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Litoff developed the first American Women’s History course at Bryant, which put the school “well ahead” of its peers, as most did not offer specialized courses in women’s history. Langlois and Lyons arrived in the fall of 1970, Bryant’s last year on Providence’s East Side, along with the late Janice Smith, Ph.D., professor of accounting emeritus, and Norma Jenckes Bains, Ph.D., who taught English. “Bryant was beginning to become enlightened, in terms of academics, and deliberately went out of its way to hire young [female]
a faculty member and dean, asked if she realized that most of her students would be men and if she was OK with that. “At that stage, being 24 [years old], it sounded like a pretty good idea to me!” Langlois jokes, adding: “In reality, having just finished a Ph.D. in the sciences, most of my graduate classes had been largely populated by males, and it turned out to be the same in my classes at Bryant for many years, even after we moved to the Smithfield campus.” Lyons says she has felt completely at ease from the start. “What I’ve enjoyed
Today, in addition to nationally recognized academic programs in business and the liberal arts, Bryant offers academic programs that may be of particular interest to women. These include the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies concentration first introduced as a minor in 1998, and the Women and Leadership: Strategies for Success course.
faculty members,” adds Lyons. As soon as Bryant moved to Smithfield, there were additional pioneers, including Phyllis Schumacher, Ph.D., professor of mathematics, Janet Morahan-Martin, Ph.D., professor of psychology, and the late self-proclaimed feminist sociology professor Joan Marsella, who founded the Women Educators at Bryant organization in 1974. Lyons and Langlois remember that on the East Side campus, men and women faculty sat on separate sides of the dining hall and occupied offices in different buildings. She and Langlois were the first to cross the divide on both counts. Langlois recalls that during her hiring interview, Nelson Gulski ’26, ’72H, ’92H,
watching is the change among women students over the years, starting in the mid-70s when they began to self-select out of the secretarial program. They would come here as two-year students and transfer into four-year programs. You could see the women’s movement happening literally in front of you,” she says. Anticipating major workplace changes brought on by the widespread use of personal computers and recognizing women’s changing roles in business, Bryant officially closed the doors on the secretarial school program in 1982.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
BRYANT SUMMER
2013
Professors, staff members, and mentors, women have played diverse and important roles throughout Bryant’s history. Sisters Dorothy and Alice Hines, still remembered fondly today by their students, enrolled in the four-year teacher-training program at Bryant in 1937. The two eventually went on to teach at Bryant until 1983, when they both retired. The Women’s Summit®, established in 1997, continues the tradition established by Gertrude Hochberg of inspiring and empowering women and men so that