Women’s roles on campus have changed throughout the years as new generations bring about advances and change.
Theresa Summers, human ecology and women’s and gender studies professor, said when she attended the University in 1966, dorm life consisted of dress codes and curfews.
“The house mother stood at the door and gave you demerits if you came in past curfew,” Summers said.
Summers said many changes came during the 1970s when women fought for “equal pay for equal work.”
“A lot of women realized there were job opportunities,” she said. “There were also less constraints in high school that women couldn’t do these jobs.”
Randy Gurie, director of University special events, said in the early 1900s until the late 1960s, the University set out “L-books” on beds in female dorms. The books had rules and regulations of the University along with traditions and social aspects of campus, Gurie said.
“The girls were tested on the book, and they had to make a certain grade,” Gurie said. “If they didn’t pass, they were confined to campus.”
He said women could not be seen in pants or shorts outside of the dorms, and it was unheard of to have girls and boys in the same halls.
Sue Ellen McKinney, a biological sciences sophomore, said she thinks students would not come to the University if something like “L-books” were implemented on campus today.
Natalie Sabillon, a international trade and finance junior, said testing female students on rules of campus would be unfair.
“You’re in college. You should be able to do what you want to do,” Sabillon said. “That’s the point of college.”
Gurie said the “LSU Darling,” a beauty contest in which the students picked the winner, was one tradition the campus held every year.
“There has been talk of reviving this tradition because it’s a part of our history, but clearly some think beauty contests are a total degradation to women,” Gurie said. “Today, it’s about trying to break the glass ceiling and make your mark based on intelligence, not looks.”
Norms of women at the University have come a long way since those times. Not only does the female population have freedom of dress and the right to come in to dorms at 4 a.m., but trends in undergraduate majors have changed as well.
Gurie said he has noticed a significant change in the majors women are pursuing.
“Some are more obvious than others, like engineering, which used to be predominately male,” Gurie said. “Now there’s more females, and they’re doing well. I don’t think this is happening to make a statement; it’s just something they’re interested in.”
He also notices more women taking on leadership roles, such as in Student Government and honor society memberships.
“In earlier days, even if a woman were in school and doing extracurriculars, she’s only two or three out of 30 guys [in an organization], and her chances of being elected to a leadership role were slim to none,” Gurie said.
Summers said she has seen more women enrolling in veterinary medicine, agriculture and animal science.
According to the Office of Budget and Planning, the most popular major among undergraduate women in 1952 was education, with 370 enrolled, 25 percent of the population. Chemistry and physics had the least enrollment, with only six women.
In fall 2002, women outnumbered men in undergraduate degrees for agriculture. Although education majors remained predominately female, the gap between genders seeking this degree was not far.
Summers said the change in professional goals could be because women do not go to college to meet a husband anymore but to earn a degree.
“As women went into non-traditional workplaces, it motivated them to pursue those fields in college,” Summers said. “There is more recognition that women can have a career. They can still marry and have a family, but it’s not the only thing in their lives.”