Carving a spot for women's studies within the university
Though Lane did not actively seek the position as the first director of women's studies, when the dean offered her the job, she decided to accept it. She explains her basic rationale and how she sought greater access to resources peaceably by telling the story of how she got an office in Hamilton Hall.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Mary Turner Lane, September 9 and 16, 1986; May 21, 1987; October 1 and 28, 1987. Interview L-0039. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
You shared an office with an existing….
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
No, let's talk about the office.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
I think the office is a nice metaphor for the degree of support.
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
Well, let's talk about how and why I took the job in the first
place. [laughter] Because they did have a
search committee. I do not remember who was being interviewed. I was
having a very busy year at that time, and as I recall, my mother was ill
and I was spending a great deal of time there. So I remember being
interviewed. I suppose I was very surprised to be considered because I
was not in the College of Arts and Sciences. The reality of an education
professor on a university campus is that they simply are not perceived
in the same intellectual capacity or category as faculty in History,
English, or whatever.
[END OF TAPE 4, SIDE A]
[TAPE 4, SIDE B]
[START OF TAPE 4, SIDE B]
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
So I was delighted to go to the interview after having spent a year on
the recommendation that there be a program. I certainly was interested
in knowing what the three committee members were seeking. So I simply
went along.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
You didn't go out and seek this position. They came to
you.
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
Oh no, no, no. No, I didn't. As far as I was concerned, when I
finished this assignment, I assumed that that was the end of that, and
it would certainly be a College of Arts and Sciences project.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
But as you pointed out earlier, the potential pool was not extensive.
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
Oh no, I knew that. That the number from which they might draw would be
very limited but I assumed that it would be from the faculty who were
already teaching courses in Women's Studies. So the interview
was fun. I had no great investment in it except to say that, very
frankly, what I'd just said to you about I realized that most
faculty believed that a professor of education is limited just to the
knowledge of education. But my doctoral minor was in the social
sciences, so I had had extensive work in sociology, history, political
science, some psychology. And then my undergraduate major had been in
English. And these were areas about which they might not know. So I left
the interview, had fun, enjoyed it, and frankly, never thought about it
again. That was the end of it as far as I was concerned. So I was truly
quite surprised to get the call from Joan Scott
asking me if I would take the position. There was a great deal to think
about. While I had tenure and had been promoted, I had not been promoted
to full professor. I had been too over committed to student activities,
to a variety of things, to really….
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
You put a great deal of time in on those committees during the
sixties.
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
I did. I had done an enormous amount of work on committees, probably
because it appealed to me, and I thought it was important. And I also
thought that was what one was supposed to do. But I had to make a very
serious decision, that if I go for this Women's Studies
position, it will be an enormous full-time commitment. And I probably
will not get to the research and writing that I would need to do for the
other promotion. So I had to make a very clear decision as to whether I
wanted to do this or not. I was very excited at the prospect because it
was new. It was challenging. It was challenging to think that I might be
able to bring about change for women on this men's campus.
That was the greatest challenge of all to think…. That was
both frightening and overwhelming but it held the possibility of great
rewards, I thought. So I meditated greatly on it and decided I would do
it. I've never been much of a risk taker but I thought, this
is the time. So I did it. I guess that decision was made in the spring.
And the arrangement was that I would be half-time in that position and
half-time in the School of Education which unfortunately meant still
carrying a load of nine hours a semester.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
That's half-time? [laughter]
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
That was half-time. So that was an extremely difficult, it became a very
difficult task to balance. But anyway, I said I would do it. I taught my
regular summer school assignment. I thought about this, but I did not
approach the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences until registration
had ended. And then I went to him and said, "I've
come to find out what my office assignment is?" And the answer
was, "Oh, I just thought you'd stay right on where
you are, in the School of Education." I said, "No,
that seemed totally inappropriate because the position was in the
College of Arts and Sciences. So the office would certainly have to be
in the College of Arts and Sciences." Well, he'd
have to think about that. [laughter] So,
as I recall, I may have gone over each day for about two weeks or a week
and a half. Meantime students were asking and faculty were asking,
"Well, where's the office?" I said,
"Well, nobody's thought about an office in South
Building for me." So both the students and the faculty said,
"We're ready. We'll make phone calls.
We'll write letters. We'll put the pressure
on." I said, "No, I've come into this with
my own style which is to be, in a sense, non-threatening,"
because everybody with whom I worked within the power structure was
male. And I think whoever was the first director on this campus had to
be aware of that and had to approach them in a way that was in one way
assertive but was not threatening and in a way that was designed to get
something done rather than bring about a confrontation. That was my
style, and I felt that that's what I had to do.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
That was the approach you wanted to take.
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
That was my approach.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
Beginning with this question of the office.
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
Yes, yes, and so by the middle of the second week, Dean Gaskin said I
have two places to show you. So we went out and looked, and I choose an
office in Hamilton Hall on the sociology floor. All of my typing was to
be done in Dean Gaskin's office in South
Building if I had any typing.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
If, yes. [laughter]
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
So that was a very strange arrangement, but we started that way.
- PAMELA DEAN:
-
So you had a whole office to yourself, a real office?
- MARY TURNER LANE:
-
Yes, well, someone else came in in the afternoon and used it. I was
sharing the office but that part of it worked out all right.