About the 1982 Lesbian Alliance Survey

In the spring semester of 1982, the Lesbian Alliance, led by two Lesbian Alliance seniors, conducted a survey of lesbian and bisexual women on campus. Their sample frame was identified as “Smith women who have been, are, or might be involved in sexual relationships with other women” and they stated their purpose was “to advance understanding of the lesbian experience at Smith and of the social worlds of those students of particular relevance to the Alliance.” ¹  An Alliance member was appointed in each house (where there was one available) and this person identified all the people in the house “known to them personally to be eligible for the study according to the criteria established.”  Then, she approached each student in a quiet moment to explain the study and invite them to participate. The LA took privacy very seriously and put together a “rather elaborate set of procedures…to ensure the confidentiality of participating students,” including having a non-Smithie input the data into a computer and replacing names with identifying codes. ²

The questionnaire included 376 multiple choice questions in total and for some of the questions, provided space to elaborate on the answers to the questions. The LA created a report of the percentages of results for each question as well as all the elaboration responses. They made only 7 copies, destroying the questionnaires and all other traces. The copies went to the creators of the project, The Office of the President, the SCLA, The Smith College Women’s Resource Center, The Smith College Archives, and the Jahnige Social Science Research Center. ³ The SCLA was aware both of  colleges’ administration’s fear of perpetuating the emerging lesbian stereotype of Smith and the risk they were entering into in by collecting data on marginalized students. The document was only available to view for very few individuals until the early 2000s in which all restrictions were lifted. The SCLA was clearly aware of the risks and future importance of the work they conducted.

Each tab in the survey section of my website distills down topics in the survey and provides graphics and data visualizations to help understand the data. On each page, there are sections where you can guess the data before I reveal it. You can skip these if you like, or try to see how your perception compares to the actual data.  To read or browse the survey in full, you can visit:https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/smith:1354839#page/1/mode/2up.

It is important to note that though the survey is a wonderful source of information about lesbian life on campus in the 1980s, it was not conducted through a formal scientific process and no definitive conclusions can be drawn from the results. The creators themselves acknowledge the relatively small sample size, that white students and upperclassman were overly represented, and only women who were known to be involved with women were invited to participate. In my language throughout the website, I will try to emphasize that there were overall trends that came through about the respondents’ experiences, but that they can’t be generalized to represent the entire LGBT population at Smith at the time. ⁴