So Dick Simpson was the chair. I would say that on this committee I felt
very much an assistant professor. Jackie Hall, I believe, was also an
assistant professor, and it's my impression--and Anne Woodward, from
music, might have been an assistant professor at that time. Our
committee report, the final report, doesn't list what our rank was, but
I think it would be sort of important for people to be aware of that
Mary Turner Lane and Dell Johansen in economics and Catherine Maley were
associate professors and tenured. Tenure does mean something. I have to
commend the way that Dick Simpson ran the committee, because I think
that he tried to encourage the young turks as Jackie Hall and Anne
Woodward and myself would like to have thought of ourselves as being.
And we were very encouraged to speak. Maynard Adams was a Kenan
professor, and so was Duncan MacRay, and there were several full
professors on that committee who were male, and there were no women who
were full professors in this group. The women were far more likely to be
interested in the topic [of creating a Women's Studies Program] in
general. The only man on the committee going into it who was
enthusiastic was Peter Filene, who at that point, was an associate
professor, I think. His research was already moving in the direction of
gender issues, and he taught a course in Women in American History and
was very successful in the History Department. But I remember some
wonderful times. We talked about what this could possibly be, what kind
of classes, what would you talk about in the Women's Studies course. I
remember
Page 15 Maynard Adams, one day, I'll pick on
Maynard because he's a Kenan professor, and because there's very little
that my mosquito prick could inflict on such a strong arm. I think I'll
think of it that way. I remember him talking about the fact that if we
had a Women's Studies course, it might increase the amount of anomie. I
hate to admit it, but that was the first time that I'd really heard this
term, which Sociology and Psychology Departments have been batting
around, apparently, for years. He talked about male anomie, this sense
of being left out, isolated, and I just sat there and looked at the
other powerless women in this group and thought this is insane! This is
ridiculous!
[Laughter] We were just
increasing male anomie, and some women might want to major in this. Now
what does a major in Women's Studies do? How can we have an
undergraduate major in Women's Studies? It's incredible. There would be
nothing that they could do, and how many would that involve? Can we
really put all of this together for such a small number of students, and
I said, "Professor Adams, do you have any idea how many undergraduate
majors your department, the Philosophy Department, has?" And he said,
"No, I'll check." I have to give him credit because the next meeting, he
came in and said, "I have an announcement to make. The undergraduate
Philosophy Department has nine majors." We all laughed because we
thought, "Well, the thought of a major university not having a
Philosophy Department is pretty ridiculous." And he laughed too, and so
we said, "Right. O.K. We won't judge the relative merits of the
departments on the number of undergraduate majors that they're likely to
attract."