Copyright Ellyn L. Bartges 2014 1 “CIRCLE MORE BEFORE YOU LAND”: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF FEMINIST LEADER DR. CHARLOTTE WEST BY ELLYN L. BARTGES DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology with a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Synthia Sydnor, Chair Professor Norman K. Denzin Associate Professor Melissa Littlefield Professor C.L. Cole Professor Amelia Woods 2 Abstract The dissertation is an ethnographic biography focused on Charlotte West. Material was derived from a series of oral history interviews conducted over a nine-year period starting in 2005 as part of my master’s degree program and then used as a primary resource for my dissertation. Born in 1932, Charlotte is still living, volunteering her time to a variety of causes and working to protect Title IX. Whether it is testifying before Congress or educating future female administrators through the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) she has retained her drive and passion for protecting and extending opportunities for women in sport and athletics. Her humble approach to life is recounted through her actions and stories; over the course of my interviews with Dr. West, she gradually revealed the influences on her philosophy, training, friends and leadership style. Her journey from a snowbird student in elementary school to one of the most influential and well respected leaders of the modern women’s sports era is compelling to historians, and instructive to students of cultural and women’s studies. Dr. West spent 42 years at Southern Illinois University and still splits her time between Carbondale and Estero, Florida. She is still a snowbird! She is a pivotal figure in the sports arena through her work on Title IX, as one of ten presidents who served for the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), and as one of the few women to serve as an interim athletic director at a Division I athletic program sponsoring football. For her work and leadership, Charlotte accrued some of the most prestigious local, regional and national awards (e.g., 1st Honda Award recipient, Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Hall of Fame, first female member of the National Association of ii Collegiate Directors of Athletics, and a named award from the MVC [awarded to a male and female student athlete annually] to name just a few. Most recently Charlotte was honored with a named room at the National Collegiate Athletic Association headquarters in Indianapolis and she will enter the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee as a member of the class of 2014 this June. Through her work in the AIAW and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Charlotte West is a member of a group of very elite, well-educated, involved, and influential women from the physical education field who helped lay the ground work for women across the United States to compete athletically, coach professionally and become leaders through administrative positions around the country. In 2008 at the Lake Placid North American Society for Sport History (NASSH), Earle Zeigler gave a keynote address memorializing and then criticizing the trend of the organization away from its roots in physical education. Charlotte West is an example of one of those lost physical educators of whom Dr. Zeigler spoke. West’s story is interesting and little known given the stature she has as one of a group of pioneers who deserve to be recognized for their selfless influence, knowledge, power and long lasting generosity to the profession. Her early life contributed significantly to the building of her character and her professional path and is also one of the many focal points of this dissertation. iii Proem What can I learn from you? In your lifetime, in what you've been through How'd you keep your head up and hold your pride In an insane world how'd you keep on tryin' One life can tell the tale That if you make the effort, you can not fail By your life you tell me it can be done By your life's the courage to carry on Heroes Appear like a friend To clear a path or light the flame As time goes by you find you depend On your heroes to show you the way What can I learn from you? That I must do the thing I think I can not do That you do what's right by your heart and soul It's the imperfections that make us whole One life can tell the tale And if you make the effort you can not fail By your life you tell me it can be done 1 By your life's the courage to carry on… 1 Ann Reed. Heroes; Words and music: Ann Reed • © 1992 Turtlecub Publishing. iv Table of Contents Chapter Page Praxis ......................................................................................................................... 1 1. Theoretical-Methodological Approach ................................................................ 14 2. Constructing a Pioneer ......................................................................................... 35 3. I Have Always Been So Competitive ................................................................... 50 4. Constrained by History ......................................................................................... 72 5. Professional Identity, Orgs, and Trials ................................................................. 91 6. “Gosh It’s Gone Fast Too” ................................................................................... 128 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 138 Suggested Selected Readings .................................................................................... 147 Appendices A. Charlotte West Curriculum Vitae ....................................................................... 169 B. List of Interviewees from the ‘Family Memories’ Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, “What About the Character of the Girls?” ............................................................... 178 C. Responses of Interviewees to Title IX Question How Do You Think Title IX Affected Girls’ Basketball in Illinois .............................................. 179 D. National, Regional and Local Organizations of Physical Education, Athletics, and Sport ....................................................................................... 184 E. Responses of Interviewees to How Quickly Changes were Seen in Funding for Girls’ Sports in Illinois after Passage of Title IX ..................... 186 F. Chronological List of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Presidents (AIAW) .................................................................... 191 v G. Institutional Review Board Waiver .................................................................... 192 H. Transcript Proofing Instructional Sheet .............................................................. 193 I. Original Interview Questions .............................................................................. 194 J. Example of Gift of Deed Document ................................................................... 197 vi Praxis I started the work on this dissertation in 2007, knowing what I wanted my dissertation to be about when I arrived (but lacking the background and knowledge necessary to start). In the 1970s I saw Charlotte West before I ever knew of her, had spoken with her or realized how closely her life’s work impacted the life I longed for and eventually was able to live. I could not have picked her out of a crowd or told anyone why she was important to me or to others in the world in 1974, but that was then, this is now. Almost 40 years later and I know exactly why her work impacted my life, why it is important and most of all, why her story needs to be told, marked for those who come after us, who will never have the fortune to experience the dignity, intellect and humor that makes Charlotte West so special. This dissertation is an ethnographic biography of Charlotte West at the same time as it is an Autoethnography. This method is used to bring a second voice into the description as a tool for illustrating and easing burdens, real or perceived, of many subjects. I seek in this dissertation to preserve the life story of Dr. Charlotte West but also, through the autobiographical voice, I hope that stories of my own personal journey negotiating life and sport in the late twentieth century serve as documentation of the ways that gender and sexuality constructed and obstructed everyday lives, permeating our culture in so many ways. Some of the materials and research used to construct this project also introduce and highlight issues that are not discussed or critiqued in the content of this dissertation. For example, missing are inquiries and exploration on 1 concerns of race, or the explicit ways that college-educated White women of the time period sought to preserve, maintain and at times promulgate particular practices of femininity (such as when women athletic administrators “outlawed” play in industrial leagues and AAU competitions). Additionally, the dissertation does not study or probe the cultural historical context in which West and her cohorts’ negotiated individual sexuality, for there is a silence on this matter by my interlocutors. This silence itself speaks to the unspoken influences at play in the complicated fields