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Vassar Class of 1966: Women in between the Traditional Roles for Women and the Feminist Revolution

2007; Linguagem: Inglês

1938-9809

Lucille M. Pritchard, Kathryn Sajdak, Susanna Margolis,

Social Development and Education Research

'What Role for Educated Woman?' In June, 1966, cover story of Newsweek posed what it clearly considered a newsworthy question: 'What Role for Educated Woman?' To help provide an answer, magazine's education editor held a conversation with eight women who were being graduated that year from Vassar, then still an all-women's college and one persistently conscious of itself as a pioneer in women's higher education. The magazine described eight graduates as exceptional yet, expressing the concerns of graduating seniors all over U.S (p.74). To 21st century ears, those concerns at least, as elicited by magazine's education editor--sound almost quaint: sexual attitudes, marriage, willingness or lack of same to compete with men on job, and what it means to be feminine. Yet by any measure, these eight women were poised to assume just about any role they wanted at very forefront of society and culture in which they--lived at least among possibilities open to women at time. Those possibilities, while more limited than daughters and granddaughters of eight would now find credible, were in fact beginning to open up in ways graduates did not envisage in June, 1966. Perhaps as a result, future paths women contemplated in their Newsweek interview were far more pedestrian, if perhaps more secure, than realities they actually lived. These were women in between. They straddled what in retrospect would be seen as a momentous dividing line in lives of American women and in culture of country, and they weren't entirely at home on either side of divide. One foot was planted in their mothers' generation, in which marriage and motherhood were primary goals, with career accepted as a pre-marriage phase and post-child-rearing retreat. The other foot strode forward away from those expectations, but in 1966, it still hovered in mid-air, with no firm ground on which to set down. For, unseen up ahead, was a totally altered terrain for America's women, a terrain that would be fought for, one hill at a time, in that swirling mass of revolutions that ignited America in late 1960s and early 1970s. Some of these eight women helped shape terrain at--least one from a position of leadership--but all had to find their way across it, one way or another. For that reason, perhaps more than in any other generation of our time, lives these women have actually lived are very different from lives they had anticipated in 1966. The purpose of this study is to examine lives of eight women who were originally interviewed for June, 1966 Newsweek article in order to document personal and professional paths that these women actually took since they graduated from Vassar. By utilizing a detailed examination of women, this research was conducted to provide a better understanding of their aspirations and achievements as pioneers in Second Wave of Women's Movement that was just emerging as they obtained their degrees. One of original participants, a physician, was deceased and one other, a published poet, declined to participate, so actual study included six of original interviewees from Newsweek article. The responses of five of participants have been protected by confidentiality. The sixth participant, Brenda Feigen, asked to be identified and encouraged us to supplement her responses to participant profile by using her published memoir. The study was guided by following research questions: * What were influences in lives of women that led them to decisions in their personal and professional lives and how did their actual paths compare to their predictions in Newsweek article? * In what ways, if any, were their lives influenced by emerging women's movement? Research Design We chose to conduct this research as a descriptive case study using qualitative methods including an in-depth participant profile survey. …