Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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dramati .i ;;i i i(!(.T n If I ' m to believe what everyone tells me, being a female engineer is unusual. I generally don ' t regard my position in that light until some bystander comments upon it. Granted, women constitute only a small fraction of all engineers, both nationwide and at Princeton; thus, th(;re is numerical justification for being labelled unusual. Yet. as an aspect of my personal life. I see nothing at all un- usual about engineering. It merely happens to be the field of study in which I ' m most interested. I ' m just another student-just another engineering student. Admittedly, these thoughts have not always constituted my outlook on the subject. My impressions and opinions have formed and shifted over my past two years at Princeton as I ' m sure they will continue to do in the future. My class was distinguished by being the first engineer- ing class to boast of more than three female members. At a reception during freshman week, the Dean of the Engi- neering School proudly announced that our entering class included nearly fifty football captains, an approxi- mately equal number of class presidents, and fourteen women engineers. Somehow, I felt this grouping to be a dubious honor and was slightly disturbed at being sin- gled out as an interestng statistic. In addition, since we women were the only visibly distinct group, our group status was doubly emphasized. For several months there- after we were known as the Fourteen. A group spirit did exist among us by second semester- created, perhaps, by virtue of our group label and by the fact that we had many classes together. (Freshman engi- neers take primarily the same courses.) Personally, I felt the need to be with other female engineers and to de- velop an identity as such. For whatever vague and vari- ous reasons, we banded together to form a student chap- ter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in February of 197,3. Sophomore year brought about several significant changes. The character of the group changed as a few women decided engineering was not for them and as sev- eral new women transferred into engineering. The group ' s spirit seemed to dissipate as we scattered our- selves among the four departments. Our group associa- tion now focuses itself primarily within our separate de- partments. Due to the isolating influence of our departmental courses, we each generally see only the women in our own department. 1 am most struck by the apparent dramatic reversal in attitude toward SWE. Support and interest in the chapter by the women in my class has virtually died out. Perhaps it is because we are scattered among the departments and because we no longer have the time to get involved. Or, perhaps we ' ve already outgrown the need for such a group. For example, I personally am now secure in my identity as an engineering student. I find my sex irrele- vant to engineering and sense no speical consideration or treatment because I am a female. Male classmates accept me as an engineering student like themselves. At present, I would say their attitude is prevalent among Princetonian engineers. ' Virtually no notice is taken of our female gender, especially among the classes with the largest number of women. It is the upperclass nonengineers who continue to comment upon the rarity of women engineers. During Bicker, after I answered the inevitable What ' s your major? , I always received some variation of Really! Wow. That ' s unusual. There aren ' t many girl engineers, are there? I had virtually forgotten that my field of study and my career choice could be con- sidered out of the ordinary until the fact was repeatedly pointed out to me. Thus, according to outside opinion, being a woman en- gineer is a unique Princeton experience. But as far as I ' m concerned, it is not. terri pauline

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This ...Ill.icl IS uh.il I h.ivr lou.ul t.. hv s(, mu. Ii l.rllcr Ih.m .■xpfcli ' il ami proMil. ' S tlir .• i)l..n..li..n tor ihr inii scqiu-nl insivjnificanco of iin adverse ratio. To hv inorr specific, my hi«h school boasted a uradualinjj class of four hundred, and after spending; six years lonelher, we knew each other all loo well. Therefore, 1 found comuiK to Princeton and finding; a thousand f-irls that 1 didn ' t know a refreshing experience. 