Deerfield women unite at conference

Julius Berman '06

This autumn, alumnae and current students will gather to celebrate Women of Deerfield. September 23-25 will see alumnae coming from far and wide to unite and celebrate the achievements and contributions of Deerfield's female community.

The conference will be held to commemorate both the fifteenth anniversary of co-education and the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Helen Childs Boyden. Mrs. Boyden was the legendary wife of Headmaster Frank L. Boyden. Both helped revitalize the Academy in the beginning of the twentieth century.

The idea for the Women of Deerfield celebration was initiated by the Alumni/ae Office, particularly by Director of Alumni/ae Relations Mimi Morsman P'89.

"I was traveling doing alumni events in 2003 with the headmaster," she said. "I told him, when it gets to be twenty to twenty-five years, we should hold a celebration of co-education. Eric [Widmer '57] said, 'Let's do it now. Let's do it sooner!'"

In March 2004, Ms. Morsman formed a planning committee of eight alumnae. "We asked them if they liked the idea of holding the event to combine those women who graduated pre-1948 with the younger women." she said. "We asked them to [pick] different topics."

Ms. Morsman hopes that this event will be a success and that it can continue in future years. She expressed the importance of finding "what's going to be the hook, to get people back." She said, "It's never been done before: this is the inaugural event. We hope that it's a big success."

The weekend schedule is packed with events including workshops led by notable women of the Deerfield community.

Meera Viswanathan H'95 Brown University's professor of Comparative Literature - and Asian Studies and the spouse of headmaster Eric Widmer '57 will be speaking on the topic "Beyond the Pale: Women of Color and the Boarding School Experience."

Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Patricia Gimbel P'87 will speak on the importance gender has in the decision to admit new students in a speech entitled "Does Gender Matter...Getting into Deerfield."

Associate Head and Director of College Advising Martha Lyman will give a talk called "Is There a Female Heritage?" in reference to our ubiquitous motto, "Be Worthy of Your Heritage," and how it relates to women today.

The weekend's keynote speech, "Determined to Succeed." will be delivered by Janet Hanson, a 14-year veteran of Goldman Sachs. Ms. Hanson also founded Milestone Capital, an investment advisory firm that manages over $2.3 billion in assets for large institutional investors. Ms. Hanson is also the founder of 85 Broads, a network of women from Goldman Sachs' global community.

Her speech will concern her own struggles and successes as a female professional and impart the importance of networking in a successful career.

Ms. Morsman hopes that the keynote speech can help women learn about the real world, about the business world, and about "what taking a risk as a woman means: what it's like to compete." she said. "We hope women can learn about choices they can make."

Other events include a hike to the Rock, a tour of the Koch Center science math and technology building currently under construction, and an alumnae soccer game.

Coordinator of Counseling and Health Education Susan Carlson, who will be moderating a panel discussion on Friday September 23, expressed her hope that the earlier generations of alumnae could "get a little sense of what it's like to be a female at Deerfield today."

"It was challenging... going through that transition [into coeducation], especially the women who graduated in the early 90s," Ms. Carlson said. "I taught here for two years when it was all boys. There were still 'holdouts.' Some made it very clear that they didn't welcome those girls."

Deerfield today is very different from Deerfield in 1990. After fifteen years, co-education has become second nature to our community. Chairman Mao Zedong famously said. "Women Hold up Half the Sky." At Deerfield, it can be said that "Women Hold up Half the Door." The time has come to celebrate the Women of Deerfield.

As published in the September 14, 2005 issue of the Deerfield Scroll, the monthly newspaper of Deerfield Academy.