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Keynote Address (full) Biennial National Convention 6-19-61 (8 pages)1-01 Biennial National Convention American Association of University Women Sheraton Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. June 19--23, 1961 Speaking Monday Evening, 8 P. M. June 19 - Sheraton Hall For Release: Tuesday morning June 20,0 1961 Keynote Address: IN KEEPING WI1111 OUR PURPOSE By DR* PAULINE TOMPKINS General Director, American Association of University Women The theme of our convention is "In Keeping With Our Purpose. It Under the Bylaws, that purpose is "the uniting of the alumnae of different' institutions for practical educational work and Article II, Section 2, states that "In keeping with its purpose, the Association shall develop a program to enable college women to continue their own intellectual growth, to further the advancement of women, and to discharge the special responsibilities to society of those who have enjoyed the advantages of higher education....'! A national convention affords a unique occasion for assessing the state of the Association in terms of its declared objectives. It also provides an unusual opportunity to consider the implications of these objectives. The tenor of our deliberations here in these five days will reveal the quality of our program. Tonight I would like to center our thinking on one aspect of its purpose: "To enable college women to discharge the special responsibilities to society of those who have enjoyed the advantages of higher education," This statement is a relative newcomer to our Bylaws, having been adopted as recently as the Boston Convention in 1957* There is nothing new in its mandate, however, for this was the catalyst which sparked the establishment of the Associaeft tion of Collegiate Alumnae in 1882. And while we may view the emphasis given at Tompkins Speech Boston to our special responsibilities as a reaffirmation of an historic Association principle, it is also a timely reminder to every one of us that these responsibilities are more than the consequence of AAUW membership; they are the consequence of our status as educated women. Apparently we need this reminder, for there is an impressive amount of evidence documenting the suspicion that the educated woman is shortchanging her responsibility to society. This is an accusation which can also be leveled against the educated mangy therefore a commentary on our human condition in 1961. But this in no sense lessens the gravity of the charge. On the contrary, it is increased. How can we respond to this charge? If we have indeed 'cleft undone those things which we ought to have done," what is the explanation? what are "those things we ought to have done`? And wherein lie our "special responsibilities to society"? The nearest answer to this last question is found in the fact of our education* Our special responsibilities are a quid pro quo for the advantages we have enjoyed througl a higher education. But if we seek further, we will discover that the roots of these obligations reach beyond education to the fundamental premises of the democratic idea; At a time in our history when democracy as a political system is undergoing its severest trial, with its future by no means assured, we do well to remind ourselves of this, for notwithstanding external threats to our security, the fate of democracy will be decided at home. Democracy is founded upon a philosophy in which the individual assumes central importance. He is "endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable rights," thus he is a child of God. He is also possessed of reason. The concepts of the worth of the individual personality and the dignity of the human being follow inevitably,. Democra- tic government is instituted, therefore, to safeguard, preserve, and implement the rights and status of the individual as these have been defined. The success of government in this appointed task will turn in the last analysis on the validity of the democratic philosophy. There is no absolute way of determining this. The most we can do is to assess the strength of the system in terms of its response to the problems confronting it in the course of time. This is another way of saying that democracy Is an experiment which is still going on. It is not a state of being; it is a state of becoming. This suggests that the individual, in whose interest govern- ment is established., must himself vindicate the democratic philosophy. He does this in the degree to which he actively identifies his inalienable rights with his equally - inalienable responsibilities. The special responsibilities of the college woman are the responsibilities of the average citizen writ large. They require more from her for the simple reason that more has been given to her, but in her performance of them she is accepting the democratic imperative of good citizenship. Society rightfully expects a return on its investment in her education. She provides it through her increased involvement in the issues of her time, and through the use she makes of her education in coping with them. In discharging her special responsibilities she may act in her individual capacity; more likely she will join with others in philanthropic, religious, profesw si.onal, or nonprofessional. groups. The voluntary association, paranthetically, occupies a strategic place in the democratic