Experience of Women
at the University of Chicago
For the past four years the Center for Gender Studies has been engaged
in a project, undertaken by both faculty and students, designed to collect,
record, and present a major history of the role and experience of women
at the University of Chicago. This archive project has developed in three
distinct but overlapping dimensions: "On
Equal Terms" -- Educating Women at the University of Chicago,
The Oral History Project, and
The Life of the Female Mind: Gender and
Education at the University of Chicago.
Been to our On Equal Terms exhibit? Sign our Virtual
Guestbook and give us your feedback!
- Library Archive
Exhibit:
“On Equal Terms”: Educating Women at the University of Chicago
March 11 - July 14, 2009
Location
Special Collections Research
Center, Joseph Regenstein Library
1100 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Hours Monday-Friday: 8:30 AM to 4:45 PM; Saturdays: 9:00
AM to 12:45 PM when classes at the University of Chicago are in session.
Call 773-702-8705 for further information.
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“On Equal Terms”: Educating Women at the University of Chicago is being held in Special Collections at the Regenstein Library from March 11-July 14, 2009. The multimedia exhibit, organized by the Center for Gender Studies and Special Collections, includes both archival material and oral histories. This exhibition is the result of a unique collaboration among undergraduates, graduate students, library staff, and faculty at the University of Chicago. It is part of a larger Center for Gender Studies project on the history of women at the University that includes seventy-one oral histories from the University’s alumae, faculty, and staff as well as finding guides for the oral histories and the Regenstein Library’s archival resources.
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A Guide for Researchers in the Archives
Keyword Finding AidThe University of Chicago has been the subject of much scholarly attention over the years, but for those of us involved in this project, it soon became clear that paying particular attention to women and gender illuminates previously unexplored chapters of its past and makes familiar stories look much different. Women have very different stories to tell about the experiments in co-education and faculty diversification; the experience of the classroom, the laboratory, the dorm, and the streets of Hyde Park; the problems of mentorship, intellectual community, and career advancement; the opportunities for political action and community involvement, for friendship, romance, and sexual experimentation.
In our research, we uncovered more material documenting the experiences of Chicago women than we had previously imagined. These rich sources have answered some, but not all, of our questions. While sources on undergraduate life were particularly rich, there is still much to learn about graduate women and faculty experiences; about women of color; and about the late emergence of gender studies as a field of study at Chicago. We are hopeful that this survey will encourage future research on the workings of gender in the intellectual and physical spaces of the University.
- The University of Chicago’s original articles of incorporation,
crafted in 1892, state that the institution will “provide, impart, and
furnish opportunities for all departments of higher education to persons
of both sexes on equal terms,” thus writing coeducation into the University’s
founding principles. Yet integrating the sexes into the curriculum,
research agenda, and extracurricular life proved to be a difficult and
as yet unfinished task. The history of women at the University of Chicago
is uneven, full of successes and failures that reflect both Chicago’s
unique intellectual community and larger trends in academia. Coeducation
provided women with exciting academic and social opportunities, but it
did not necessarily translate to equality of treatment or equal distribution
of resources. While women have often stood among the most accomplished
members of the University community, their history on campus raises important
questions about how and where women and women’s issues fit into academia—questions
that still resonate today.
The University has provided women with space for teaching, research, and community activism with few parallels; at the same time, some of these scholars formed the front lines of the University’s struggles to incorporate issues of women and gender into the life of the mind. Women students brought with them expectations of higher education that the University was often unprepared to meet. These students expected identical treatment to men, but also sought their own spaces and demanded university respect for female-oriented activities and courses of study. Women students and faculty frequently banded to form single-sex academic, service-oriented, and social associations, which fostered specifically women-oriented networks and a strong tradition of female mentorship. They fought for institutional support and respect for academic programs in home economics, social service administration, gender studies, and more. Women made these claims loudly and sometimes disruptively, with lasting effects. By demanding to be incorporated in the university culture and curriculum, women at the University of Chicago have shaped the institution just as the University has molded and educated them. -
- Oral History Project:
- In 2004 the Center for Gender Studies (CGS) undertook an oral history
project designed to record the stories of women alumnae, faculty, and
staff in order to capture their varied experiences at the University of
Chicago. Some of our best undergraduates collaborated to take and transcribe
71 oral histories from women whose time at the university spans from 1935
to the present day.
To complement the exhibition, "On Equal Terms"—Educating Women at the University of Chicago, CGS produced audio files and a CD with excerpts culled from those oral histories, representing a sampling of over half of the total interviews. While we believe they provide interesting commentary on and elaboration of many of the issues this exhibition illustrates, it is important to note that the oral history project preceded the organization of the exhibition and is in itself an active documentation of women’s voices and experiences. In future years, this archive of oral histories will be deposited and accessible at the Special Collections Research Center in the Regenstein Library.
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iTunes: Selections from the CGS Oral History Project
Mp3s: Download All -
If you are listening to the audio file or CD in conjunction with viewing the exhibition or the catalog essay, each case corresponds to an exhibit box and roughly to the organization of the catalog subheadings. The segments run approximately three minutes each.
Thank you for listening.
- Student
Research Exhibit:
The Life of the Female Mind: Gender and Education at the University of Chicago
April 1 - June 13, 2009
Location
First Floor, The Center for Gender Studies, 5733 S. University Ave., Chicago,
IL 60637
Hours Monday-Friday: 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Evening viewing
may be available by appointment. Call 773-702-9936 for further information.
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The Life of the Female Mind: Gender and Education at the University of Chicago is an exhibit of student research on the history of women at the University of Chicago on display at the Center for Gender Studies from April 1 through June 13, 2009, highlighting the research of Caitlyn Buchanan, Sarah Butler, Leanna Delhey, Doug Dishong, Erin Franzinger, Lauren Guerrieri, Emily Moss, Kati Proctor, Patricia Ross, Toby Schwartz, Sarah Sticha, and Amy Unger.
Everyone is invited to attend the Opening on Thursday, April 9, 4:30 - 6:00 PM at the Center for Gender Studies.
As part of the exhibition “On Equal Terms”–Educating Women at the University of Chicago, the Center for Gender Studies offered an undergraduate seminar in Fall 2008 titled Alma Mater: The History of Women at the University of Chicago. Together, for ten weeks, instructors Monica Mercado and Katherine Turk, also curators of the library exhibit and the twelve students explored the experiences of women students, faculty, and staff at the University of Chicago from 1892 to the present day.
During this time, students undertook their own archival research and learned to navigate the Special Collections Research Center in the Joseph Regenstein Library. Using the finding aid and research guide created by the Center for Gender Studies, students were given the freedom to research a topic of their choosing, and found a wealth of items in the archives to illustrate those stories. Their research—to be showcased here—reveals the diversity of women’s experiences at the University of Chicago. When viewed with the larger exhibition at the Joseph Regenstein Library, the students’ research demonstrates that women students and faculty have been integral to the University’s formation and evolution. The student projects remind us of the depth of the University’s archival collections, and we hope they will inspire even more research.
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Photograph by Dan Dry, taken at Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library, December 2008.
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For more information, please contact the Experience of Women Project, 773.702.9936 or cgs@listhost.uchicago.edu.