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Women at Hope College in the 1930's and 1940's

1940's Pathway

Walk through the Second World War with Hope with the 1940's Pathway. Learn more about how Hope women dealt with men being away from campus as well as the Army Specialized Training Program's entrance onto Hope's entrance. You will also learn about US involvement in the war and how Hope and Holland as communities fit into the country's war effort!

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Social Treatment of Women at Hope in the 1930's
As women began to attend Hope in increasing numbers in the early 20th century, they entered into a culture that expected them to behave, interact with others, and participate in society in very specific ways. Historian Mary C. McComb studies the way that the middle class in the United States reacted and coped with the Depression. She analyzes college students during the period in her book Great Depression and the Middle Class, as most young people able to afford higher education belonged to the upper or middle class. In the context of the Great Depression, McComb addresses the way students’ view of the Depression impacted the way they interacted with one another. She also specifically analyzes the roles and treatment of female students at colleges and universities [1]. At Hope, the experiences of women in the 1930’s based on editorials in the Anchor reflected the national trends of how society expected women to behave in middle class Depression culture that McComb discusses.
McComb first addresses the culture of the 1930’s impact on college student’s approach to and goals in college. As the economy became the central focus in all of American culture, students became well versed in economic terms and shaped their view of themselves and others around them in an economic context. McComb argues that when goods became scarce, middle class students began to think of themselves, their social standing, and the way their peers perceived them as their personal commodity to sell. In this culture, social society expected women specifically to sell themselves as marriage prospects for their male peers [2]. This may be another reason for the popularity of college events and social societies at Hope during the 1930’s. Students marketed themselves as social assets.
This kind of self marketing culture created specific common goals among men and women in getting a higher education. For women, McComb argues that women fell into two categories with different goals. Some women enrolled in college in order to enjoy the social experience and find a husband. Another group of women instead enrolled to prepare for careers as teachers, social workers, nurses or other “female” positions [3]. Each path had specific consequences for women within the financially focused culture.
While McComb's analysis of trends throughout the greater U.S., women living during this time period is helpful, individuals had their own experiences. Historical analysis and generalizations are helpful in understanding a time period in a broad context and the overarching behaviors of groups of people; actual individuals experienced the time period in completely independent ways. They may have experienced some form of the theories McComb suggests such as self marketing and having the idea of marriage after college or focusing on their education in their minds, but they as humans held more of a complexity that can not be placed easily into theories or generalizations. Looking at Hope women with these theories in mind, we can see similarities; however, we cannot place these women into definite categories or assume their complete experiences on certain contextual trends found by scholars such as McComb.
Many women at Hope expressed interest in the social aspects of college and in marriage. Ethel Leestma Swets (1929-1933) saved many of her invitations and acceptances from men to her sorority, Sibylline, events, wedding invitations, and a newspaper article titled, “How to be Happy Though Married, Which Was Worked Out By Married Couple Who Proved its Worth" [4]. First, the inclusion of invitations to weddings and coed events in her scrapbook indicate these events as important to her. Secondly, the article includes an alphabetical list of advice from a couple on how to make marriage fruitful [5]. Margaret J. Kole (1929-1933) also saved her invitations and acceptance letters to social coed events [6]. Women at Hope during the 1930's focused heavily on social prospects and cared deeply about marriages happening around them. We can see evidence that women used social standing and marriage as avenues that would elevate their status in the social economy of the 1930’s. This may or may not have been their end goal in college, as McComb suggests, but we have found evidence that they at least valued the importance of marriage in their own lives and the lives of those around them highly.
Maria’s research on women in what we now call STEM also indicates that Hope women challenged gender roles leading to similar issues stemming from the expectations of men that McComb discusses. According to Maria’s research, a number of women majored in STEM fields and eventually became missionaries. This may allude to women who did not want to get married but rather wanted to focus more on their education. McComb argues that men found women focused on their own education threatening. While majoring in STEM does not directly indicate commitment to education more than any other major, men typically dominated STEM fields during this time. Women entering into STEM majors may represent a body of women willing to go against their present day culture or society’s expectations to pursue an education they wanted. McComb argues that men at many universities felt threatened by academically driven women who chose to go against traditional gender norms. In addition to having more women than ever before in their classes next to them, any woman who spoke up, held leadership positions, sought employment on campus, etc., posed a new threat to their status as the superior sex. This may have caused problems when the Emergency Relief provided Hope the ability to employ students during the Depression. McComb writes that these women, and most likely the women who at Hope and other women who fought to hold their own authority, experienced anti-feminist sentiments and belittling from their male peers [7].
This problem rang true through the halls of Hope College as much as any other college or university at the time. The Anchor throughout the 1930’s included multiple editorials that alluded to how men saw, treated, received women interested in their own education. First, we must look at what men desired in a woman and how they expected women to act. On May 14, 1930, one humor poem titled “Modesty” explained how a woman should act. The poem explained a woman’s behavior in efforts to be modest, including that she always spoke of her condition or actions such as feeling “ill”, waking up, or going to sleep in pleasant and polite terms. The author explained that a “modest maid” never spoke out of tongue or too abruptly about how she felt or what she did [8] Published in the college paper, this poem sends a message to women, teaching them how they should behave, whether in humor or not.
Another example of how society, and more specifically men, thought women should behave lies in an Anchor article from October 6, 1937 titled, “Reporter Phones Fraternities for Description of Ideal Girl”. This article included interviews with the Knickerbocker, Addison, Fraternal, and Cosmopolitan fraternities. Knickerbockers first described their ideal woman’s physical features and when asked about her personality, they answered that she shouldn’t be sophisticated, just sweet. She should also be athletic and enjoy going out. Addisons described their perfect woman as “athletic, yet sophisticated. She knows what she wants and how to get it.” Fraternal members called for women with sympathy but with definite ideas as to what to do. Lastly, the Cosmopolitans thought that an athletic, sophisticated woman who was brilliant, witty, and enjoyed having fun would be the ideal girl [9]. All of these men who participated in the survey seemed to value a woman who enjoyed having fun. However, many of the men also said they wanted a sophisticated woman who was decisive and smart.

