Choate has seen an evolution of women’s representation and empowerment throughout the decades both within the student body and faculty. With the activity of clubs such as Girl Up, Choate for Women, and RISE, the School is conducting important conversations that will lead to improvements in female empowerment. Within our faculty, there are various experienced women faculty members who have seen changes surrounding women’s empowerment through both administrative positions and student life. It is apparent that the School has come a long way as far as empowering females on campus, but there is still improvement to be made.
Women were certainly a minority among faculty members in the past. Ms. Amy Salot, an English and History teacher, began working at Choate in the fall of 1986 and was then one of the three women in the History Department. She explained that this was a time when administrative positions were almost all held by men. Ms. Salot remarked, “I think it’s important to notice that a lot of strong, young, motivated woman left because of the culture at Choate.” She continued, “The message was clear from the start of my tenure here; the men were in charge.”
Mrs. Amy Foster, the current HPRSS Department Head who began her employment at Choate in 1982, agreed that female faculty members were definitely a minority. Since the eighties, it has become clear that Choate has made efforts to include women’s voices in administrative positions. Today, we have many influential and inspirational women faculty members on campus, and we must continue to be progressive in our inclusion and representation of all people.
Ms. Salot explained that she began to see a change in the ratio of male to female faculty members “relatively recently. It took longer than I expected.” Dr. Katie Jewett, an English and language teacher who joined the faculty in 2000, agreed and remarked that when she came to Choate, there was only one female with an administrative position. She began to notice an increase of women in the administration after our current headmaster, Dr. Alex Curtis, became head of school in 2010. “When we began to have women in some of the higher positions, that definitely felt like a shift,” explained Dr. Jewett.
In the classroom, we often hear of gender imbalances both in class rosters and discussion participation. Choate seems to have avoided these imbalances in recent years. As Dr. Jewett said, “I think our registrar really pays attention to make sure we have balance in our classroom. And if we do have an imbalance, Mr. (Tom) White and Dr. (Keith) Hinderlie’s office works really hard to make us aware of our own biases.”
Although Choate generally does not have terrible gender imbalances in the classroom, it is not rare that a student is one of few girls in a class. In such cases, teachers take measures to ensure everyone feels included. In the Humanities Department, many teachers will use the app Equity Maps where they can keep track of which member of the class is speaking throughout a graded discussion. The app quantifies the data for male to female participation and the total speaking time of individual students. “Having that data is really helpful. If we do see an imbalance it’s up to teachers to ask, ‘Why is this happening and what can I do to address that?’” said Mrs. Foster. This also gives all students the confidence to voice their opinions and to actively participate once they see the make-up of their classroom discussions.
On campus, the movement towards women’s empowerment has led to some great additions to our course offerings. This includes the introduction of Women’s Studies in A Global Perspective, a class offered by the HPRSS department in the winter and spring terms. “Through our curriculum, we’ve seen some support. I think the Women’s Studies course has been a great catalyst for woman empowerment,” commented Dr. Jewett. The honors level course studies the history of feminist movements, as well as the events that shape the experience of women today. By teaching students about the intersectionality of women’s experiences, both female and male students who take the course may gain insight of the forces that directly oppress and have oppressed women, as well as the importance of activism against the obstacles women face.
Overall, Choate is moving towards more inclusivity and should continue to move in this direction in order to ensure representation of all groups. “The School has definitely increased the number of women in leadership [in] the faculty, and I also think the School is committed to looking at representation of all types — not just gender,” explained Mrs. Foster. As for students on campus, Ms. Salot said, “In the past couple of years I’ve seen a lot of young girls asking questions and noticing when things seem to be skewed against them; I think that’s a step in the right direction.”
