A Seat at the Table

By Lauren Barnett

As UF celebrates 75 years of coeducation, we honor the trailblazing women who dared to dream bigger

When it comes to women’s history at the University of Florida, you probably already know the basic outline: In the early days, academic culture was resistant to gendered voices for change. A liberation movement helped slowly, slowly build progress. Today, we’re more gender equal than we have ever been in our history, but that doesn’t mean we’re completely there yet.

It took time and immense effort to reach this point. One brick at a time, the women of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences laid a foundation to uplift other women as they ascended to roles as faculty, deans, and administrators. They’ve embraced challenges, led by example, and set the stage for the university’s phenomenal rise to Top 5.

The 2022 academic year marked 75 years of collegiate coeducation (educating women alongside men) on the UF campus. We honor the pioneers who paved the way for acceptance both in and out of the classroom.

Pull up a chair and we’ll tell you all about how women in our college and across campus not only found their chairs at the proverbial roundtable — but their voices, too.

On a cool spring evening in March of 1957, student ADELE KHOURY (AA '59) left her University of Florida dormitory to meet her future husband BOB GRAHAM (BA '59) for a cup of coffee. They were out from 11:10 p.m. to 1 a.m. The next evening, the pair caught a movie at 8:30 p.m. Both evenings, Khoury made her curfew just in time. Over the following weeks, the future governor of Florida and first lady frequently went out on the town: They saw shows, attended campus events, and danced at the military ball.

These tidbits might seem like footnotes in the personal diary of a couple’s emergent romance, but the truth signals something deeper.

For UF’s pioneering women, records of the “good ole days” looked quite a bit different than they do now. While students today often record and publicly share moments of their evening escapades on social media, female students were once mandated to disclose their activities and companions; it was not a choice. Well into the 1960s, female students living on campus complied with a university policy of sign-in-out sheets, logging their comings and goings from residence halls. There was no such policy for male students. Khoury’s detailed logs harken to a different time. They’re a reminder that we must not take our freedoms for granted — they’re also a celebration of just how far we’ve come.

THE TRAILBLAZERS

Today, there is a wealth of qualified Gator women to emulate, but a hundred years ago there was no such reservoir from which to draw. However, women have played significant — if overlooked — roles since the University of Florida’s formative days. University catalogs reference women on the faculty and staff as early as 1906. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was established as one of UF’s original four colleges in 1910. The college accelerated opportunities for women by hiring IDA MAI LEE, listed as an assistant professor of chemistry in the 1918 academic catalog. She’s celebrated as UF’s first female faculty member. It’s a common misconception repeated around campus that women were not allowed to become students at UF until 1947: Since the early days of the university, women could be found in the same summer school classes as men on campus. Although they weren’t listed as full-time students, women could still apply their coursework toward a degree. So, in 1920, MARY ALEXANDER DAIGER became the first woman to graduate from UF. Official records are scant, but she’s believed to have graduated with a degree in the liberal arts and sciences. Later, RUBY LUCILLE RICKS BROWN would be the first woman to receive a master’s degree in arts and sciences from UF in 1923, paving the way for women in graduate education. An influx of veterans at the close of World War II set the stage for coeducation at UF. The campus expanded to accommodate the arrival of over 9,000 students. As returning soldiers relocated and brought their wives to Gainesville, many women vocalized a desire to earn higher degrees. After all, they were eligible for financial support from the federal government under the GI Bill. Largely in response to these needs, the Florida Legislature opened the doors for women to become regularly admitted students in 1947, officially ending segregation of the sexes.

Working Together for a Change

In the spring of 1925, the state Legislature passed a law saying that any woman wishing to study courses not offered at the Florida State College for Women (present-day Florida State University) could attend the University of Florida. So, alongside a small group of women who arrived on campus in September 1925, horticulturist Lassie GoodbreadBlack took her place in a long line of men. But just because the doors had opened to them, women were not always welcomed. Goodbread-Black stepped up and handed her registration fee of $31 to the registrar at the window — who abruptly refused to help her. “He said, ‘Step aside, lady! Step aside, lady!’” Goodbread-Black recalled in a 1984 interview with the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program. Her feelings were crushed. But a visit to the university president, Alfred A. Murphree, fixed it all. Murphree welcomed her into his office with open arms, soothing her fears. He said, “Don’t cry, daughter, just wait. We’ll work things out,” she recalled. Murphree placed a call to the registrar and set her up in classes to become the first woman to attend UF full-time.