community for, quite apart from its specific orientation, it is a training ground for democratic habits. Therefore one of the obligations of the educated woman is to see that those organizations to which she belongs perform this function. The most recent Rockefeller Brothers Report, The Power of the Democratic Idea, suggests that the "consequences for a democracy are considerable if such organizations lose their power, if their democratic pro- cedures break down, or if such procedures regularly yield disappointing results." — 2 on Tompkins Speech -M The existence of the American Association of University Women is a living symbol of the special responsibilities of college graduates, and for nearly eighty years this Association has provided a forum in which these responsibilities have been translated into specific programs and policies. One of the primary objectives of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae was to create a national climate receptive to expanding opportunities for women. Implicit in this goal was a corresponding widen- ing of responsibility. From its earliest years the organization placed major emphasis on higher education and pioneered in the field of fellowships and childhood education, Laws to provide educational standards and to control child labor were among the first concerns of our legislative program. In this century, the involvement of the United States in international affairs and the complexity of domestic issues precipitated new problems which were reflected in the enlargement of the Association Program to include international relations, social and economic issues, mass media* Our arts Program, inaugurated in the 1930s, has sought to increase our cultural awaremess through emphasis on excellence in the arts. Most recently, the establishment of the Educational Foundation has focused our attention on the critical need to mobilize the nation's intellectual resources* In each of these areas, it has been our objective, through study, action, or research, to augment our understanding of the problems involved so that we would comprist' an enlightened and 'informed citizenry, which Is one of the basic postulates of a successful democracy, and so that we could perform a leadership role in our many communities. The results of(; efforts have earned us wide -spread approbation through the years. AATJW has a national prestige and repu,- tation in which we may fake great pride. TATe are one of myriad organizations engaged in adult education and motivated by a deep sense of the responsibility of educated women to society. This is the positive side of the coin. Yet a few minutes earlier I suggested that educated women were doing less than enough in discharging their responsibilities. This is the negative side. We see it in college graduates for whom education is primarily the royal road to romance - and to status; in college graduates for whom an association of university women - a college club is a symbol of status* in college graduates whose intellectil Y training is allowed to lie fallow because of its presumed conflict with marriage. We see it in organizations of college women - we see it in the American Association of University Women - whenever branches subvert the purpose of the Association by accom. dating programs which are irrelevant, superficial, or trivial. Writing in Harper's last September, Marion Sanders described a mythological women's club in the year 1975. The calendar 'included the follcwing: "January: Flower Arrangement; February: The Bright Side of Menopause; March: Whither the U.N." The club was hailed before the Supreme Court* charged with violating a statute requiring women to work. The court found the club guilty on the grounds that its meetings contributed to no one's enlightenment since their program revealed no coherent purpose. One could wish that Miss Sanders was pulling our corporate leg to make her point, but if we can judge by a few of the programs sent to the Educational Center, some of our branches are enthu- siastic devotees of what she has called "circular puttering, a form of sub -work." I One of the presumed attributes of an educated person is the abillitT to make meaningful choices and the mental discipline to see them through. Neither of these is possible when branch programs sacrifice selectivity in an attempt to cope with a vast array of subjects, however important„ Placed against the positive achievements of the Association, these aberrations and others we could name may strike us as relatively insignificant. If they were isolated phenomena they might be, but they are part of a larger pattern characterized -- 3 am Tompkins Speech low -� by uncertainty, confusion, and complacency regarding the role, hence the special responsibilities, of educated women in contemporary society* In the pioneering days of their struggle to achieve recognition in society, women had a clear vision o -.,L'-" their responsibilities and were ready to risk the consequences. Ironically this vision seems to have dimmed with victory* It is as though at times we regarded society's acceptance of our new status as an end in itself, rather than a means by which we can play a more positive role. One of the most significant struggles of the nineteenth century was to win the right of women to higher education. Today we comprise over half the population in the United States, yet the proportion