One year before female students stepped onto campus, sociology professor Suzanne Keller became the first woman to be granted tenure by the University. And while thousands of female students have come and gone, Keller is still here.
"I was a shocking event," Keller said in an interview Thursday. "It was culture shock. Culture shock is when something very unexpected, not incorporated into your world view appears. You have to change your mental map."
Keller came to the University in 1967 as a visiting professor from Greece where she had been studying and teaching. The next year, the sociology department invited her to return again.
Because she wanted to divide her time between Greece and Princeton, the department voted to recommend her for tenure so she would stay permanently at the University.
"It was not a normal procedure," Keller said. "They had to set a new precedent. Advisers, trustees, staff, everybody had to agree with it. One administrator said, 'Too bad she doesn't wear pants.' It was not said hostilely. It was like people say, 'We wish we could find qualified women.' "
"In a way, it was amazing because number one I knew that all the male faculty and students had mothers, girlfriends, sisters, wives," she said. "They had relationships with women, but not of an intellectual type. Now they were listening to someone authoritative who was a woman."
Keller said despite the initial misgivings of some, the University welcomed her.
"To my face, there was a great deal of welcome," she said. "There was never a personal problem, no rudeness."
In fact, Keller was at times overwhelmed by colleagues who sought her unique point of view.
"People at University functions would corral me, try to get a woman's point of view: 'What is feminism?' It was scary in a way. Something was in the air. A report was being generated about women students at Princeton — the possibility of it."
Keller said though she was something of a celebrity on campus, the other female staff members at the University were "completely marginal."
"I was always featured, asked for my point of view," she explained. "The library staff, the secretarial staff, the research assistant staff, they were invisible."
Keller said she was not intimidated by the male-dominated atmosphere.
"I thought there was room for women," she noted. "I never had a problem of confidence."
But winning the respect of some of her male students was a challenge, Keller said.
"Students were not used to me," she said. "A professor has to be somebody who professes. I take teaching extremely seriously. You also have to master a body of material. There were male students who had a tremendous question mark. Did I win them over? Yes I did, most of them."
A few years after her appointment, Keller introduced a course on gender roles called, "Sex and Society."
"There were some very strange reactions," Keller recalled. "One colleague said, 'Suzanne, you're not really going to teach that three-letter word.' "
"Some male students wanted to convince me that male dominance was natural," she added. "We had some good debates. For years, I taught that course. It was one of my favorite courses."
Despite helping to bring the women's movement into the foreground at the University, Keller never viewed herself as a symbol. "I did not see myself as a pioneer. I assumed quality won out," she noted.
Keller said attempting to make the University "gender neutral" was a group effort.
"It's not when one woman goes through the net," Keller said. "It's when 100 go through."
"You need a critical mass to do very much," she explained. "After seven or eight years, there was a group of us. We fought for many issues. It was necessary to be active."
Then and now
Keller said she has seen much progress toward gender equality at the University during the last 30 years.
"Nobody involved with the women's movement of the '60s and '70s thought it would take this long," she said. "It was such a heady movement. It revolutionized our view of the world, of thought, of feeling, of attitude. It was very exciting. Everybody's mind was bursting open."
"Compared to the starting point, it's gone very far ahead," she said. "It is a more open place today, more diverse. The curriculum has expanded, the faculty is open."
"Nobody seems badly treated," she added. "They were in the beginning. We got the dog work, the committee assignments, we had to work on getting family leave."
Keller noted, however, that there is still work to be done. "If you don't have children, it's not a big issue. But the child-care problem has not been solved. Babyhood goes fast. Women are very torn. It has not been integrated."
"There is still a problem of parity in terms of male-female ratios and rates of appointment," she said. "It is not a gender neutral world."
"Some departments may still have only one [woman] or none at all," she added. "There is a pattern of exclusion in certain domains."
Keller said the University administration could do more to create a balanced faculty.
"They can inspire those departments that are slow to do more," she said. "There's still an imbalance."
To female students and professors, Keller offered this advice: "Publicize things, keep reminding people that there's room for change. It has to come from within. Push the University. You have to be the squeaky wheel. Forcefully bring it to the attention of the administration to bring change."
"We need ombudswomen . . . who keep watch, reminding, encouraging," she added. "You need somebody to tend the garden."
Life beyond the campus
Though Keller has had a profound impact on the University during the past 30 years, her life has reached far beyond the campus.
"I grew up partly in Vienna, partly in France, partly in America," she said. "I have a lot of ties to Europe. I always travel. I take my work with me. I go to Europe every year."
Keller speaks "about six or seven" languages, her strongest of which are French, German, English, Greek and Italian. "If I live in a country, I always learn," she explained.
Keller's education spanned two continents. A graduate of Hunter College, she received her doctorate from Columbia University, and also took courses at the Université Paris-Sorbonne and in Greece.
"I lived, worked and taught in Greece," she said. "I did research and studied architecture. I taught architects about social behavior."
In addition to her work in the sociology department, Keller was involved with the architecture department for 10 years. She is currently involved with the Program in Jewish Studies and the Program in Hellenic Studies.
"I've always been very broadly engaged," she explained. Keller's work has focused on social stratification and elites, comparative family systems and the sociology of physical space and design. She has written and edited a number of books, including "Beyond the Ruling Class: Strategic Elites in Modern Society," "The Urban Neighborhood" and "The American Dream of Family." This year, on sabbatical, Keller is finishing a book on community titled, "The Passionate Quest," in which she describes the development of nearby Twin Rivers, N.J.
"I trace the process of becoming a community," Keller said. "I have followed it for 20 years. People were brought in thinking community came in the package. They had to create it."
"It is a larger story about how people can live together," she added. Keller is also preparing a freshman seminar on community for the fall, with the working title "Identity and Community in a Multi-cultural Society." The subject of the course will be "how hard it is to bridge differences," Keller said.
Writing and course preparation are not the only two items on Keller's academic agenda. In late May, Keller will give a talk in Italy about elites in literature.
"I love the elite courses," Keller said. "I think we don't study it enough. We know much more about the disadvantaged than the advantaged. I think it's so critical. Take the presidential race. The president has an enormous capacity to steer the ship of state."
Though many women see Keller as a role model, she downplays this aspect of her career.
"Everybody is [a role model] a little bit," she said. "I am sure anyone who is in a teaching position inspires people to some degree if they care about their work."
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