{"id":4344,"date":"2017-06-12T16:46:24","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T20:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archives.nd.edu\/about\/news\/?p=4344"},"modified":"2017-06-12T16:46:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T20:46:24","slug":"notre-dames-alumnae-before-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/notre-dames-alumnae-before-1972\/","title":{"rendered":"Notre Dame’s Alumnae before 1972"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/a>
<\/div>

On June 11, 1917, Notre Dame added a new demographic to its alumni base \u2013 women. \u00a0According to\u00a0Scholastic<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0the first two women to earn degrees from Notre Dame did not go unnoticed. \u00a0During commencement, it was reported that \u201c[t]here was an enthusiastic outburst of applause in Washington Hall when the names of Sister Francis Jerome and Sister Lucretia (Holy Cross Sisters of St. Mary\u2019s College) were read out as recipients of the M.A. [Greek] and M.Sc. [Chemistry] degrees [respectively]\u201d [Scholastic<\/em>, September 29, 1917<\/a>, page 6]. \u00a0The graduation of these two women at Notre Dame was not a one-off occurrence, but rather marked the beginning of a historic tradition of coeducation at Notre Dame.\u00a0 Except for the 1919 commencement, women have graduated\u00a0from Notre Dame every year since 1917.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Article regarding Commencement, 1917 [Scholastic<\/em>, September 29, 1917<\/a>, page 6]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Further research is needed\u00a0to know when Sister Francis Jerome and Sister Lucretia began their studies at Notre Dame to earn these degrees, whether any\u00a0of their time was in the classroom alongside their male counterparts, or if it was mostly independent study. \u00a0In 1918, Notre Dame established the summer school program,<\/a>\u00a0which\u00a0was\u00a0the gateway for women to study at Notre Dame.<\/p>\n
\"\"
Students and faculty of the Music Department Summer School Program, July 1919. They are posed outside, in front of Rockefeller Hall<\/a> and the St. Edward statue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The history of coeducation at Notre Dame is a fascinating\u00a0and complex one. \u00a0The view of Notre Dame as an all-male bastion often leaves out the story of Notre Dame’s female students who were here before their more traditional female counterparts\u00a0moved in for the fall semester of 1972. \u00a0A cursory overview of the commencement programs<\/a> done in the 1980s gives us a glimpse of these pre-1972 women: \u00a0324 bachelor degrees, 4128 masters degrees, 184 PhDs, and 2 law degrees. \u00a0However, these numbers only tell part of\u00a0the story.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Summer School Students, including nuns, priests, brothers, and lay men and women, posed on the steps of Bond Hall, 1929. \u00a0Photo by H.C. Elmore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Going back through the commencement programs today, we gathered more personal information on these women to help\u00a0humanize them. \u00a0Many women studied at Notre Dame but did not complete their degrees. \u00a0They, unfortunately, won’t be on this list<\/a>, which was created to give a flavor\u00a0of who these women were. \u00a0It is for informational purposes only, not to be used as the sole source of\u00a0serious research. \u00a0Please contact the Registrar<\/a> to verify\u00a0student\u00a0information.<\/p>\n

At the time of this posting, we still have a ways to go to complete this list, but the data gathered thus far is quite interesting. \u00a0Perhaps there are more laywomen in the mix than what people assumed. \u00a0Sisters from Saint Mary’s comprise\u00a0only a fraction of the other orders represented. \u00a0Notre Dame’s female graduates follows the diversity of the general student population, with women represented\u00a0from across the country and internationally, including Nova Scotia\u00a0and the Philippines. \u00a0The number of multiple degrees the women earned is a bit surprising, as was discovering two triple-Domers thus far: \u00a0Sister Mary Aloysi Kerner (BA 1922; MA 1923; PhD 1930) and\u00a0Sister Mary Jerome Shaughnessy (MA 1926; BA 1930; M.Mus. 1935).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Three sisters looking at books on campus with the Main Building in the background, c1950.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hopefully these lists will help to shine more light on Notre Dame’s pioneer alumnae, as they are an important part of the Notre Dame family and history. \u00a0There are many other resources available to do further research on these women, such as University Records<\/a>,\u00a0Notre Dame publications<\/a>, and the alumnae directories.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a>

<\/div>

On June 11, 1917, Notre Dame added a new demographic to its alumni base \u2013 women. \u00a0According to\u00a0Scholastic,\u00a0the first two women to earn degrees from Notre Dame did not go unnoticed. \u00a0During commencement, it was reported that \u201c[t]here was an enthusiastic outburst of applause in Washington Hall when the names of Sister Francis Jerome and … Continue reading “Notre Dame’s Alumnae before 1972”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":4350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8,10,83],"class_list":["post-4344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nd-history","tag-academics","tag-alumni","tag-women"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-09 18:15:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}