of us who enter college has been declining in comparison with men, Between 1900 and 1958, the ratio between men and women fell from forty-seven to thirty-five percent. In the field of graduate study, a similar trend has emerged. In 19200 one out of every seven doctoral degrees was awarded to a woman; in 1956, one out of ten. This is only one example chosen because of its pertinence for us in this Association - whi. ch can be adduced to illustrate the confusion about our role in the mid -twentieth century. How do we account for it? I am going to suggest two major factors; undoubtedly there are others* One is primarily sociological; the second relates to our sense of values* I would like to consider them separately, although they are obviously interrelated* 'A The sociological factor is the result of a time lag: Society - and that includes women a, has accepted the idea of the expanded role and responsibility of women, but in many respects it has rejected the implications which follow. The freedom accorded American women today is the product of historical forces and contemporary needs. If we are to believe the television commercial, this freedom has been an unmixed bless- ing sponsored in considerable part by the Texas Company through the substitution of oil heat for the wood -burning stove. Actually the reasons are not quite so simple, nor the blessing so unmixed. Our nineteenth century forebears who pioneered for the political, socialAeconoliti 0 and professional status of women had the weight of the democratic philoso-rhy and the Christian ethic behind them. We krow, from the history of the Associating. of Colleam giate Alumn.ae, that the!.r great debate was couched not merely, or even prl-marily, in ter-rits of vomen's rights, but of their responsibl-litiles* The industrial and sci�:,ntifL;% r evo iitior.s of the last seventy --five years created a materialistic a_:-,P.v1ronn.ent which, throufl,1i nass production, lab' -r-savin ki devices, and the resultang phenomenon of leisure time, not o-ily justif t.ed, but established, the need for women's broader role. This noned 'lias been vastly accentuated by the unparalleled problems confronting the United States as a world power. But this is only half the story. Each of these develo#nnsnts has been accompanied by an undertow of resisl-la-ace, all the stronger because of the enormous -TA-it rapidity h .V_L la whict-L ever..-O'Li-s have revo'.LutionizEd women's role. This is the time lag, and it has be-% queathed to us a mild form cf schizophrenia which we can observe at all levels of the social order. It is found in the m4ind of -roman as an :11.rdividual. As someone has put it, her emercOng role has sud-lenly tla,,.-ust upon her the burden of choice after ages of no c.-%,:�ice at all. "After cen.+ Airies of having her life cut out for her, she has been T he -.Pd.,. the tccissors,ft Having ca-cknowle�dged her own mind and conscience, she must now live with them or risk t`ae pangs of dishonesty. She is exhilarated by her new free— dr; but no-tp- yet secure in it. Her commitment to her twentieth century role is al - lu. -.,ea *Oy a lingering nostalgia for her role as traditionally defined. In her darker " 4 eft Tompkins Speech moments, she may harbor a. sense of guilt, feeling that her lust for freedom has somehow compromised her femininity. These inner contradictions are reflected throughout the social structure: In parents, who covet widening educational opportunities for their daughters, but who are wary lest too much learning divert them from their marriage -motherhood role; in men, who as classmates, colleagues, husbands, employers, frequently feel that the changing role of women, to which they ascribe in theory, now Doses a subtle threat to the pre-eminence of their own traditional role; in the confused image of women evoked by disparate elements in our society where, on the one hand, women's passive, historically conceived role is romanticized in advertising, in pulp and slush literature, in the cult of Homemaking--and-Motherhood fostered by press and propagan- da, but where, on the other hand, women's responsibility to develop their minds and exploit their intellectual abilities is sternly preached by government and educa- tion alike. The Institute for Independent Study, initiated at Radcliffe in the autumn of 1960, tacitly recognized this dichotomy in its statement of premises: "No one now begrudges a woman either college or advanced degrees merely because she is a woman," the statement reads. "But acceptance of the educated woman as a creatively func- tioning figure in the culture and the economy of our society ...Is still limited*.