1883 - When women were first admitted to Middlebury College in 1883, they faced a variety of obstacles that unfolded over the years, many of which inspired creativity and community among the female students on campus.
“The young ladies who desire it may be admitted into the instructions of the Professors and the Class rooms of Middlebury College under such regulations as the Faculty and Prudentia Committee shall prescribe that their names shall appear in the catalogue in a separate list and that at the end of their course such diploma or certificate given them as their examinations shall entitle them to,” wrote the board at the College in the spring of 1883. The first woman admitted to the College under this declaration was May Anna Bolton of Cornwall, Vt., who had applied in 1882 and reapplied after the board made this decision.
When Bolton and her female comrades — Louise Hagar Edgerton and May Belle Chellis — arrived at the College, they were not afforded the equal privileges their male colleagues enjoyed.
In some cases, the inequalities women suffered generated a sense of hostility among male students. Some men complained that while they themselves could be affiliated with sports teams, fraternities and other campus organizations, women were restricted strictly to academics, and all of their time studying gave them an advantage — intellectually.
In the Class of 1894, four of the four female graduates were elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and in her time at Middlebury, Chellis was awarded the esteemed Greek prize over her male colleagues. The first African American female to graduate, Mary Annette Anderson (Class of 1899) served as valedictorian.
Individual successes were still clouded with injustice in the late 1800s. Mary O. Pollard (Class of 1896) became assistant editor-in-chief of Kaleidoscope “with the stipulation that [she should do the work but Frank Davis would have the name of editor-in-chief, because it did not look well to have a girl in higher rank than a man,” according to Pollard.
One of the most obvious iniquities was the complete lack of housing for female students.
Bolton’s father was a custodian on campus, so she and Chellis found board in his house, which is now the Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest. It was common for female students to take up board with parents or townspeople; Laura Clark’s (Class of 1894) mother moved up from Ludlow, Vt., so that Clark could attend the College.
Since no dormitories were open to women until 1891 (the first that did open was called Battell Hall and is now the Addison House retirement community on College Street), and the library was open for only a few hours each day, women did not have a space to study in between classes as the male students did.
Thus, the upper floor of Old Chapel was opened for them, which they refered to as “the Brown Study.” The women who utilized the space decorated it with secondhand furniture from their friends’ attics, and formed what they deemed “The Brown Study Club.”
While the College hosted a variety of fraternities, there were no sororities on campus. The men of Chi Psi ultimately recognized that interested women deserved a space of their own and helped organize and pass a charter for the first sorority at Middlebury, Alpha Chi, which assembled in December 1889. Delta Upsilon, following Chi Psi’s lead, helped along the formation of Pi Beta Phi.
When the Y.W.C.A. came to campus in 1894, female students began to have more opportunities to be involved in gender-based communities and societies.
It was not until 1971 that The Women’s Union was created at Middlebury. Torie Osborn was quoted in a Campus article, saying, “Too many women spend time together by default — like when our dates on Saturday nights fall through. Or women’s time together is spent talking about only men, marriage, and children. There is more to life than those things.”
In 1993, Chellis House opened, only a few feet from the home in which Bolton and Chellis boarded so long ago, as a meeting space for students to discuss issues concerning gender and women in education.
Women’s integration into the academic and extracurricular realm at the College was a slow process, but one with a rich history. The first female figures who sought knowledge and opportunity have paved a path that is always moving forward.
In an excerpt from Chellis in the College archives, she wrote: “My memories of Middlebury are fragmentary. Here and there a spot shines out. I did so enjoy the fine avenue of spruces that led up to the old chapel … Another thing I remember, vividly, the library where I could handle books, of which I had heard, but had never read.”
2010 - Women’s History Month arrived to little fanfare this March. “I didn’t know it was Women’s History Month until you told me,” said Raymond Queliz ’11. “Why doesn’t the school advertise it?”
Women’s and Gender Studies, Chellis House, the Creative Writing Department, WomenSafe and Women of Color sponsored a diverse array of lectures that, while arguably ill-publicized, provided a vibrant portrait of both female scholars’ and writers’ present work and the historical study of women. The events included readings by Middlebury writers Yumna Siddiqi, Karin Gottshall and Julia Alvarez; lectures by professors Amy Morsman, Jonathan Miller Lane, and Linda White, and a visit from journalist Helen Benedict.
The events were entertaining, to be sure. But Women’s History Month was never promoted for its own sake, and raised questions among the student body as to the month’s relevance or applicability.
“I think it recognizes identity and raises discourse,” said Lark Nierenberg ’11. “But I don’t know how much conversation actually happens from it, how much inspiration comes from it, how much reflection is actually made.”
For the faculty, Women’s History Month is important because it indicates the ways in which history has been broadened in the wake of deconstructionist, postmodern and Foucaltian thought to include women’s voices. This holds enormous implications for women, other oppressed groups, and their participation in dialogue: “While an earlier generation of women’s historians primarily sought to recover a usable women’s past, current women’s historians tend to explore the intersectionality of gender, race, class, disability and other categories of difference,” wrote Professor of American Studies Holly Allen in an e-mail. Visiting lecturer Catharine Wright agrees, noting that Women’s History Month, as well as the inclusion of women’s history in the curriculum, helps us “to be aware of methods of discourse: many feminist scholars of teaching and learning have investigated and critiqued mainstream academic methods of discourse as situated in (white) male dominated historical contexts. These models can be elegant and worthy models but also deserve to be questioned and adapted as new social groups such as women and other ‘others’ enter into critical and creative conversations in academia.”
But do these conversations extend beyond the classroom?
“We’re devoting all these months to the ‘other,’ to have this conversation,” Nierenberg noted, “but what does Women’s History Month really affect in anyone’s day?”
Ariel Smith ’11, minced no words. “It’s not that important. It’s just like Black History month. It’s not important. Nobody gives a s***.”
There seems to be a general fatigue and deep-seated reluctance among students to participate in dialogue surrounding issues of gender, race and other aspects of difference.
Worse still, there exists the prevalent — and misguided — assumption that because women have achieved legal rights, they are, by and large, equal.
“I think that with gay people and people of color, we generally recognize that there’s a gap,” said Zaheena Raheed ’11. “But with women, people think we’ve already reached equality and that nothing more needs to be done.”
“It’s kind of implied that women are equal to men whether that’s true or not,” Queliz noted. “But the U.S. is still all about guys.”
This is perhaps why Women’s History Month was never promoted for its own sake, and why the month, sandwiched between Black History Month in February and April’s Gaypril, is celebrated on campus with decidedly less vigor than its neighboring counterparts.
“With women, one thing we do is we try to distance ourselves from that identity because we want to rise above it,” noted Rasheed. “Women distance themselves from being historically marginalized.”
As a result, overwhelming apathy dominates. “ I don’t feel like I’ve ever been discriminated against because I’m a woman,” said Cathy Ahearn ’11. I know that [gender discrimination] is there, but I don’t think it’s in my way.”
The conversation about gender at Middlebury remains confined to the academic sphere, never filtering into the mainstream, never an issue about which students find themselves seriously concerned. Perhaps Women’s History Month should work toward that end — to inspire great interest and participation in conversations about gender and difference. After all, Middlebury is by no means averse to discourse — just think about the farcical, pithy, and mildly misogynistic “Midd Kid” rap video and its 222,250 views on YouTube. Is this all students have to say?
Women's History Month celebrates 127 years of coeducation
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