THE WOMEN’S COLLEGE w C L A R E M O N T SCRIPPS MAGAZINE w WINTER 2010 F r o m t h e e d i t o r “My Ever Present Past”* My mother-in-law sits at my breakfast table, nestled at the end of my avocado and mustard galley-shaped kitchen. I cook up a plate of over-easy eggs on lightly buttered toast and serve it to her with a cup of Taster’s Choice coffee, the house Mary Shipp Bartlett Editor favorite. It is 1973. Susan Brown ‘13 I finish the morning’s rituals: iron my husband’s shirt, pack lunches for two pre- Kelly Boyd ‘12 teens, check backpacks, and wave goodbyes. Now, it’s time for conversation with a Laura Benson ‘10 woman I admire. Mine Kawamura ‘12 Michelle No ‘12 Taking a sip of coffee, the mother of my husband looks out the east window, with Alexis Vaughn ‘10 mid-morning light streaming into the room, and notices, I hope, the family silver Student Interns mugs I recently polished on the glass shelves. Editorial Board I expect compliments. “Looks like someone tried to clean the windows,” she Lori Bettison-Varga pronounces, seeing not the shine of silver but the streaks of neglected glass. I wince. President Caught again in my attempt to do it all, Ana Collisson Assistant Vice President of Development and and failing. Alumnae Relations Then, I laugh, because the journalist Patricia Goldsmith in me knows I have a telling anecdote. Vice President of Enrollment, Marketing, and She is from a different age, having had Communication a full-time job raising two sons; I am Michael Lamkin Vice President and Dean of Faculty a mother working outside the home Emily Rankin ‘97 trying to balance multiple demands. Director of Alumnae Relations My choices don’t always result in Anna Salem ‘09 sparkling windows. President, Scripps Associated Students Yet, the comment stings. Why is Published by the Office of Public Relations this my “failing”? Why does what I and Communication value—only a little shining vanity in Steve Sabicer the midst of controlled chaos—pale mary Bartlett with daughter Anne dullaghan and son Director beside her expectation of a perfectly Kurt Kroesche, Christmas day, 2009, in Altadena. Photo Carolyn Robles by grandson John Cameron dullaghan. Associate Director ordered, well-maintained home? Christina Kelly Perhaps, it is because I was raised in Administrative Assistant the ’50s, when many mothers didn’t work, and when roles seemed natural and easy. Matt Hutaff When most women were expected to simply maintain a sparkling home, with happy Webmaster Jay Toffoli Design Co. children and satisfied husbands. Design Then, I married in the ’60s and had children, and also wanted to find a place for Dual Graphics myself in the outside world. Printing I wanted compromise between the way I had been raised and what I knew was Ian Bradshaw, 6-10, 13, 14, back cover possible—and found this hard to come by. The marriage produced two great kids Matt Hutaff, 4, 5 Emily Rankin, 28-29 and a struggle, but no solution in the balance of work and family. I still cooked Cam Sanders, 4, 5, 30 and cleaned 100%, and oversaw the children; he brought in most of the money Alexis Vaughn, ’09 4, 5, 11, 15, 16, 27 (lower) to maintain the household, and mowed the lawn. We divorced in 1987, when the Photography children had left home. Now, 20-plus years later, I look at the problems women, and men, face today in Winter 2010: Vol. 81, No. 2. SCRIPPS, The Women’s balancing work and family. There are many unanswered questions. Or have we just College, Claremont (USPS #486-940) is published created new questions with expanded expectations? by Scripps College, Office of Public Relations and Communication. All Rights reserved. I’d like to be optimistic, but await more answers from new generations. Postmaster: Send address changes to Scripps College, Office of Public Relations and Communication, 1030 Columbia Ave., Claremont, CA 91711-3905. Mary Shipp Bartlett [email protected] *Paul mcCartney, 2006 10% Cert no. SCS-COC-001182 THE WOMEN’S COLLEGE w C L A R E M O N T 18 28 30 D e partm e nts f e atur e S Editor’s Page IFC The Balancing Act President’s Message 2 How are Scripps women coping with work and family in today’s world? Browsing Room 4 Are men becoming more involved fathers and “helpers” at home? And Alumnae News 26 what are students learning about balancing family and career? Class Notes 30 The Psychology of Work and Family page 14 Remembrances 34 A look inside a Scripps College classroom by Mary shipp bartlett Post Scripps 40 “the Non-paid Working mom” by mary Waite Garvey ’93 The Motherhood Mystique is Alive and Well page 16 illuminating new research by Scripps Professors Judith Lemaster and Amy marcus-Newhall and Cal Poly Professor Bettina Casad What’s a