-* For there is still prevalent a form of anti --intellectualism which insists that what- ever her aspirations, a woman must eventually choose between career and marriage, and that if she attempts to combine the two, both will suffer and the marriage pro- bably the more keenly .... The hope is that in the course of time there might emerge in the undergraduate a new psychology through which she would look upon the early years of her marriage, the child bearing period, as only a temporary or partial interruption to her obligation to use her education extensively and meaningfully, rather than as an automatic termination to that obligation." If the time lag is to be overcome, women acting in their individual capacities and as members of associations such as this must recognize the problem for what it is. At the same time we have an obligation to remind leaders in government, busi- ness, and education that they must reconcile their frequently discriminatory employ- ment policies with their many pronouncements urging women to develop and utilize their talents. The second factor which helps to explain our uncertainty and at times our com- placency regarding our special responsibilities as educated women concerns our sense of values. Let us consider this first in relation to education. The United States has committed itself to a program of mass education unparal- leled in history. This has been justified in part on the grounds that an educated American is indispensable to democratic government; in part because of our belief that the individual has a right to education, so that he may develop his talents to the fullest. Today it has been estimated that close to 40% of the college age grow enter institutions of higher learning. We are all familiar with the statistics on the rising tide of student enrollments and with the problems of teacher shortages, inadequate facilities and equipment, mounting costs. We have agreed that these pro- blems must be resolved; that we cannot afford the wastage of intellectual talent which would follow if we lowered our sights. It will be for history to judge whether the United States, through mass education, deveolped the wise, vigorous, and respon- sible leadership so patently vital to our security and our civilization. The decision will reflect the quality of our universities, the strength of our teaching, the -5v- Tompkins Speech - relevance of our curriculums,. But it will also reflect the intrinsic value which society gives to education, and here I believe we are menaced by an extremely subtle and Insidious danger. A century ago, the Vanish philosopher Soren Kirkegaard, in one of his stinging indictments of Christian hypocrisy, made this arresting statement: "Everyone is a Christian in Christendom; Christendom has abolished Christianity." In our own time, Joseph Wood Krutch has suggested that the really significant fact about religion in America is not that more people are joining the church, but that the church is join- ing more people; Both statements fix our attention on the process of psychological devaluation which accompanies mass production, whether of material goods, religion, or education. It can be argued that educated women and men were more keenly sensitive to their special responsibilities to society when education was the prerogative of the rela. tively few, and when it involved considerable personal sacrifice and struggle, than in an age in which it is the privilege of the many and the individual Is sacrifice is, with exceptions, minor. If the educated have a special responsibility to society, and if everyone is educated, what is everybody's responsibility may in time become nobody's responsibility. The answer is not the abolition of mass education. It is a renewed emphasis on the real purpose of education, which means divorcing it from status and prestige and lifting it above the pedestrian goal of job preparation. One of the special obliga- tions of educated women in 1961 is the obligation to prove, by the quality of our thinking and the caliber of our actions, that education itself is a high calling demanding one's finest efforts. Surely this is a responsibility to which the citize-p Association of University Women should give singular attention. If we need to reappraise our sense of values as they pertain to education, it is even more imperative that we review them in the broader context of our goals as educa- ted women and as a nation. For in the last analysis, the vigor with which we execute our special responsibilities to society will be determined by the vigor of the goals we embrace. Over the past few decades we have witnessed a gradual erosion of American ideal- ism. In part this is traceable to economic prosperity, which has led us to recast our goals in largely materialistic terms. In part it is the result of fear stemming from the dreadfully catastrophic possibilities inherent in the scientific and politi- cal revolutions of our time. No segment of our society is immune to these influences.; They tend to enhance our complacency on the one hand, and to lower our receptiveness to new ideas on the other. Educated citizens, if their education has "taken,ft should be those to whom the nation turns in the desperately vital struggle to redeem its goals. But the ivory tower itself has not been impervious to this process of goal attrition. College curriculums have become notably responsive to the pre --eminently economic nature of our society, with its emphasis on p. 4iuctivity. The ubiquitous blossoming of schools of business administration v-1thin the last twenty years under- scores this new orientation. At the same time, the complacency and fear which dissi- pate our sense of purpose in the larger society are, perhaps inevitably, reflected to a degree on the campus. According to Nevitt Sanford, "It is the increasing penetra- tion into the colleges of the prevalent in our culture outlook that creates thereat educational problem of today* g P y It is not dust the increasing numbers, it is the very real prospect - given continued prosperity - that higher and higher proportions of ~ U oft Tompkins Speech entering students will