Last weekend, Claremont McKenna College celebrated its 50th anniversary of co-education, bringing together alumni, faculty, parents and current students for a series of receptions and presentations.
CMC was founded as a men’s college in 1946, but opened enrollment to all genders in 1976. This year’s iteration of ImpactCMC, the school’s annual alumni event, was hosted in honor of the milestone. The event featured a community procession across campus honoring women alumni and the dedication of the planned pathway between the Robert Day Sciences Center and Roberts Pavilion as the “Milestone Crossing.”
A Sept. 25 panel invited members from the class of 1980 — the first class of graduates that included women — to reflect on the historical evolution of CMC’s co-education, including Carrie George CM ’80, Cheri Strelow CM ’80 and Kathleen Fitzpatrick CM ’80. In a joint interview with TSL, they explained what it was like to be women at CMC then and how that experience persists today.
“When we first came, the men were welcoming or silent,” Fitzpatrick said. “But then over a couple years, there became this movement that was misogynistic and trying to push women out.”
Fitzpatrick noted how men would wear t-shirts that said “GCO,” which stood for “get c—s out.” She said the shirts were part of a targeted harassment campaign from a minority of men at CMC who opposed co-education.
Mari Adam CM ’80, who co-led and planned the co-education celebration, also highlighted how lonely it was to be the only woman in a given space.
“We were used to being the only women in the room,” Adam said. “It really trained us to go out in the real world and face a lot of obstacles and just let it roll off our backs or confront it.”
Carol Metzger CM ’80 said certain political issues, like abortion access, felt like they were settled decades ago but are constantly brought back into debate.
“Look at Roe v. Wade: fought [for] it, won, and now it’s a problem again,” Metzger said. “Part of it is an ongoing backlash to women claiming for equality, [over] hundreds or thousands of years of history telling men otherwise.”
George said that overall, she thinks society’s attitude toward women has changed for the better, but there are still disparities that need to be addressed.
“I’m not saying this for CMC students in particular, but men tend to make more money than women, so when they can’t afford childcare, who stays home?” George said. “Those are the kinds of things that have to be resolved.”
Fitzpatrick suggested that misogyny often “ebbs and flows,” and that there may be a new wave of it to look out for.
“I think we’re back in a resurgence of people feeling like they can speak their hate,” Fitzpatrick said.
Aveeva Mirchandani CM ’29, who attended the panel, said she found the event empowering.
“It’s quite inspiring to hear about all of these women that spent so much time taking up space and being loud in a place where they weren’t welcome,” Mirchandani said. “It almost makes me want to take up more space as a woman and be louder about my womanhood.”
Sofia Hoffman CM ’27 praised CMC’s active efforts to create an inclusive space for marginalized genders on campus.
“[The 50th anniversary is] a pretty momentous moment,” Hoffman said. “It’s very valuable having women in liberal arts education, they have a lot to offer to the community and that’s definitely been reflected throughout CMC as a whole.”
Barbara Delgado, a team lead at CMC’s Collins Dining Hall, said around 10% of the staff were women when she began working at the college a decade ago.
“As time went by, more and more opportunities grew for women,” Delgado said. “[But] there’s still some lack of opportunities for women to move on, at least in the dining hall, to grow in a different position.”
John Pitney, a government professor at CMC, said the college’s culture has changed significantly in his 40 years teaching there.
“[There was] more of a bro atmosphere at CMC in those days than there is today,” he said. “Some students say there is today, but my sense is it was much more pervasive in the 1980s.”
Stella Ho CM ’97 said in an interview with TSL that women’s experiences at CMC seem to have improved immensely since she attended, and that she remains optimistic for the future.
“It feels like there’s a lot more opportunity and that the women have a much bigger presence on campus in terms of just their involvement and leadership than 28 years ago when I was here,” Ho said.
Facebook Comments