Students Breaking Barriers: Emerging Feminism and Social Change at Centre College

By Natalie Lester

Until 1926, women could not attend Centre College. Wealthy, elite white women were able to attend college if their parents approved. When women were first brought to Centre College, they were separated from the male students. At this time, American society was still focused on keeping the women pure and the men pleased, so the Women’s Department of Centre was created to keep the women safe from the untamed young men. The sexes could not even attend the same classes together. It was not until the 1960s when women were able to live on the main campus. When Centre allowed everyone to be grouped together, clear gender divides between men and women arose. Centre College put in a lot of rules and social codes that kept women from being treated equally to men, so many people on campus grew weary of this. As the 1970s rushed in, so did numerous social changes. With the emergence of feminist ideologies and female autonomy, changes on Centre College’s campus could not be stopped. From rewriting social norms to deconstructing restrictive rules, the students at Centre made it a space of progress and acceptance.

When women were first allowed to attend Centre, they were not able to live on campus at all. Most women who attended Centre lived close by with their parents. It was also seen as incredibly taboo for a woman of this age to live on her own. It was not until the 1960s when New Quad became freshman women’s only housing. At the opposite end of campus, men were now housed in Old Quad. While people can try to argue why this happened, the answer is simple: because of the culture at this time, women were supposed to be pious and virginal, so if they lived near unruly young men, their purity could be polluted. It is a consequence of common thought that women are delicate creatures that must be kept out of harm’s way and away from men. So, the only way Centre believed they could save the women was to isolate them. It was not until the late 1980s that Centre decided to mix around housing for men and women. The first dorm to be completely co-ed was Breckinridge Hall.

At one point in Centre’s history, men had their rooms cleaned and beds made for them by the janitorial staff while women were left to their own devices. Here, Centre is directly playing into heavy gender norms and secretly teaching the women that they must be the housekeepers while men are allowed to be slobs and expect to have their mess cleaned. 

Freshman tea at Bruce Montgomery's house, 1963

During at least the 1960s, women who were going to attend Centre College had to be put through a training by Centre alum from Louisville. It seems to have been formed after the many years of high tea that women had to learn on Centre’s campus. There was a long-running theme at Centre where they emphasized the idea of being a Southern Belle instead of being an intellectual. As they were being trained as young ladies, women still had to practice the protection of their purity. The administration kept women from men for a long time, putting them at opposite sides of the campus for nearly 20 years. They put many institutions in to minimize contact between the sexes. The only time they could interact with the opposite gender was at a formal dance held once every week. Men could not enter women’s dorms and vice versa. In the early days of the women’s department, women usually taught women and men taught men. Even the content of classes they would take would have clear gender divides. The Dean of Women had a rule that women were not allowed to smoke in public or be seen laying below 45 degrees with a man.

Dress codes were also a major factor into life at Centre College in the early 20th century. Up until the late 1950s, women could not wear pants to any social gathering as it would take away from their purity.^[1] Centre was seemingly focused on teaching their students how to be “proper” adults, more specifically teaching female students how to be elegant and demure women. Many institutions enact dress codes to apparently provide a better educational space, but dress codes are mainly used to police women’s bodies and sexualities. There are large differences between what female identifying people traditionally wear and what male identifying people traditionally wear, and to say that a dress code affected men in the same way as women is preposterous. Even until the 1980s, women could not openly wear athletic wear while walking across campus. They had to wear trench coats and outerwear to cover themselves while it was commonplace for a man to strip nude, get tied to a tree, and be forced to Run the Flame. There was a quiet understanding at least until the 1980s that men and women were supposed to dress nicely in Cowan for dinner. Women were expected to wear dresses or skirts and men were expected to wear slacks and a button up.^[2] While the intentions of dress codes can be completely legitimate, Centre's use seemed to guard women on campus.

As I said before, the student body at Centre grew angry with the rigid demands made by the administration, so during a national time of great change - the 1970s - Centre’s campus also changed. During this decade, an incredible amount of student-led publications came out, each proclaiming a different social belief. While there were students on campus who did not welcome the new era as it rolled in, no one tried to silence the opinion of anyone. In different factions, the students at Centre worked to create social change within the administration. Calling out old social norms and sexist traditions, the student body took it into their own hands to address the happenings of their campus and social world. From publications like The Flame and Vantage Point students at Centre were able to voice their transgressions to the entire student body.

