“Do not think of colleges as separated from the country’s war program… While you are here, there is much that you can do. Don your blue jeans, roll up your sleeves, and come out and pitch hay or harvest apples; or roll bandages for the Red Cross; or sell war stamps.”
–Smith College Freshman Handbook, 1942
“The great majority of your fellow countrymen and countrywomen are devoting their whole energies to the business of war. You will owe a debt to those who are fighting and working for you while you are continuing undisturbed your normal course of education here.”
-Smith College President Herbert Davis, Smith College Freshman Handbook, 1944, pp. 13
SMITH AT WAR
In April 1946, just seven months after the end of the Second World War, Smith College’s Committee on Post-War Planning told the faculty that “the impact of the war has been very much slighter on the women’s colleges than upon the men’s.” During the war, many liberal-arts colleges took a vocational turn: they transformed their curricula to better prepare their students to join the war effort after graduation. Despite the best efforts of Smith College during and after the war to maintain their liberal-arts status, the college had been deeply impacted by the war. In response to the national emergency, Smith created a minor in War, secretly trained students in cryptanalysis,1 and accelerated graduations so that students could serve their country. Just as the lives of millions of American women were transformed by the dramatic increase in job opportunities and economic independence, so too was the idyllic campus in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Above: letters from the U.S. Navy, regarding the recruiting of Smith students for cryptanalysis work. Source: Box 462, Folder 25, Office of the President Herbert John Davis Files, Sophia Smith Collection.
ACCELERATED GRADUATION
In order to accommodate the “national necessity” for women in “work of the war” (“for defense, for industry, education, and… many other fields”), Smith College adopted an acceleration program between 1943–1946. The curriculum reflected the goal of the program: the 1943 summer session focused on “Techniques for Modern Civilization” (“Scientific Training,” “Training in Modern Languages,” and “Other Technical Training”) as well as “Studies in Modern Civilization and Its Background.” Accelerated students spent two summers at Smith following their sophomore and junior years, taking courses in twelve-week summer sessions. Administration worried that students would not be able to handle the intensive workload and therefore only allowed high-performing students to participate in the acceleration program.
Source: Fred G. Chase photograph of farm conditioning exercises at Smith College, spring 1944, Box 172, Folder labeled Defense Courses: Farm Conditioning Exercises, War Service Collection, Sophia Smith Collection.
THE WAR MINOR…?!
The stated purpose of the War Minor was “to give students training which may be used… in connection with the present national emergency.” The War Minor is an early example of an interdisciplinary program at Smith College, as most courses that counted toward the minor were offered within other departments. During the summer sessions, the college offered special courses designed for students minoring in War. In the summer sessions between 1943–1944, these included:
- Elementary Drafting. Use of instruments; geometric construction; lettering; principles of blueprint reading, office procedure, orthographic projection.
- Advanced Drafting. Isometric, perspective and oblique projection. Shop practices.
- Special Projects in Writing: Radio and Journalism. A Study of the technique of writing for radio, with some study of journalistic practice.
- Map Making: Elements of map surveying, map drafting, cartographic editing, photographic and lithographic reproduction of maps. Practice in map reading, map manuscript compilation, and simple map drafting. Characteristics of civilian and military maps.
Source: Fred G. Chase photograph of Smith College map making course, Box 172, Folder labeled Defense Courses: Map Making: 1942, n.d, War Service Collection, Sophia Smith Collection.
Similar courses were offered throughout the normal academic year under the Art, Geology, and Physics departments. In order to maintain a semblance of liberal-arts education, Smith did not allow students to count more than six semester hours of War Minor courses for academic credit.
Other vocational summer courses included aviation, typing, personnel, nurses aide, typing, and stenography. The latter two courses advantaged graduates seeking secretarial work. Even students who did not minor in War could prepare themselves for post-graduate employment through courses which could “undoubtedly be made useful in connection with the war effort: e.g., Photography, Secondary School Teaching, Recreational Leadership, etc.”
Source: Fred G. Chase photograph of Smith College Radio Communications course, Box 172, Folder labeled Defense Courses: Radio Communication, War Service Collection, Sophia Smith Collection.
The war did not only impact the course offerings, but also student interest. In 1943, The New York Times reported a rapid rise in Smithies pursuing STEM courses: a 33% rise in mathematics course enrollments, 68% rise in physics course enrollments, and a 70% rise in statistics course enrollments.2
An informational pamphlet from September, 1942 explained that “War Minors are not primarily designed for students majoring in science, mathematics, economics, or in a modern foreign language. Such students are already in effect taking War Majors.” This is not to say that all Zoology majors, for example, were trained in the art of war. Rather, this aside indicates the breadth of jobs available to women during the War. The drafting of many young men into overseas military work—which was not permitted to women—combined with the creation of many new jobs in government and industry meant that opportunities were plentiful for college-educated women.
HOW ELSE DID SMITHIES AID THE WAR EFFORT?
During the war years, a variety of extracurricular activities popped up for students interested in contributing to the war effort. As a Smith student in 1943, you could:
- Work on a farm over the summer in various parts of New England, including Lubec, ME; Prout’s Neck, ME; and Ashland, MA.
- Serve as air raid warden or on the first aid squad for your house.
- Knit and roll bandages for the Red Cross.
- Host and entertain at the Smith Door Canteen, a social club for servicemen stationed in western Massachusetts.
- Take a course hosted by the Student Committee for Defense and Reconstruction (SCDR), on topics like First Aid, Home Nursing, Nutrition, Air Raid Precautions, Recreational Leadership, Motor Transport, Mobile Canteen, Staff Assistants, Nurse’s Aid, Child Care, Red Cross Canteen, Home Mechanics, Children’s Games, Junior Hostessing, Stretcher Bearing, and Fire Fighting.
- Join the newly-founded National Affairs Club to discuss pressing domestic issues.
Source: Fred G. Chase photograph of First Aid course, Box 172, Folder labeled Defense Courses: Home Nursing Care, 1941-1943, War Service Collection, Sophia Smith Collection.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- How did the Second World War expand vocational opportunities for college-educated women? In what ways did women remain limited by their gender?
- How did Smith College balance its responsibility to women’s education with the demands of the United States government and international crisis?
- Consider the relationship between Smith College (administration and students) and the American military today. What precedents were set by World War II?
FOOTNOTES
- For further information on the 11,000 female code-breakers—many of whom were included recruits from Smith and other historically women’s colleges—check out Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy (2017). This popular history book received favorable reviews from literary critics (The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews) as well as U.S. military publications (American Intelligence Journal, The Cyber Defense Review). ↩︎
- Dorn, Charles. “‘A Woman’s World’: The University of California, Berkeley, during the Second World War.” History of Education Quarterly 48, no. 4 (2008): 540. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20462258. This journal article provides context about the lives of college women at co-ed institutions, as well as some fascinating statistics about changes at Smith during the war. ↩︎
Other Smithies have written the following articles about the college’s involvement in World War II for the Smith Alumni Quarterly, Summer 2019 edition: “When We Went to War: Smith’s Hidden Weapon” by Karen Pell ’74 and “Learning to ‘Be Navy’” by Alex Asal ’16.