AndoverMagSpring2015

alance, which has been maintained.Girls are excelling academically and inextracurriculars, with notable achievementsin athletics, student activitiesand clubs, community service, andcreative arts. Sean Logan, director ofCollege Counseling, notes that girlstake AP-level math courses at the samerate as boys and equally aspire to topcolleges, including historically malebastions such as MIT (in fact, more PAgirls applied to and were accepted byMIT last year than PA boys). Teacherslike math instructor Maria Litvin havedeveloped innovations in pedagogythat positively impact students: herAP-level computer science class nowenrolls about one-third girls, utterlydefying national trends (girls make upless than 20 percent of the nation’s APcomputer science exam-takers).On the faculty front, PA’s historicallystubborn disproportion of maleto female full-time faculty no longerexists today, including in the traditionallymale-dominated subject areas ofscience and math, and 43 percent offaculty foundations and fellowshipsare held by women—compared to the9 percent held by female instructorsat the time of Dalton’s study. Beyondimproving numbers, Dean of FacultyPatrick Farrell’s mission is to see toit that every current and new facultymember will receive meaningful, substantivetraining in equity and inclusionby 2020, his final year in the dean’s role.“Because every new hire could potentiallyaffect our students and colleaguesfor the next 25 to 30 years, it’s vital toseek out and hire as diverse a faculty aspossible and to prioritize training ourselvesconstantly and consistently sothat we understand and unlearn genderand other forms of bias and stereotyping,”says Farrell.Do both boys and girls haveequal opportunity for success?85% of boys(408 of 480 respondents)strongly orsomewhatAGREE60% of girls(287 of 479 respondents)strongly orsomewhatAGREEAIM (Assessment of Inclusivity & Multiculturalism) Survey, May 2014A Grassroots MovementWhile frustrations had been brewingfor years, they erupted into a full-outmovement in the spring term of 2013.The leaders of the movement, primarilyuppers active in the Girls’ LeadershipProject (GLP)—an initiative championedby former associate head ofschool Rebecca Sykes—held planningmeetings in the living room of StoweHouse, their dorm. The girls’ housecounselor and GLP advisor, historyinstructor Jenny Elliott ’94, remembersfeeling awed by the discussionsthey were having and the actions theyinspired: “When I was a student, therewas so little conversation going onamong students about gender.” (Daltonrecalls that in the aftermath of therelease of her study, a feeling predominatedfor a while that PA had “prettymuch taken care of its equity problemand could move on to other issues.”)Elliott says, “It struck me as an incrediblycourageous thing our studentswere doing, deciding that they neededto speak out and try to effect change.”The students—mostly girls—createda website (Feminism=Equality)and a private Facebook group thatgarnered more than 1,000 members todocument student, alumni, and facultyexperiences with sexism, ranging fromcasual to blatant. They wrote researchpapers, testimonials, and letters toThe Phillipian sharing how genderedstereotypes and expectations had (mis)shaped their lives at PA. They organizedpublic forums connecting genderissues with race, class, and sexual orientation,and even presented specificrecommendations for institutionaland curricular change at an all-facultymeeting. The movement caught theattention of Abigail Burman ’12, who atthe time was an ocean away attendingOxford. Burman says she felt an instantaffinity for the cause. “I had come to PAfrom a previous school where women’sleadership was prominent, visible, andtotally accepted,” she says, “and hereI noticed right away that women andgirls weren’t treated as mainstream.PA has a strong school culture, whichI appreciated then and now, but girlsare kept outside or at the margins of it.”Student activism quickly found supportamong peers, faculty, and administration,in the surge of Abbot alumnaeengagement and a revival of whatBlakeman Hazzard Allen ’66 proudlycalls Abbot’s “subversive” energy andspirit. Andover’s Gender Spring hadcome in like a lion.National news outlets picked up thestory, focusing on the lag in girls’ leadershipat PA, while on campus GenderSpring opened up a wide range of gender-relatedissues and evoked larger anddeeper questions: Was PA still essentiallya boys’ school that had admitted girls?Had PA summarily swallowed up AbbotAcademy and its legacy of valuing andempowering girls and women through•1973Abbot and Andover merge.The integrated Academy’s firstclass is 70 percent boys and30 percent girls.•1975| | | | The Afro-American SocietyLouise Kennedy ’76Andover establishes a tripartite ecumenicalbecomes the Afro-LatinoAmerican Society.•1975is elected the first femalePhillipian board president.•1976ministry: Chaplain Vincent Avery (Roman Catholic),Rabbi Everett Gendler (Jewish), and the ReverendPhilip Zaeder (Protestant).Andover | Spring 201539