The Flame was an editorial made by feminist women on Centre College’s campus in 1974, two years after the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was approved by the U.S. Senate but later stalled before it could have been enacted. In these editorials, women spoke openly about the issues they faced on Centre’s campus, facing no fear when writing. One publication even had an advertisement about free birth control pills and other contraceptives at the Boyle County Health Department during a time where many people still believed oral contraceptives to be the downfall of female purity.^[3] Many writers openly called out the administration and faculty about the many social issues they caused on campus. The people writing The Flame seemed approachably frustrated with the injustices faced on campus. The writers knew they could not be wildly opinionated because they still had to appear as sweet young women trying to have their voices heard. The Flame only had two editions, so it makes you wonder why publication ended so quickly. Could it have been tension from other students who did not support Women’s Liberation or the feminist movement or maybe members of the faculty and administration who had had enough of these outspoken women? The Flame allows us to see a group of people who had had enough of their voices being silenced years before us.

In my research for this project, I wanted to find evidence of staunchly outspoken male feminists, but sadly I could not find any. I am not surprised. Of course, there were men who I am sure were feminists and some did admit it, being a male feminist was nothing to advertise. Toxic masculinity is a newer phrase but is an old habit for traditional ways of life. Men most likely feared backlash or something far worse from the male community by coming out to support this movement. They would have faced major social repercussions, so to stay behind closed doors was most likely the best way they believed they could have helped the Women’s Lib movement.

With all of this said, not all women who attended Centre College were feminists. Women on campus seem to have been divided from what I have found. There were many women who considered themselves feminists at this time, while there were others who still held to the “traditional” role of a woman in society. This was very reflective of American society because with every Gloria Steinem there is a Phyllis Schlafly. There was an essay in the Centre College Republican Club Newsletter about how the feminist movement was a dying trend that was putting years of heteronormativity at risk, not in those words.^[4] Even though there was a group of people going directly against the feminist movement, this shows social change on Centre’s campus. No one’s voices were silenced and no one feared repercussions from administration.

Vantage Point was beginning to be published right around the time of the feminist movement, both women and men contributing to the content. There were many poems written about the plights of a modern woman and how to deal with unchanging people in a changing world. Men wrote about the expectations they were supposed to hold as men and how they wanted to distance themselves from those ideals. These students were creative with their commentary on inequalities and injustice. With Vantage Point, we see like-minded people coming together to produce positive art with a good cause. By using poetry to describe the constrictive rules that society has put on gender roles and women, these students were able to express themselves in a way that could be digested by a larger audience.

If we look at our campus today, people are allowed to express themselves with their clothing in any way they please. There is way less focus on gender identity in the sense of no one being restricted because of their gender. We also cannot say “both women and men” because the fluidity of gender and sexuality has become commonplace. Now, many students at Centre – including myself – are allowed to be who they want to be. Centre now tries incredibly hard to foster a safe space of acceptance and progression. Of course, this is not a perfect world and neither is Centre. Not everyone has experienced the same acceptance that I have, and it is something for which we must continue to strive.

As the world around Centre College has transformed, the community has changed right alongside. No one is forced to hide themselves out of fear from the greater Centre community, and the students really foster this feeling. If you compare today’s LGBTQ+ visibility to that of the 1980s on campus, we have made many advancements. Taking a look at our organizations, we have far more groups for students to find their people. From the Centre Feminists to the Pride Alliance to the Diversity Student Union, Centre College has come a long way from dividing the genders at the opposite ends of campus. One of the most incredible aspects about Centre College is how involved the student body is on matters like these. The majority of students create an environment where self-expression is not looked down upon, but rather celebrated. Women and those who identify as women at Centre College are no longer divided from the rest of campus. Someone’s skills and abilities are far more prized and emphasized than gender at Centre College. Finally, women are treated as people, not delicate flowers who must be protected.