However, one editorial by a woman explaining men’s lack of respect for women who took on leadership roles and feeling of superiority to women and the subsequent response from another male student reveal that men's desire for sophistication and intelligence had limits. In the editorial by the female student titled, “She Whoops to Conquer” from April 23, 1930, an anonymous woman explained that male Hope students didn’t give credit to their female counterparts for intelligence and made excuses for a team’s success when lead by a woman, arguing that any success “just happened”. She called women to refuse to take condescending orders. We have attached the full article here [10].
In response, one man completely disagreed with the woman’s claims and called for men to demand superiority over women in the April 30, 1930 issue of the Anchor. In his article, “MEN! She Whooped To Conquer! Let’s Roar to Victory!,” he called the woman’s editorial ‘virulent and seditious’ and alluded to his belief that women had declared war on the men of Hope. We have included the editorial in response here. [11]
We must acknowledge that these editorial articles came from only one woman and one man at Hope. We cannot assume all women felt the same as the woman who wrote, “She Whoops to Conquer” and we cannot assume all men at Hope felt the same as the writer of “MEN! She Whooped To Conquer! Let’s Roar to Victory!” in response. However, we can recognize the validity of this woman’s experience and we can analyze this man’s response. To our 21st century perspective, the man’s response verifies the complaints of the woman. Aligning with what McComb argues, this man obviously felt threatened by this woman’s complaint. Speaking out and demanding respect resulted in an aggressive response [12].
Lastly, Metta J. Ross, a faculty member who began teaching Freshman English in 1926 and retired in 1960, explained in an oral history interview that the way women behaved in class changed drastically throughout the years that she taught. She described women as “meek little girls” and hypothesized that about 70% of Hope women married men they met at Hope. In contrast, after World War II and other wars that occurred during her employment, she noticed a change. She stated, “The girls’ attitude toward their men friends changed, not because of me but because of the changes in life, these men coming back from wars mutilated and nerve sick. You people missed all that of course. They began to assert themselves more, to realize that after all they were people and maybe they did have something worthwhile to say, and they said it. And they said it very well" [13]. Ross’ recollection of how women acted before and after having greater independence while men were absent from their classroom experiences allows us to see the impact of World War II and what women’s experiences in the classroom entailed from an outside perspective.
Women faced a complex and difficult task while attending Hope during the 1930's. Society challenged them to market themselves socially but also didn’t allow them to succeed in certain areas such as intellectual endeavors. Certain societal expectations and the expectations of male students limited their individuality. However, these women operated with a force within this society. They supported their friends in their marriages, sought to make meaningful social connections through social events and marriage prospects in order to succeed, and challenged norms by majoring in male dominated academic fields and speaking up for themselves. They gained confidence over time and began to demand respect.

References

[1] Mary C. McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class: Experts, Collegiate Youth and Business Ideology, 1929-1941 (New York, New York: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2006).
[2] McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class, 6-13.
[3] McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class, 14-17.
[4] Scapbook, 1929-1936, Swets, Ethel Leestma Papers, 1929-1936 (H18-1988), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
[5] Scrapbook, Swets, Ethel Leestma Papers, 1929-1936 (H18-1988).
[6] Memory Book, 1925-1933, Kole, Margaret J. (1909-1994). Papers, 1925-1933 (H95-1250), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI., Scapbook, 1935-1943, Meengs, Florence. Papers, 1935-1943 (H15-1901), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
[7] McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class, 33-37.
[8] "Modesty", Hope College Anchor, May 14, 1930.
[9] "Reporter Phones Fraternities for Description of Ideal Girl", Hope College Anchor, October 6, 1937.
[10] "She Whoops to Conquer", Hope College Anchor, April 23, 1930.
[11] "MEN! She Whooped To Conquer! Let's Roar to Victory!"
[12] McComb, Great Depression and the Middle Class, 33-37.
[13] Dick and Phyllis Huff, “Metta Ross Oral Interview,” March 15, 2002,
H88-0131, Joint Archives of Holland, 15-16.
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