enhance their roles in society (only 6% of graduating women followed English’s advice).
Recommendation Letters for Dr. Marilyn Arthur (1972)
Recommendation letters sent to Brooklyn College by dissertation advisors as part of Dr. Arthur’s job application. Note that, after praising her teaching and research skills, one of her male professors found it necessary to write that she will “not be shunted aside as ‘a woman in a man’s world.’ I do not mean to imply that she is militant or unfeminine; she is pleasant and attractive.” A second recommender (another male professor) assures that Arthur would never “carry her ideas about w*m*n’s rights to any kind of extreme.”
Consciousness-Raising Discussion Topics (1977)
In 1937, BC held “discussion groups” for “Girls Contemplating Matrimony”; the topics included “the honeymoon,” “sacrifices,” and “clothes for the baby.” In contrast, by 1977, the Women’s Center and the Women’s Studies Program were holding “consciousness-raising groups”; topics included divorce, whether one wanted children, the Equal Rights Amendment, power, and work.
Kingsman Article About New BC Women’s Studies Program, with Director Renate Bridenthal’s notes on misquotations (1974)
BC asked Women’s Studies to be a program, not a department, because it needed to reassure (1) more traditional departments that it would complement, not replace, other majors, and (2) prospective employers who “might be skeptical of such an untraditional major.” Note the cartoon portraying a rabid, angry cavewoman chasing her male partner. No wonder Dr. Bridenthal took issue with misquotations! Nevertheless, by 1980, 793 students were enrolled in Women’s Studies.
Women and Affirmative Action, by Dr. Lillia Melani (1972)
In 1972, the CUNY Women’s Coalition issued a report to both the State Assembly and the BC President, writing that “‘white men’ and ‘best qualified’ were not synonymous,” and advocating for women and minorities. Various BC chairs balked at the report, claiming that “the reasons for inequality are societal, related to adult attitudes (often maternal)...[and the] lack of self confidence in young females leading to avoidance behavior, and a consequent lack of venture capital.” In 1973, a federal judge ruled that CUNY had "discriminated unlawfully against women on its teaching staff for 15 years by paying them less than men in equivalent positions."
