WOMEN OF BENTLEY

1917

Jennie Bell Bentley is instrumental to the success of her husband’s new school, handling finances and enacting policies and procedures to sustain it through the early years.

1918

The First World War prompts Bentley to admit women. Within months, male servicemen begin returning home and to the workforce. Only three of the 162 women who enrolled would graduate.

1920

Bertha Stratton begins a 30-year career as the first woman administrator. She was the only woman to have a campus space, Stratton Hall, named for her — until 2016.

1941

Bentley officially opens its doors to women.

1944

The first fully coed class to graduate includes 11 women.

Tuxedo Junction

Mary and Ros share Elizabeth’s memory of a kind Harry Bentley. But their first day of class, in 1946, was a bit different.

“All of the women were told to come to the front of the room,” Mary says. “I think there were about five of us girls.” (The commencement program shows eight.) “We were told to sit right up front and stick together.”

For seven hours a day, they took classes in law, taxation, English and corrective script in the company of 392 men. “We felt as women we were equal to every man there.”

Financially, Bentley was a bold bet for Mary and Ros, who were paying the full tuition of $350 (about $4,250 today). The average family income in 1948 was $3,200. But, Eunice says, an accounting degree was assured income, absolutely worth the investment.

In 1949, she took that Bentley wager herself. From their home above the family market, the sisters watched the Tobin Bridge rise and bemoaned the traffic it caused. “I was always late to class!” Eunice laughs. She, like Ros, loved math. In fact, a high school teacher had said she was smart enough for MIT — an observation that sent Mrs. Berkowitz to her brother for advice.

His less-than-encouraging response: “If and when Eunice needs to wash diapers, she won’t need a diploma.”

“So that was that,” says Eunice, who remembers a far better reaction to news of her attending Bentley. “A friend of our mother’s was a butcher and when he heard I was going, he took me aside and said, ‘That’s a good school. The best in the country.’

“I knew I’d made the right choice.”

Some Enchanted Evening

After class, Mary either worked as an accountant for a baby product factory downtown or headed straight home to the Franklin Square House, a former hotel that once hosted Ulysses S. Grant and now a working-women’s dormitory in the South End. Curfew was at 11, except on Saturday when the doors were locked at midnight.

With so much school and part-time work, there wasn’t much time for socializing. Respect and discipline for their studies were paramount; that memory is unanimous. But Elizabeth remembers playing hooky with classmates for Ladies Day at Fenway Park, Mary recalls the odd movie for 15 cents, and Ros helped organize a Valentine’s Day dance with male and female students from college clubs around Boston.

“Bentley boys weren’t invited,” Mary says. “But Harry finagled his way in.”

That’s Harry Kline, who made a point of sitting by the pencil sharpener so he could have face time with Mary. Harry Kline, who surprised her by asking her to dance. Harry Kline, who, Mary adds with a smile, “made sure we danced for the rest of our lives.”

Years later, after Harry and Mary had their first son, the couple returned to Boylston Street to see the man who’d unwittingly made their match. “He took the baby,” she says, “and he looked and he said, ‘Well, I finally have a product.’”

As Time Goes By

Mary became a full-time mother after Bentley, working for a short while for her father-inlaw. “I was so proud to be able to whip up an accounting system for him,” she says. The Klines spent a few years in South America and relocated 36 times in the U.S. before retiring in Virginia.

Ros also married and devoted her time to motherhood, but returned to accounting when her youngest turned 13. In retirement, her biggest wins have been on the BINGO board, where she has won time and again.

Elizabeth made a name for herself with J.W. Robinson’s, once a prominent shoe purveyor, and has stayed a lifelong learner. She continued her education at Northeastern University, graduating in 1957 and becoming an early adopter of computers in the workplace.

In roles from office manager to controller to accountant, Eunice worked until Mrs. Berkowitz passed away in 1993 at the age of 99. She credits Bentley for helping her continually move up in her career and support her mother.

“You didn’t even have to go for an interview if you didn’t want to,” she says. “If they heard you came from Bentley’s, the job was yours.”

Sentimental Journey

In early 2023, Mary met with Ashleigh Tain ’24 and Nicole Castelblanco ’23 to share her experience for this story. What the Bentley women of today have astounds her.