1 have also found livinj in Wilson C.ollene a help in overcoming the .sex ratio. Wil- son is bi« enough to contain a reasonable number of coeds, yet small enouKh so that you can meet a per.son one ni ht at dinner and still be able to find him a ain the next night-something not always possible at Commons. Non-academic activities have been another great help. Sports that practice on a coed format such as gymnastics. karate, and, to some extent, scpiash and crew proviile a place to make acquaintances that with a little work can l.ni.iden into friend.ships. It all bods down to the simple |.u;t that with all the opportunities that Princeton pro- vides, anyone who is willing to make a little effort to meet people will be able to meiM a rea.sonable number of .;oeds. This survey is the view of .i freshman to whom every- thing at Princeton is still fresh and exciting. Conversing with upperdassmen, 1 notice that for many this excite- m(!nt wears off; people start to move in the; sam(! circles, learn to know everyone in lh(;se circles, and find th«! three-to-one ratio beginning to bcsar down. HoweviT. I will enjoy my freshman enthusiasm as long as it lasts and say that, particularly considering the fact that 1 should spend the majority of my time hrvv. working rather than girl-watching. 1 cannot justifiably complain about the number of coeds on campus. Steve; evitl

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(ili iiii; Kilter Vfiiiis. the ' 67- ' 68 Triangle show, oui si ' vcnty- mnlh-lwi) yi-ars before; coeducation made its eiilritinc ,il Princeton, one year before Triangle went coed (I ' ll gel to that in a second). Maybe we should switch to prophecy instead of musical comedy. In a nutshell, coeducation made Triangle go legitim.ilr. A healthy proportion of Triangles comedy was pre- viously based on its existence as a drag show. When men play all roles, certain possibilities for comedy are opened while others become impossible. Subsequently, during Princeton ' s transition to coeducation we drew our humor from the situations of this transition. Now that that transition is essentially complete, our (.(Uiicdv must Kick of ea- ' eg. She was a critter, a critical languages student. Sue was also a very talented actress (as my sources inform me and as the tapes of the show bear out). Kick ' s opening number promised a real live girl. And naked loo! and Tiger by the Tail is Sue ' s story of being asked to do the show. Kirk also contained a running gag with Sue searching for a girls ' bathroom throughout the show. And Kick presented the Heaven Eleven, Prince- ton ' s first all-girl football team (in drag as per tradition). Call Spinlv a Shovel, although one of Triangle ' s more painful memories in general, celebrated the first year of official coeducation at Princeton with six very talented coeds, including Carey Davis ' 73 who later became Tri- angles first female officer. To borrow a phrase from the Band, we took a long, hard look at coeducation with such situations as a new coeds lament that My Room- mate ' s a Girl and ■ ' We ' re Here -expressing the first coeds ' jov at being at Princeton and their desire to keep coeducation at its present marvelous level (i.e.. the pres- ence of themselves alone among all those guys). We also presented the Supines. a close harmony group. There fami- seems to have sub.set)U(;ntly fadi ' d into history. Croi Krd lie made only one concession to coeduiialinii that 1 can recall, but it was a major oni;. This was the Pj N B skit which was a double rev(!rse drag (guys as girls, girls as guys) spoofing a typical football werikend with its imports. Othcrwi.se. Triangle was moving away from its Creek format and was beginning to realize that women might have something very positive to offer to Triangle. Blue Cenes was the first show that I actually worked on. The show made its debut in the spring of 1972 when coeducation had become a reality for Princeton and for Triangle. Thi re witc approximately thrire hundred women in the class of ' 7.5. and Triangh; drew some of the more talimteid ones. The show saw [oan (;allos ' 73 defeat her twin brother Steve [ames ' 74 for freshman class president of Inter Collegiate University. The show also offered a token drag scene in the dream sequence of Act II. Perhaps most significantly, Claire Town.send ' 74 served as production stage manager. Our eighty-fourth production Future Schlock saw Tri- angle with two female officers. Carey as vice president and Claire as secrcMary. The show did use drag, or more appropriately sex role reversal in several of its major scenes. But, importantly, this percentage of drag func- tioned in support of the show ' s underlying theme: that of tw(!nly-first century reconstructing events of the twen- tieth from the fragmentary records following the Holo- caust. Thus, these reversals were the natural theatrical result of our motivating premises. Now that coeducation is fully realized. Triangle must likewise realize that its material can no longer lean on the crutch of drag. Now our comedy must stand alone upon the same foundations on which all theatrical comedy rests. In a narrow sense, then, the tradition of the Long Kickline has ended. But in a more meaningful, less eph- emeral sense encompassing expression of the contempo- rary as well as preservation of the ancient. Triangle ' s tra- ditions are still with us and wi 11 continu( ith us.