Mary Emma Woolley President of Mount Holyoke College 1901-1937
When she first assumed the presidency at MHC, Woolley was quite reserved when it came to the suffrage debate. She refused to endorse a lecturer from the College Equal Suffrage League in 1905. Yet just one year later, Woolley represented Mount Holyoke at "A Tribute of Gratitude from Representatives of Women's Colleges," held in Baltimore in honor of Susan B. Anthony. Here are some of the highlights from this imoportant speech:
- "The higher education of women might well be added to the list of causes for which she and other women have struggled. She has lived to see the works of her hands established in the gaining of educational and social rights for women which might well be called revolutionary, so momentous have been the changes."
- "It seems almost inexplicable that changes, surely as radical as giving to women the opportunity to vote, should be accepted today as perfectly natural, while the political right is still viewed somewhat askance."
- "The recognition of broader interests for women and the desire for better intellectual training have a close connection. Mothers and fathers wished it for their daughters, even when the daughters had not come to a realisation of its importance for themselves."
- First Female Graduate of Brown University
- Professor of Biblical Literature at Wellesley College
- Delegate at Geneva convention for disarmament in 1932
For more information on Woolley's political activism visit Cassandra White's page about moral disarmament
