by Cassandra Linder

Jill Ker Conway

Portrait of Jill Ker Conway, former President of Smith College.
Portraits, – by Cooney, Gabriel, 1982. Box 234, Folder 2. CA-MS-00071 and Office of the President Jill Ker Conway Files. Smith College Special Collections, Smith College Archives, Northampton, Massachusetts.

Name

Jill Ker Conway

Position

President of Smith College

Years Active

1975-1986

About Me

Jill Ker Conway was the first female president of Smith College. Conway’s presidency came during a time of sexism and gender discrimination, especially regarding faculty hiring and promotions.1 Conway’s tenure also saw the idea of a women’s college being challenged and questioned.

Effect on the Ada Class

At the beginning of Conway’s presidency, she was offered the opportunity to lead the development and official initiation of the Ada Comstock Scholars Program, which had previously been approved under her predecessor, Thomas C. Mendenhall. 2 Conway not only saw to the growth of the program, but saw the immense need for financial aid for many of the Adas. Conway saw that the trustees approved financial aid in the Smith Capital Campaign, beginning in 1977, as well as, helping to secure a major grantfrom the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. 3

Footnotes

  1. Genzlinger, Neil. “Jill Ker Conway, 83, Feminist Author and Smith President, Dies.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 June 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/obituaries/jill-ker-conway-83-feminist-author-and-smith-president-dies.html. ↩
  2. Conway, Jill Ker. “In the Beginning: Jill Ker Conway: President of Smith College 1975-85.” Textured Lives: Celebrating Ada Comstock Scholars at Smith College, edited by Patricia L. Skarda, Smith College Press, Northampton, MA, MA, 2000, pp. 10. ↩
  3. Conway, Jill Ker. “In the Beginning: Jill Ker Conway: President of Smith College 1975-85.” Textured Lives: Celebrating Ada Comstock Scholars at Smith College, edited by Patricia L. Skarda, Smith College Press, Northampton, MA, MA, 2000, pp. 11. ↩