THE FACULTY

As UF became coeducational, progressive strides were made not only in the student body but also in the diversity of faculty. In 1947, DOROTHY RETHLINGSHAFER was hired as the first female faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, standing nearly alone in a sea of male faculty and administrators across campus. As an associate professor of psychology, she found her voice in the male-dominated field of experimental psychology — and although it took until her retirement in 1969 to achieve it, she was promoted to the rank of full professor.

The few other women hired at UF during the late 1940s were brought on to teach physical education courses for women to counter a stigma that they were too physically “fragile” to attend a regular college.

Rethlingshafer wasn’t the only midcentury woman in the college to rise to the top of their professional organizations and hone their leadership skills along the way.

GLADYS KAMMERER arrived to the college in 1958 as the first female full professor in the Department of Political Science. Her list of leadership

appointments grew to be quite extensive over the years, culminating in 1964 with her appointment to a steering committee on the UF Senate. We celebrate her today as the first woman in an official UF leadership role for the faculty. At the time of publication, our college is led by five associate deans who are women, each of whom can trace their success back to a path forged by Kammerer.

In an anomaly too ironic to omit from this discussion, Kammerer was selected as the first woman to receive the Florida Blue Key Teaching Award. But she found herself excluded from attending the banquet to receive it — women were not allowed to attend the reception.

While female faculty members expanded academic mindsets throughout the ’60s, a revolution was happening in the realm of physical education as well. Title IX was passed in 1972 to prohibit discrimination of students based on their sex, swinging wide the door for women to participate in intercollegiate athletics. That year, Ruth Alexander drove forward the birth of an intercollegiate athletic program for women, the Lady Gators.

A Champion for Women's Representation

A nepotism policy once affected women at the university, restricting employment for immediate family members. IRENE THOMPSON, faced with this policy, relegated her career aspirations to teaching at a local high school.

It was only after the passing of her husband, who was a history professor, in 1966 that she found an opportunity to teach English at UF. Thompson pushed boundaries from the get-go, tirelessly fighting for women’s perspectives.

“As I deviated more and more from the expected norms for women by those in power, I became more and more an anathema,” she said in a 1987 manuscript now in the University Archives. She was the first to teach

women’s studies on campus and later made history as the inaugural director of the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research. Her wisdom greatly influenced salary equity tribunals in the 1970s.

THE LEADERS

Male perspectives have been a defining and dominating force in the realm of educational administration, but as the representation of leadership expanded, women carved their own paths.

With approximately 500 women enrolled in 1948, Marna Brady was named Dean of Women. But when she showed up for her first day, it was clear that no one had prepared for her arrival. Instead of a real office, Brady’s makeshift workstation was stuck in Anderson Hall’s hallway, a mere table and chair in the corridor.

Still, she pushed forward in her role, establishing social codes for both men and women on campus. The first guidebook for women, the ‘Coedikette,’ was published. Sororities were colonized and the first permanent residential hall for women, Yulee, was built shortly after — on a former cow pasture.

In the late 1960s, as scholars across the nation began to openly critique sexism, a women’s studies curriculum began to take shape. In fact, Gainesville itself became an epicenter of feminist activity, earning a national reputation as one of the birthplaces of the women’s liberation movement. In 1971, the Department of English’s IRENE THOMPSON (see sidebar for more) introduced a night class called “Images of Women in Literature from Ovid through Norman Mailer.” It was the first course on campus dedicated to examining the perspectives of women. 370 students showed up the first night of class. Formal authorization for the university’s women’s studies program came in 1977, just 30 years after UF became coeducational.

One of the founders of the Women’s Studies program, O. RUTH MCQUOWN, made history when she became the college’s first female associate dean. She cemented her legacy once more when she helped establish the college as we know it today, from a merger of two previous colleges (University College and the College of Arts and Sciences).