lack any special motivation for scholarship, will tend to perpetuate in the college society precisely those unintellectual virtues which it is the job of the college to combat," Graduates from colleges where this atmosphere has been successfully challenged have -the staggering responsibility to stand out against prevailing cultural patterns, to restate and reinterpret the stirring ideals which underlay the founding of this country in terms of policies appropriate to a changing nation and a changing world* This is equally our responsibility in this Association. It Is one of those special responsibilities which educated women as a whole have not adequately discharged. Let us probe a little more deeply into the reasons* 0 The fact of our nation's affluence is a major cause. In one of the essays in the volume ' The National Purpose, Archibald MacLeish asked* "Have we rejected the arduous labor to which our beginnings committed us? ... Or is It*.*nothing more than the flatulence and fat of an overfed people whose children prepare at the milk -shake counter for coronary occlusions in middle age? Are we simply too thick through the middle to dream?" We are the only nation in history which has succeeded in vanquish- ing material need from the lives of all but a small minority of the population. Con- sequently we are subjected to a relentless campaign through all the mass media to make us acquire appetites for things we do not need, so that our economy may continue to produce at high levels* Because this welter of goods is distinct from our real needs, we are cajoled into buying for the sake of status, prestige, or greater com- fort. In 1950, David Cohn wrote that "Many of our difficulties at home and abroad flow from a confusion of synonyms; a failure to distinguish between bigness and greatness, price and value success and achievement, a standard of living and a standard of life." Ten years later, the Rockefeller Brothers Report on The Power of the Democratic Idea defined "the great question" as "whether a comfortable people can respond to an emergency that is chronic and to problems that require long effort and sustained exercise of will and imagination." Our lack of a sufficiently vital sense of purpose is also the result of our disquietude as a people confronted for the first time in our history with a world situation in which time no longer seems to be on our side. We do not fully grasp what is happening, but we have lost our optimism. Robert Heilbroner has described it in these words: "Today's forces are bringing about changes so vast, in a time span so compressed, and with adjustments so convulsive that it is as if huge seismic slippages were occurring in the deepest substratum of history." These forces not only threaten our national security; they have shaken our faith In our ability to control them* Our reaction in too many instances has been to seek solace In our material opulence, or, ostrich -like, to turn away from the demands of the present by sterile conformity to a past which is largely irrelevant. This has resulted in the trivialization of both our goals and our civilization. If we, as educated women, do not surmount this environment, we shall not be able to perform our special responsibilities to society* Then indeed would this Associa- tion and others with comparable objectives become superfluous, for we would have nothing worth while to say either to our contemporaries or to those still in our colleges and universities.* It will be their generation whose goals and decisions determine the future course of this nation. Should we prove unable to help them be" cause of the paucity of our own goals, the dialogue would stop, and the influence we might have had would be lost in what C. P. Snow has called "the great anonymous sludge of history," .00 7 40 Tompk-.ns Speech (aur future as a people depends on our understanding of the problems confronting us in 1961, and on our willingness to make such changes in our goals and policies as these problems dictate. This is the ultimate challenge posed for every civilization. In. his book The Two Cultures, C. P. Snow wrote: "More often than I like, I am saddened by a historical myth I can't help thinking of the Venetian Republic in their last half century. Like us, they had once been fabulously lucky. They had become rich, as we did, by accident. They had acquired immense political skill, just as we have. A, good many of them were tough-minded, realistic, patriotic men. They knew, just as clearly as we know, that the current of history had begun to flow against them. Many of them gave their minds to working out ways to keep going. It would have meant breaking the pattern into which they had crystallized. They were fond of the pattern, just as we are fond of ours. They never found the will to break its It In the democratic society, the will to break the pattern must be a composite of many wills - individual, institutional,: organizational. In the struggle now before ZZs the obligation of the American Association of Univeristy Women is defined nowhere cogently and forcefully than in our own words: "The Association shall develop a 7ram to enable college women *soto discharge the special responsibilities to Society of those who have enjoyed the advantages of higher education." tt, As we respond to this commitment we pay tribute to our heritage, and we act in keeping with our purpose."