In September 1972, 221 women enrolled at Holy Cross, the last Jesuit institution to adopt coeducation. We comprised only 10% of the student body, which, together with the massive changes sweeping the country, resulted in unique experiences that would shape the rest of our lives. In October 2023, 86 of us (as well as 60 male classmates) returned to campus to celebrate our lives then and since. But this was much more than a reunion: We reflected on the social and cultural context that shaped our experiences and couldn’t help but conclude that we have taken two steps forward and some very big steps back. We are overcome by a desire and a duty to encourage young women to continue the fight; only by realizing your full potential can you truly be women for others.
A Letter to Our Daughters
What it was like for the first women on campus and why it matters to women students today.
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Young women today attend a vibrant coeducational institution. If a young woman now had not been told that this was an all-male college, I don’t think she’d have any way of guessing that, and that is what’s so different from the experience we had. We were at a men’s college.
The opportunities you have today, we — at the time cringingly referred to as “coeds” — had to make for ourselves. According to one of the first women to come forward to join the Student Government Association, the men in the organization assumed that she would take notes. The first woman music director of WCHC recalled being given, as her initial task, organization of the music library. According to one of the women who expressed an interest in joining the crew team, they were told that the sport wasn’t very ladylike: They’d get wet, cold, muddy, etc. But by the senior year of the first fully coed class (1976), we had female editors of The Crusader (now The Spire) and the Purple Patcher; a thriving Women’s Organization; a female valedictorian; and a varsity women’s crew team, along with field hockey, swim, tennis, track, volleyball and (yes!) basketball. Yes, we persisted. But the job isn’t done. The need for persistence has not disappeared.
None of us considered ourselves feminists, but all left identifying that way.
Society has not outgrown its need for feminists. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment while we were students, yet it still has not been ratified by the states. When the first women graduated in 1974, they could expect to make 60 cents on the male dollar; today’s 83 cents is better, but it’s still not equal, and progress on closing the gap has stalled. Roe v. Wade, decided shortly after we arrived on campus, has been reversed. And women aren’t the only group whose rights are under siege: People of color, particularly Black Americans, as well as LGBTQ+ individuals, are watching their protections erode. Let’s face it, older generations became complacent and took progress for granted. Holy Cross has well-equipped you to finish what we started, to succeed where we came up short, to continue the fight for equality wherever it is threatened.
The most powerful legacy of having come here is the long-lasting, life-lasting friendships that were made here.
That 39% of the women who were on campus in 1972 returned for our October 2023 celebration is a testimony to how the small community of women cared for and supported each other. And it may seem quaint today, but for many of us in the early ’70s coming from single-sex schools, it was also the first time we realized that women and men could actually be friends. The male turnout for our event is evidence of the special bonds we formed. Today, seeing members of the football team cheering on the women’s basketball team is a gratifying outcome of what began more than 50 years ago.
It is clear that, as very young women, we were brave, risk-takers, adventurous, strong and willing to speak up to make things happen. May our daughters and today’s young women be half as fortunate.
We are so privileged to witness, in all you are accomplishing and will yet accomplish, how far Holy Cross has come as an educator of women who go on to change lives. Holy Cross has trained you, as the Ignatian exhortation goes, to “go forth and set the world on fire.” Don’t be afraid to light a few controlled burns to reach your potential.
Joan Sinopoli ’76 majored in classics and French and served as the first female editor-in-chief of The Crusader. She went on to hold leadership positions in advertising and communications research firms.
Explore Holy Cross’ two-year celebration of the 50th anniversary of coeducation through the photos below.