As the 1980s and 1990s continued, the Women’s Studies program saw major growth, and in 1994, it developed into the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research. Thanks to a generous contribution from KATHRYN CHICONE USTLER (BA '61), Ustler Hall was renovated in 2004 to house the center. The historic women’s gym became the only freestanding building in the U.S. devoted entirely to women’s studies. It’s also the first academic building on campus named after a woman. Outside its impressive façade, a monument to UF’s women celebrates leaders in the community who dared to dream bigger.

Today, there are too many incredible, important women to highlight in our college — just take a look at the five of seven associate deans leading the path. They exemplify the college’s values and upward trajectory. With them at the helm, we’re all on the rise.

THE STUDENTS

With the current undergraduate student body hovering at 55% women, UF’s spirited fight song “We Are the Boys of Old Florida” isn’t quite a fair representation of campus today. However, it was an accurate depiction of the times when it was written in the early 20th century. While there’s a place for both women and men now “down where the old Gators play,” that wasn’t always the case.

Although women were permitted to officially join the university as full-time students in 1947, the following decades still presented their share of hurdles. Women living on campus observed a strict curfew, were prohibited from wearing shorts or jeans, and had to report their comings and goings.

It’s critical to note that the early milestones of UF’s coeducation excluded non-white scholars entirely. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson knocked a devastating blow to the Black community. The “separate but equal” construct of legalized segregation was enforced by law and by custom. Its eventual repudiation with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling signaled the start of a battle for inclusion and equity on campuses nationwide, including at UF. Finally, high school teacher Daphne Duval Williams became UF’s first Black female student in 1959. She paved the way for many Black students, faculty, and staff to gain their seats on campus.

External factors, including the Civil Rights movement and the emergence of the women’s movement, shaped UF throughout the 1960s. The number of women entering the university increased dramatically, with women representing 36% of the student population by 1972.

As the 1970s roared on, women on campus became more actively involved in student leadership opportunities.

SHEREE SAWYER, a psychology major, became UF’s first female captain of the cheerleading squad. In 1969, political science major JOAN WARREN became the first woman to run for student government president, losing the election. Four more women would attempt to run after her.

Finally, the college’s own CHARLOTTE MATHER broke through the proverbial glass ceiling. Nineteen percent of UF’s student body turned out to elect her, versus the normal 7% in previous elections. On February 17, 1983, Mather earned 61% of the vote to become UF’s first woman to be elected student body president.

The political science major would create the Minority and Women Cabinet divisions within Student Government, giving a platform to underrepresented student groups.

Female students began to overtake their male counterparts in sheer number on campus: By the end of the 1990s, their enrollment surpassed male students, garnering much attention and discussion. Today, of course, women in the college and across campus excel academically as top graduates in their areas of study and socially as leaders in all realms. It took a long time to change the campus culture of our once all-male institution, but women are now firmly recognized as leaders of the future.

The Spirit of Florida Women

Through the early 1960s, the Women Students’ Association produced a publication called the Coedikette. Distributed to each female student, the annual guidebook featured a citrus cartoon mascot named Li’l Orange. As the “Spirit of Florida Women,” she offered advice and presented a list of restrictive rules, advising ladies on a code of conduct and dress code. At the time, the university acted in loco parentis as a legal guardian in place of a parent. A 10:30 p.m. curfew was imposed on weekdays. Dresses or skirt outfits were required in all classes.

After 1958, Bermuda shorts could be worn in the heat of the summer, but faculty members could ban them from their respective classrooms.

The rules codified in the “Coedikette” applied to all single undergraduate women living on or off campus — and notably, did not apply to the university’s male students. The rise of the women’s liberation movement inspired a group of female student leaders to draft recommendations to dissolve the rules. They succeeded in 1969.

*Women at the University of Florida, a publication of the University of Florida’s 150th Anniversary Committee, provided much of the comprehensive history gathered in this article. A special thanks to University Archivist Sarah Coates for additional support.

The individuals featured here are just a fraction of the large cast who have contributed to making our community what it is today and what it can be tomorrow. We hope that by reflecting on the sturdy foundation built by these generations of women, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will continue to empower and uplift the education of future generations of women. The men and women who supported — and continue to support — gender equity, identity, and expression, as well as racial identity, should inspire and challenge us as we look ahead.

* Editor’s Note: To distinguish the contributions of our college’s faculty, staff, and alumni, we have chosen to bold the names of individuals affiliated directly with our college.