Harvard Medical School - Mom's Rejection Letter
My sister found this among my mom's papers. I had heard about it a long time ago, but seeing this letter brought it back to mind.
This was just like my Mom. I suspect that she knew in 1943 that Harvard Medical School didn't accept women. But she could not accept descrimination in any form, so she may have applied just so they would have to state their descriminatory policy in writing. She had spent three years in China as a missionary (1937 - 1940), completed her Master's Degree at Wellesley (sister college to Harvard, I think), and was ready to move to the next thing.
In the next seven months after this letter she would become pregnant and get married to my Dad (yes, in that order) and go on to raise a family of six kids while working as a geography teacher.
I only wish we had a copy of her letter to them..!!!!
Notice the address - Ogontz School.
More about Mom - -
Mom was a non-conformist. She was the youngest of three girls and was a maverick her whole life. She was a rabid anit-prejudice person, and she raised us to be totally open-minded and tollerant. Her zeal was fueled in part by her own mother's membership in the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) - and this was in Ohio.
Her stint as a missionary in China was not likely out of a devotion to the Methodist Church - I suspect it was out of a sense of adventure and a desire to help Chinese youngsters get a better chance to be a world citizen (she taught English as a foreign language). It was on her voyage to China in 1937 that she met my father, who was a steward on the Empress of Canada - literally the "Slow Boat to China".
Upon her return in 1940, she promptly enrolled in Wellesley to earn her Master's Degree (Phys Ed). If you've seen the movie, Mona Lisa Smile (with Julia Roberts), that so reminds me of my maverick mother. It was set at Wellesley about 10 years after my mom went there, but the issue of women going to college to major in getting a good husband was timeless (up until the 1970s or so).
Even when she got married and started a family, she didn't just lie down and become a suburban mom. From my earliest memory, she was the major bread winner in our family while my Dad chose to start his college education after 6 kids and 13 years of marriage so he could grow in his own way.
By the time my four older siblings had flown the coup and it was only me and my kid sister at home in high school, Mom was diagnosed with manic-depressive (bi-polar) disorder. Thinking back, she suffered/enjoyed this condition for her whole life. She functioned (rather well actually) but with some costs. For example, the zeal in her fight for equality-for-all earned her some detractors who considered her, among other things, anti-american for her disdain for the "Ugly American" image. She simply did not back down...!!!!!!
Bi-polar disorder is a mental illness, and living with a bi-polar person is not without costs. But all in all, she gave us MUCH more than she took away.
Thanks Mom. I love you and miss you ... a lot.
Harvard Medical School - Mom's Rejection Letter
My sister found this among my mom's papers. I had heard about it a long time ago, but seeing this letter brought it back to mind.
This was just like my Mom. I suspect that she knew in 1943 that Harvard Medical School didn't accept women. But she could not accept descrimination in any form, so she may have applied just so they would have to state their descriminatory policy in writing. She had spent three years in China as a missionary (1937 - 1940), completed her Master's Degree at Wellesley (sister college to Harvard, I think), and was ready to move to the next thing.
In the next seven months after this letter she would become pregnant and get married to my Dad (yes, in that order) and go on to raise a family of six kids while working as a geography teacher.
I only wish we had a copy of her letter to them..!!!!
Notice the address - Ogontz School.
More about Mom - -
Mom was a non-conformist. She was the youngest of three girls and was a maverick her whole life. She was a rabid anit-prejudice person, and she raised us to be totally open-minded and tollerant. Her zeal was fueled in part by her own mother's membership in the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) - and this was in Ohio.
Her stint as a missionary in China was not likely out of a devotion to the Methodist Church - I suspect it was out of a sense of adventure and a desire to help Chinese youngsters get a better chance to be a world citizen (she taught English as a foreign language). It was on her voyage to China in 1937 that she met my father, who was a steward on the Empress of Canada - literally the "Slow Boat to China".
Upon her return in 1940, she promptly enrolled in Wellesley to earn her Master's Degree (Phys Ed). If you've seen the movie, Mona Lisa Smile (with Julia Roberts), that so reminds me of my maverick mother. It was set at Wellesley about 10 years after my mom went there, but the issue of women going to college to major in getting a good husband was timeless (up until the 1970s or so).
Even when she got married and started a family, she didn't just lie down and become a suburban mom. From my earliest memory, she was the major bread winner in our family while my Dad chose to start his college education after 6 kids and 13 years of marriage so he could grow in his own way.
By the time my four older siblings had flown the coup and it was only me and my kid sister at home in high school, Mom was diagnosed with manic-depressive (bi-polar) disorder. Thinking back, she suffered/enjoyed this condition for her whole life. She functioned (rather well actually) but with some costs. For example, the zeal in her fight for equality-for-all earned her some detractors who considered her, among other things, anti-american for her disdain for the "Ugly American" image. She simply did not back down...!!!!!!
Bi-polar disorder is a mental illness, and living with a bi-polar person is not without costs. But all in all, she gave us MUCH more than she took away.
Thanks Mom. I love you and miss you ... a lot.