“I can picture walking into the building and there was a big sign up there: Bentley College,” she remembers. “Across the street was the railroad, and that was our campus. I come to Bentley now and I think, ‘Oh, I wish I could’ve come here at this time.’”

The freedom to explore your talents in creative ways, to give time to social growth — that’s what Mary envies most. Ashleigh wishes Mary could be a student again, too. Creative Industries is her major and her résumé has no end of activities, from the Bentley Asian Student Association to the Bentley Women’s Network.

As president of the Bentley Investment Group, Nicole says the respect that Mary experienced still holds across gender lines. While she is one of a few women in the group, “Everyone is pushing to add more balance to the club.”

In 2018, Mary visited the Waltham campus for her 70th reunion. She plans to return this spring for her 75th. She hopes to march down the commencement aisle, leading the way for Nicole and the hundreds of other women who have followed her path. For her, Bentley will always be more than books and Boylston Street.

“It was a happy time in my life, because I hadn’t had much happiness before that,” Mary says. “It was the start of everything.”

1948

Frances Crawley becomes the first woman instructor, teaching a series of lectures on Etiquette and Social Ethics.

1950s

The first women’s alumni chapter is established.

1962

Marion Graham Willis is the first woman to teach full time at Bentley and, in 1974, becomes the first to receive tenure.

1971

Dorothy Willard is appointed the first woman member of the Board of Trustees.

1973

The first club sports for women — basketball, field hockey and softball — take the field; varsity teams arrive the next year.

THE 50-YEAR-OLD HAT TRICK

Back in 1973, Theresa Angell ’77 (left) lobbied hard for classmates to join the club field hockey, basketball and softball teams. They shared one coach, she recalls, “and no budget!” By the next year, all three were varsity level. Talent and tenacity are still hallmarks of student-athletes like field hockey co-captain Madison Halas ’23 (right). Says Angell: “The school’s nurturing nature has not changed and that’s awesome to see.”

For the Record

Do you have a story or more information to share about women’s history at Bentley? Send a note to magazine@bentley.edu or archives@bentley.edu.

The Stand-Up Standout

Pat Flynn didn’t resign from her first full-time job because of the women’s liberation movement. She left the almost entirely male ranks at Paine Webber in 1972 because of something she knew personally: Her skills were worth investing in. She was worth investing in. The finance firm seemed to think otherwise, barring women from its stockbroker training program.

Her tenacity started early. The high school senior, known as “Flynn from Lynn” (of the legendary Massachusetts “City of Sin”), sent 50 handwritten scholarship appeals to secure a full ride to Emmanuel College. Next came master’s and PhD degrees in economics from Boston University. She joined the Bentley faculty in 1976, where her work on hightech economic development, corporate governance and women in business earned wide recognition. That includes stories in The Wall Street Journal and on The Today Show, testimony before the U.S. Congress, and dozens of journal articles and publications. When her son was 7, instead of a book or souvenir, he brought Mom into school for “show and tell.”

Pat was a natural choice for dean of the McCallum Graduate School of Business, which she helmed from 1992 to 2002. As one of only six woman deans in the country at the time, she was in high demand, with offers to join business groups and corporate boards, alumni meetups around the world and more. She served as co-chair of the United Nations Working Group on Gender Equality, which encompasses more than 700 business schools in over 85 countries, and started the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business committee to cultivate women leaders in business education. During her time, Bentley’s Entrepreneurship, Management of Information Systems and Part-Time MBA programs earned national top 25 rankings — the foundation for their outstanding reputation today.

With plans to retire in June, Pat is excited for what comes next, including further work on mutual fund boards. In tribute to this consummate statistician, below are some numbers from 2020 in which she takes special pride.

1980

Barbara Paul-Emile becomes Bentley’s first woman professor of color and, in 1984, the first woman of color to earn tenure.

1991

Susan Schwab, MBA ’91, vice president for Information Systems, is the first woman member of the President’s Cabinet.

1992

Professor of Economics and Management Pat Flynn becomes the first woman academic dean.

2007

Gloria Cordes Larson is named the first woman president of Bentley.

2011

Kimberly Westermann and Guangying Hua are the first women to earn their PhD at Bentley.

2014

Coach Barbara Stevens leads women’s basketball to a 35-0 season and the NCAA Division II national championship.

2023

The Multicultural Center Lounge is dedicated to long-time mentor and administrator Claudette Blot, P ’12, the first space on campus named for a person of color.