Mother to Do? page 18 members of the Scripps community share their stories by Mary shipp bartlett Cover: Julie Boone elliott, with Grace (6) and Annie (3), in Seal Court, malott Commons, fall 2009. Photograph by ian Bradshaw. WINTER 2010 • SCRIPPS COLLEGE | 1 president’sMESSAGE If our founder, ellen Browning Scripps, were alive today, their day ultimately needed to be prepared to balance both I believe she would appreciate the ways in which Scripps work and family. The faculty then designed a curriculum College has progressed over time to address the challenging that emphasized critical thinking in an open and supportive needs of women. community as the best preparation for life. As a result, a The theme of this issue of Scripps Magazine has me Scripps College woman could obtain the “fullest and richest thinking about when I became a mother, and the demanding life…as well as the chance to give to society her greatest days and nights juggling three children and contribution.” working toward my career in higher education. Since Scripps’ founding The theme of this issue While my path was made easier by the trail- in 1926, women’s political, of Scripps Magazine has blazing working mothers who came before me, social, and economic me thinking about when and who had much more difficult societal barriers standing has evolved— I became a mother, and to cross than I, it is still a challenge for mothers society no longer assumes the demanding days and to raise their children while having a job outside a woman must have nights juggling three the home. Support systems are essential, but even children to be successful, children and working with ample support (and my family provided although the debate about toward my career in higher some of the best), many women wrestle with the the impact of working education. question of whether or not they should stay at mothers on society is still home or go to work. vociferous and, unfortunately, divisive. How, then, did the first women trustees at Scripps Women have careers that would have been unimaginable College struggle with balancing careers and family in a time 50 years ago. And, as we continue to wrestle with the issues when few opted for that course? of gender, Scripps College remains a place where women Scripps College was founded just after World War I when challenge assumptions, explore their options, and make women were beginning to successfully challenge the norms choices about how they might contribute to society and be of society. Women had had the right to vote for less than a leaders in their communities. decade; only a handful of women’s colleges existed; and ellen What the original trustees and faculty of the College Browning Scripps was one of a small but growing group of envisioned as an environment where women would come extremely successful and powerful woman in business and together in a unique, supportive community through a philanthropy. curriculum devoted to knowledge and understanding In those early days, Scripps College was designed as continues to be realized today. Scripps College encourages an experiment in women’s education. Already established women to achieve their dreams as they define them, not as women’s colleges were structured on the premise that their they are defined by others. curricula should be identical in structure to that at respected I know that each and every Scripps College woman leaves men’s institutions. Yet, Scripps College took a philosophically our campus better equipped to face the challenges of the 21st different approach, embracing the inherent differences in a century, and to decide how she intends to live out her own women-only learning environment. vision of the work/life balance. Indeed, the inspiration for the experiment was ellen Browning Scripps, who had definite ideas about the purpose of education from her own college and life experiences. But it was the first Scripps College Board of Trustees—half of which was women—that pragmatically assumed women of preSident lori BettiSon-Varga 2 | SCRIPPS COLLEGE • WINTER 2010 the genius of women inauguration 2010 lease join the Scripps College community on friday and Saturday, March 26 and 27, 2010, for inaugural activities for the eighth president of Scripps College, Lori Bettison-Varga. Go to www.scrippscollege.edu/inauguration for details and to register for events. PInspired by our seal, La Semeuse, she who sows the seeds of thought, action, and life, the emblem of our new president’s inaugural year joins eight seeds, one for each president of Scripps College since its founding in 1926. Together, these seeds assert the potential and fruition of the genius of women educated at Scripps College.