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4The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, November 5, 1987
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Photo courtesy of The North Carolina Collection. UNC-CH library
In 1898, Mary S. McRae became the first female on The Daily Tar Heel staff. Today, with women making up
60 percent of the student body, there's only one male desk editor.
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By FRANCINE ALLEN
Staff Writer
Many women come to UNC in order
to contribute time, effort and skill
to better themselves and society.
That is why on Saturday. Nov. 7,
at 10:30 a.m.. Carmichael Residence
Hall will be dedicated in honor of
UNC's former Dean of Women. Kath
erine Kennedy Carmichael.
Carmichael's dedication is part of
a program lasting from Nov. 5
through 7 called "UNC Women:
Future. Present and Past." It will
celebrate the roles of women at UNC.
The program begins today at 6:30
p.m. and will feature keynote speaker
Robyn Hadley. a UNC-CH Rhodes
Scholar. The guest speaker on Nov.
6. will be Dean Gillian Cell, and on
Nov. 7, Professor Doris Betts will be
the keynote speaker.
Friday there will be seminars that
will focus on various topics relating
to women.
This focus on women is no surprise.
With women representing the
majority of UNC's student body, their
numbers are not to be overlooked.
"The fact that 60 percent of the
student body is female makes wom
en's presence on campus significant."
said Mary Turner Lane, a retired UNC
professor and UNC's first Women's
Studies director.
The high percentage of women on
campus resulted from Title IX of the
Civil Rights Law. she said. In 1972,
Title IX made all aspects of the
University open to all people regard
less of race and gender.
Nationwide more women are going
to college, and they represent approx
imately 51 percent of students in
higher education, she said.
Graduate student Pamela Dean
said. "There is no question that we
(women) are the majority now." The
fact that more women are at UNC
reflects a national trend, she said.
"I think the majority of students
in colleges now are women. I'm not
really sure why that is, but UNC
started letting women in at a time
when higher education for women
was finally becoming acceptable."
Local patterns at UNC reflect
broader trends, she said.
According to English professor
Betts. the balance of males to females
on campus tipped when UNC started
admitting women competitively.
"In the oast, women onlv came to
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UNC as juniors, seniors, and graduate
students." she said. "Many women
didn't enter as freshmen because of
the availability of women's colleges."
Betts said she thought the Board
of Trustees' concern about UNC being
predominantly female was primarily
a financial one.
"It makes me smile and just tickles
me." Betts said.
Most men still make more money
tnan women, she said. Therefore,
trustees are afraid that women will
not be able to contribute as much
to the University financially as men
will, she said.
"The trustees' feelings are under
standable but not justifiable." she
said.
Cell, dean of the School of Arts and
Sciences, said. "The trustees assume
women alumni will not occupy as high
positions as men alumni; therefore
the representation of the University
will be weakened.
"I don't see it in the same way
as the trustees." she said.
Lane said UNC should be concerned
about admitting the brightest
students.
"If those students happen to be
women, then I don't know if we can
change the trustees' fears." she said.
Dean said the trustees are respond
ing to some real concerns.
Because the trustees do not believe
women will attain as many positions
of power and influence as men, they
fear the University will no longer have
the support of the North Carolinians
who help make UNC a first-rate
university, she said.
"But they (trustees) aren't in tune
with the fact that now women are
coming into positions of power." she
said. "We (women) are on the leading
edge of it."
Although trustees may fear wom
en's lack of future power, influence
and leadership, some of the majors
women are choosing at UNC reflect
the opposite trend.
Marcia Harris, director of Univer
sity Career Planning and Placement
Services (UCPPS). said that among
the juniors and seniors in the School
of Business Administration in fall
1985. there were 442 female and
383 male students.
Also in the fall of 1985. the law
school had 287 female students and
363 male students, Harris said .
These figures may suggest wom
from a minority to a
en's changing attitudes about
careers.
Cell said she thought women were
more career-oriented today.
"There was a period of time in the
late '40s, '50s and early '60s when
social pressures were against women
working." she said. "I felt them
(pressures) when I was in school."
Once, while serving on a panel
discussing deviant lifestyles. Cell was
asked to speak because she had a
career and children.
"Women should be able to make
a wide range of choices." she said.
"1 wouldn't want women who are
married and have children and don't
want a career to feel the pressures
I felt because I had a career and
children."
Compared with the women who
went to UNC during the '50s. more
college women are going into careers.
Dean said.
But there are still a lot of women
who will go to college, get their
bachelor of arts degree, get married,
and get a job. she said.
"There is a real difference between
a job and a career." she said.
However, those women who came
to UNC during the 1890s were
definitely career-oriented, she said.
"They wouldn't have come here if
they weren't." Dean said. "They had
to make a real, conscious choice
the extra time they had to put into
coming here from a women's school
had to be important enough to them
for them to come here in the first
place."
Women are morejob-oriented than
career-oriented. Lane said. Women
want jobs, but they see a career as
something men do, she said.
"They don't see a lifetime commit
ment to something that resembles
a career," she said.
Women often plan to work until
they are married, Lane said. They raise
their children, and then they think
about going back to work, she said.
"They need to realize that having
the 'American Dream' a nice home,
cars is going to take two salaries."
Lane said.
Celebrating UNC women this is
the objective of the "UNC Women:
Futures. Present, and Past" program.
To continue the celebration after Nov.
7, these UNC women offer the
following advice:
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"Be ambitious for yourself, but
realize that if you want a lot of things
a career, a husband, children
the reconciling of these goals is going
to be a challenge." Dean Gillian
Cell
"Women at UNC can do anything
if they are willing to work hard."
Professor Doris Betts
"You can go out and do anything
with your education you want to."
Pamela Dean
"Become aware of the economic -realities
of your lives." Mary Turner
Lane
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"Be ambitious for yourself, but realize that if you
career, a husband, children the reconciling
to be a challenge." Dean Gillian Cell
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The Daily Tar HeelThursday, November 5, 19875
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