Over 30 years ago, students at all-male Princeton University distributed a handbook of coed colleges in the northeast. The publication, intended as a guide to weekend jaunts for Princeton men, was titled, "Where the Women Are."
Today, women are here. In 1998, women serve in positions like the Dean of Student Life, the Dean of the College, the undergraduate U-Council chair, three class presidents, the director of the Student Volunteers Council, department chairs and head coaches. Women comprise 46 percent of the undergraduate student body and participate in four sororities and 18 women's varsity athletic teams.
However, women are still fighting for gender equity and recognition of female achievement on campus. Twenty-five years after the graduation of the first coed class, gender issues remain in academics, student life, faculty hiring and perhaps most importantly, attitudes.
Princeton's first women undergraduates were part of the Class of '73 thanks to University President Robert Goheen '40, who implemented coeducation at the University in 1969.
"An aspect which I think is hard to fathom is that 1969 was kind of pre-women's movement," said Associate Provost Georgia Nugent '73. "Whereas now there might have been some concern for solidarity among women, then there was just a feeling of 'hey, we're happy to be here.' "
'Heightened awareness'
Despite the low female enrollment in the early years, Nugent recalls the University as an enjoyable campus and a place for women to thrive.
"I found it a very happy experience as, I think most of us did," she said, adding, "It often had awkward dimensions because most of the faculty were completely unaccustomed to having women in the class. There was some sense of delicacy."
That first group of women had the burden of proving their gender belonged at Princeton. After 225 years of an all-male student body, the spotlight was on the new female students.
"Women were given so much attention there," said Melanie Kirkpatrick '73, who came to the University as a transfer student from the all-female Smith College. "It was a real boon. It was a real bonus in a way."
However, the heightened awareness of women meant they had to strive to demonstrate their individuality. These were not just women breaking the gender barrier at Princeton; they had their own goals and aspirations.
"To stand out from the crowd (of women) was a tough thing to do," said Kirkpatrick, who is Assistant Editor of the Editorial Page at The Wall Street Journal. "If you were a woman, you received much more attention, which can work two ways."
"I would be the only woman in a class or a precept," Kirkpatrick said. "That added a level of self-consciousness. It's something I feel even today when I walk into a room of men."
Nugent said she often felt cognizant of the gender difference while an undergraduate at Princeton.
"The year that was strangest was 1969 when there were 150 of us and 3,400 men," Nugent said. "We were very much in a fishbowl. There were always reporters around. If I run into a male alumni, they will always know who I am even if I never laid eyes on them."
Nevertheless, Nugent said she was not discriminated against during her social experiences at Princeton, and "hanging out" with men helped her during her career.
"It was very much like sibling relationships," Nugent says of socializing almost exclusively with men. She said she recalls Tower Club initiations, when she and a friend refused to partake in certain events but were not chastised.
"There was a certain camaraderie on an intellectual level," she said. "I was excited to be part of a community where I wouldn't be looked at as an egghead."
Discrimination
Despite their acceptance of women on an intellectual plane, some male undergraduates at times discriminated against female students. These instances were infrequent, according to Kirkpatrick.
"We were not allowed to join certain eating clubs," she said. "I did have one professor who came on to me, but it wasn't harassment."
Kirkpatrick also said she recalls encountering an incident of "spooning" when male students would tap their glasses with their spoons if they approved of a female who entered the dining hall.
"I was visiting a friend of mine at Princeton freshman year when I was at Smith," Kirkpatrick said. "I remember going through the line and going out into the dining hall and being just so worried about whether we would get spooned or wouldn't get spooned."
On a more subtle level, the University was still not completely prepared to encourage women. "The big difference between then and now is that there were fewer women role models in terms of professors, administrators and students," Kirkpatrick noted. "It was clearly an institution created for men."
The University had already started hiring female faculty members by 1969, but there were very few, according to Kirkpatrick.
"There was a lot less emphasis on careers than there is now," she said. "Because this was an era where barriers were breaking down, applying to law school or medical schools wasn't the first thing that leapt to mind for women."
However, both Kirkpatrick and Nugent began successful careers and paved the way for future females at the University. Both applied to the University on their own volition, without special parental encouragement.
As they were living in Miami, Nugent's parents thought their daughter would attend the University of Miami. Nugent applied to Princeton when a "radical friend" encouraged her to do so. She said she applied and was admitted without telling her parents but convinced her mother that Princeton was the right institution for her.
Kirkpatrick transferred from Smith after her sophomore year. Neither Kirkpatrick nor Nugent said they saw or received any special publicity from Princeton soliciting women. "When Princeton went coed, they did it very quietly," Kirkpatrick said. "I believe they invited some applications from a selected number of schools."
Women at the top
One aspect in which the University has been slow to change is in the hiring of female faculty members. Though the number of women faculty members has increased since 1969, hiring has leveled off in the past few years, according to Colleen Shanahan '98, the undergraduate chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
Only 26 percent of full-time and part-time regular faculty members are female, said Kristina Miller, systems manager in the Office of the Dean of the Faculty. "It looks pretty stable since 1994, within one percentage point," she added.
"It's clear that Princeton needs to do a better job of recruiting minority and women applicants for faculty positions," Shanahan said. "If you don't have a school with many women professors, you don't have many women wanting to apply here."
The University hires qualified female applicants, but few females apply, Shanahan said.
Nugent said she observes a "reverse funneling effect," whereby women in the lower positions – undergraduates and teaching assistants – are more accepted than those in higher posts, such as tenured professors or administrators.
Though there are many female administrators, there are few in the highest spots. Nine of the 10 Officers of the Corporation and 10 of the 13 Academic Officers are men.
"There are large structural issues that remain in higher education and this is not exclusive to Princeton," said Nugent, who taught in the Department of Classics at the University from 1979 through 1985.
Nugent's different positions have given her a unique perspective on women at the University. "It's been kind of interesting to have three different incarnations at Princeton: as an undergraduate, as a faculty member and as an administrator," she said.
In 1979, the University had not adequately changed the institution to accommodate female faculty members, according to Nugent. "In a sense, University administrators were not dealing with women as faculty members," Nugent said.
"It is certainly the case that women have different concerns and tracks in their career," Nugent said, highlighting a possible explanation for treating women faculty differently. Female faculty members still do most of the family tasks at home, making it difficult for them to do the amount of research their male counterparts do, according to Nugent.
"There is this tendency to take on voluntarily, or to have part of their responsibilities be more demanding, by counseling students and being on committees," Nugent said of female faculty members. Advising students and serving departments, combined with home life, leaves little time to publish, according to Nugent. "It's a cliché by now that women who thought they could do it all couldn't," Nugent said.
Furthermore, Nugent said the University is still geared toward men in some respects. "There are some residual ways in which men at the top still feel more comfortable dealing with men," she said.
She cited the development and annual giving office as an example of a facet of the University that has yet to adjust to women. "It's still organized among masculine lines. It is very competitive. This class beating out that class. This region beating out that region," Nugent noted, adding, "It turns out that that's not the way women think about philanthropy."
This is the first article of a two-part series that looks at the evolving role of women at the University. Tomorrow's article will highlight present programs and support systems for women on campus.
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