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Graduates Challenged to Redesign the House that Patriarchy Built

Speaking candidly about gender, and transcending the persistent animosities between men and women, are the next steps in the psychological transformation of society that began when Mary Lyon opened the doors of higher education to women, said Carol Gilligan in her commencement address to the class of 2008.

“The issues and conflicts have been exposed,” noted Gilligan, a psychologist, author of the seminal work on gender differences, In a Different Voice, and professor at New York University. But there is still work to do to refashion the remaining structures of patriarchy that yet exact tolls for both sexes, and “take on the creative challenge of redesigning the house and building a new framework.”

For many of the 578 women who received MHC degrees on a perfect spring day, including three master’s of arts degrees, eighteen certificates for international students, and forty-five Frances Perkins scholars, Gilligan’s message rang true. Said Anindita Dasgupta ’08 [above, holding camera], who will attend Boston University’s School of Public Health in the fall, “She made a great point that we’ve already heard one great speech about race [from Barack Obama] but that we still haven’t heard one like that on gender.”

The evening before graduation, seniors gathered with family and friends for the traditional baccalaureate service. MHC President Joanne V. Creighton expressed hope that the new alumnae would feel “connected to the long line of empowered women who have passed through these gates.”

Sarah Binns ’08, runner-up in the 2008 Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest, read from her poem “What She Grew,” in which Mary Lyon wonders if the class of 2008 will “change the face of the future” in a “landscape she finds unrecognizable.” Alexandra Toomey ’08 spoke to the critical-thinking skills and trust of self that the college had instilled in her and her classmates. And two members of the faculty, John Grayson, professor of religion, and Megan Núñez, professor of chemistry, offered well-crafted and fond goodbyes.

In addition to Gilligan, the college awarded honorary degrees to Mary W. Gray, a mathematician and author; Charles Ogletree, a Harvard professor of law and prominent legal theorist; and Harriet Levine Weissman ’58, a philanthropist and arts patron (at right in above photo, with Association President Mary Graham Davis ’65).—M.H.B.

Learn More:

Read Carol Gilligan’s commencement address 

Read the address given by Sally Brzozowski ’08