I graduated from Stephens College in 1951. During my freshman year, I was lucky enough to experience the last year of presidency for James Madison Wood. Wood, or “Daddy” as we all called him, was president of Stephens College for thirty-five years ("Stephens College: News and Events-For the Media"). While attending Stephens, we were all taught how to wear our hair and to dress appropriately (“Spouse Trap”). Nothing is more unbecoming than a woman who does not know the proper ways to groom herself. Thanks to the help of Wood and the groomer he brought to Stephens we were all fortunate enough to learn from a professional (“Spouse Trap”). While Wood was president, he hired Wernett W. Charters to enhance the curriculum at Stephens ("Stephens College : About Stephens – History”). Charters was a psychologist who worked with Wood to figure out how women differed from men in learning. They also worked to figure out how that discovery could help them build the “strongest curriculum found in any women’s college in the world,” which Wood stated on the “History of Stephens” article on Stephens' webpage (“Spouse Trap”). Like most of the women in my class, I married within five years after I graduated and stuck true to the conspiracy that American Magazine created, dubbing Stephens College a “spouse trap” in which you are prepared for marriage after attending Stephens College so much so that you fulfill that duty soon after you graduate (“Spouse Trap”). Since my graduation from Stephens, there have been many changes at the school. For one thing, men are now admitted, which is strange to me since the school still considers themselves a woman’s college. In fact the vice president for public relations and marketing at Stephens, Amy Gipson, said that they have no plan of becoming a coeducational school in the future (Karstens Columbia Missourian). I hope that Stephens will still prosper in educating women and instilling favorable ideals in the minds of our young women.
-Adele
After hearing some of the things that women were taught in this post I am happy to say that I am glad some things have changed. I could never imagine what it would be like to have to be forced to dress a certain way or a way that society instills in me. I also feel that it would be considered very rude today to refer to any authority figure at a college as “Daddy”. I think this shows some improvement that Stephens has made in the ways that they view women in society and hopefully they can keep moving forward.
ReplyDelete-Claire
When viewing my experience at Stephens in today’s world, it does seem very strange. You must remember that in that time period, none of this behavior was seen as sexist. I was very proud to be taught the things I was and although Stephens was working on breaking barriers for new roles for women, I was happy with getting married, having a family, and taking care of the house.
ReplyDelete-Adele
These two opposing views just shows the idea that the argument on sexism at Stephens could be seen as a moot point. While we are comparing the two experiences at Stephens to see how much it has improved and what advancements Stephens has made, it is hard to compare these two events that have external factors involved. Factors such as the time period.
ReplyDelete-Kelsey