A few months ago I received an email from Maria Dunn, class of '83, suggesting that I give a shout-out to the 17 young ladies who entered Saint Ignatius as seniors in the fall of 1979. She referred to them as heroic figures, and I agree. I vowed, when I started writing my reminiscences a couple of years ago, that I wouldn't do any research, but I have to admit to going through the 1980 yearbook to get their names.
They were Maura Allen (now the academic asst. principal at Saint Ignatius), Susan Carroll, Susan Chomicz, Colette Hughes, April Chou, Ann Duggan, Mary Foote, Susan Gardner, Adriana Hartray, Colette Hughes, Kellie Klotz, Ana Manglano, Jane Oldershaw, Brenda Patterson, Margaret Sheridan, Victoria Simmerling, Julie Steward, and Rosalie Valenti. If I made an error in the list, please forgive me; research was never my best thing. That's why I became a math teacher...never had to write a term paper.
There were 63 girls in the junior class during the '79-'80 school year, and the faculty increased from 4 women to 14 in that year, which included a woman as asst.-dean. I can't confirm that the 17 seniors were necessarily "more heroic" than all of the juniors. In all cases, they had to leave familiar surroundings for a new and different environment. The same might also be said of the girls who entered as sophomores.
I have wondered how this particular group of junior and senior girls was chosen for admittance. Were the seniors chosen solely on the basis of their grades in their previous school? Did the "legacy" aspect play a role (That is, sisters of boys who had already attended St. Ignatius.)? There were so many talented girls that applied that, I have been told, for a few years, the cut-off point on the entrance exam for the girls was higher than for the boys in an attempt to maintain a gender balance. There was the fear that, if there was too great a female majority, the boys would stop applying. The administration was not prepared to become an all-girls school. To be honest, that was never officially confirmed to me.
For me, it was a new experience. While I had gone to a co-ed high school, I had been teaching in an all-boys school for 18 years. I wasn't sure how different things would be. There were some obvious differences, but it wasn't the traumatic change that I had been concerned about. For example, girls were likely to reacted differently to reprimands and punishments than will boys. While nobody likes to be reprimanded, if I scolded a girl, not only was she mad at me, but so were her 5 closest friends. If he boy is reprimanded, he might become surly, but, likely as not, his friends would tease him for having gotten in trouble.
By far, to me the biggest change was in reacting to some of the women who joined the faculty. The so-called “woman’s lib” agenda was still a part of the social atmosphere. Some might argue that it is. Over the course of the first few years, I was made aware of the “fact” that females wanted to be referred to as “women”, not "ladies". That surprised me. I would prefer to be thought of as a “gentleman”; not just a “man”. I was informed that the psychological and cultural differences between boys and girls were learned; men are more aggressive than women is because fathers bought guns for their sons at Christmas instead of dolls. It probably wouldn’t have altered the argument that my father didn’t buy my Christmas presents; my mother bought all of my gifts.
Anyway, the transition was great. That may or may not be a universal opinion, but I certainly am very happy that since fall of ’79, young women have been admitted. In the interest of full disclosure, my 3 daughters, as well as my son, all graduated from Ignatius. One of my granddaughters is there now. I’m thrilled.
