Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series that examines gender dynamics at Dartmouth. This part focuses on faculty and administration perceptions about gender relations at Dartmouth.
Although gender relations have improved significantly since Dartmouth first became coeducational, some administrators and faculty members argue that Dartmouth students still do not enjoy full gender equality on campus.
While the Class of 2010 has the largest percentage of female students in Dartmouth's history with 51.6 percent, this parity in numbers does not necessarily guarantee an environment free from gender bias, many administrators and faculty members said.
Although many administrators and faculty members said that Dartmouth was the last Ivy League college to become coeducational, it was in fact the second to last Ivy League college to accept women. Columbia University did not admit women until 1983, while Dartmouth became coeducational in 1972.
When Dartmouth first admitted women, a strict quota restricted the number of female students to one for every three males because many alumni and current students did not support coeducation.
"There was a vocal minority of men on campus who had not wanted Dartmouth to go coed, and who were mad about it. Instead of being college coeds, we were called co-hogs. We would see big signs hanging out of dorm windows that would say 'co-hogs go home,'" said Susan Ackerman '80, chair of the religion department and a professor in the women's and gender studies department. "There was another culture of guys who didn't know how to relate well to having women here. They mostly manifested that [discomfort] by objectifying women and speaking about them in blatantly sexual ways that could even tend to sexual harassment."
Although these feelings that women do not belong at Dartmouth are no longer prevalent and the quotas have been abolished, Ackerman said she believes that Dartmouth's history continues to visibly impact gender dynamics today.
"Every class before '72 is an all male class, so I think in terms of issues of alumni governance and the alumni constitutions, these decisions are not being made in a gender-equal body," Ackerman said.
"Also, all the buildings are named after men. The history of Dartmouth is all about men. It's about Eleazar Wheelock. It's about the presidents of Dartmouth. The portraits that hang around campus are overwhelmingly of dead white men, so I think there's a kind of maleness to the history that still permeates the space."
Additionally, the distribution of men and women across various academic majors is uneven, with the humanities typically attracting more women than the hard sciences do.
"Partly because of their accessibility, there are disciplines that just come off as more 'macho,' and we use that kind of language in terms of how we think about those disciplines," history professor Judith Byfield said.
Other professors say they have seen increases in the number of women interested in math and science.
"Thirty years ago, I would have said that the sciences attracted many more men than women, and that's certainly less true today, although we don't keep data on the sex of our majors," math professor Dana Williams said. "When I was an undergraduate, I took calculus for engineers, and there were approximately 150 students in the class, and there were only two women, and that certainly wouldn't be anything close to [the situation] today."
Most professors say they strive to ensure a gender-neutral classroom environment in which both genders feel comfortable. They maintain that these efforts have largely been successful, with men and women participating equally and enjoying comparable levels of success.
Some, however, believe that this gender balance in the classroom setting does not necessarily extend to other aspects of Dartmouth life.
Coordinator of the Sexual Abuse Awareness Leah Prescott, for example, highlighted the social scene as a gender-imbalanced arena.
"There's a disconnection with men and women where students [who] are classmates together respect each other [in class]," she said, "But once they cross the threshold of being at a party together or just hanging out together, [they] are no longer on an equal footing."
Many faculty members believe that the emphasis on fraternities and on alcohol in Dartmouth's social scene contributes to unequal gender relations.
"I don't want to demonize fraternities because I don't know that much about them or about the Greek system," geography professor Jennifer Fluri said. "But what I've heard from students is that the sort of parties that go on, and the way that women are represented and sex and sexuality are represented, seem very male-dominated. Some students I've heard from feel compelled to act in a certain way and to dress in a certain way."
Furthermore, many members of the faculty and administration said they have heard at least one female student report feeling unsafe on campus -- either because of verbal harassment or sexual assault -- despite the College's actions to protect women in public places through such measures as the blue light system, which is a group of phone stations located around campus that students can use to contact Safety and Security.
Although many administrators and faculty members believe that sexual assault and gender dynamics are a concern at Dartmouth, they do stress that they are no more prevalent at Dartmouth than at other institutions.
"I think [gender relations are] an issue in contemporary American society," Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson '75 said. "To use that as the context, I think it's naive and unrealistic to think that a college or university campus or community would not be engaged over decades in the same sorts of social issues and concerns that we wrestle with in contemporary society,"
Most administrators and faculty, however, emphasize that any tangible change in gender dynamics must be student-initiated.
"I think that students can ask themselves and one another what their values and expectations are," Nelson said.
"What do they want their experience to be like? I think students have much more power than any administration or any faculty or any board of trustees or any set of policies to create and sustain an environment that reflects their best values and highest aspirations. I would hope that the stereotype of what it means to be a Dartmouth man or what it means to be a Dartmouth woman is being eclipsed by what it means to be a Dartmouth student."
Other faculty members pointed to the need for more open communication about gender relations and ideas of masculinity and femininity to create a healthier gender environment.
"I think having dialogues [instead of] ignoring things altogether -- that's what truly makes a difference, and whether students are vocal about that or not," said Megan Johnson, the assistant Director of Coed, Fraternity, Sorority, Undergraduate and Senior Society Administration.