A Bold Initiative in Gender Studies The Brace Center at 20 by Corrie Martin This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Brace Center for Gender Studies. Founded with a generous gift from Donna Brace Ogilvie ’30 to honor the history of Abbot Academy, the Brace Center has been a catalyst for positive change at Andover, providing an important space for gender research and discussion.
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n a warm April night, hundreds of students and faculty line the steps of Samuel Phillips Hall, spilling out onto the pathway. Candles light their faces as they process through campus, across Route 28, and down School Street. Along the way they chant: “Shatter the silence, stop the violence. Wherever we go, however we dress, no means no, and yes means yes.” 34
Andover | Summer 2016
Passing under Merrill Gate, they form a ring around the Sacred Circle, where they listen to poems and readings about sexual assault statistics. After a moment of silence, student vocalists begin singing U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Their voices—young and strong—rise over the campus and beyond. The April 21 “Take Back the Night” event was designed to raise awareness about sexual, relationship, and domestic violence and was sponsored by the Brace Center for Gender Studies. It was fitting for the ceremony to end at the Abbot campus, where, 20 years earlier, Abbot alumna Donna Brace Ogilvie ’30 helped develop and fund a center that would foster intellectual debate, analysis, and scholarship about gender issues such as these. Addressing Gender Inequity When the Brace Center opened in September 1996, it was heralded as an idea whose time had come. Many at PA—including faculty, administrators, and students—had spent almost four years brainstorming, fundraising, and planning for the center.
Nearly 20 years earlier, a study of the first five years of coeducation identified a need for curriculum and administrative revisions related to gender equity. In the 1980s and early 1990s, PA addressed some of these deficiencies through hiring and promoting female faculty and staff, aiming for gender parity in admissions and strengthening sexual harassment policies. However, the more formidable task entailed confronting bias among faculty and students, and in the curriculum. “The idea for the Brace Center evolved organically from within the school,” says former PA secretary of the Academy Patricia A. Edmonds, who worked closely with Ogilvie to renovate Abbot Hall and create the Brace Center. Ogilvie was interested in funding a project that would honor both her father and her Abbot peers, and the idea for the Brace Center fit these two objectives. “We wanted to ensure the appreciation of Abbot Academy and also to lead the school in understanding and addressing how gender issues affect learning and the educational environment.” Luckily, Andover had