Quotes

Lois McGill was retiring [from Food Science], and [asked if] I wanted to apply for her job. I got it in July of 1983 [and sat down to] … get started. Well, pretty soon you've got more on your plate than you can handle … it was particularly true in our situation because [we] were under pressure to get more women involved in things … they wanted to make sure they had at least one woman on anything they were doing. It was me; I was the only woman in my department for quite a few years.

~ Mina McDaniel

It used to be, kind of, Home Economics was the only college that had a woman dean, and then Liberal Arts and maybe Education, what you would consider traditional women’s fields … It started to change a little bit, but it’s still hard to get women to the very top. It’s very easy to get them to the level just below the top. And that’s what we’re good at, right? Assisting [laughs].”

~Becky Johnson

The year I started graduate school at Oregon State was the first year that women were permitted to go to sea overnight on the research vessels, which stunned me. [Laughs] It just stunned me! The first time I was the chief scientist on a crew was on the Cayuse — probably in '75 or '76—the captain wouldn't talk to me, because women didn't belong on his ship. I got through it.

~ Katharine Jefferts Schori

I remember one meeting where [Home Economics and Health and Human Sciences faculty were asked] "what's your greatest hope and what's your greatest fear in this merger?" Because I'll tell you, there were so many stereotypes, it was just amazing. I mean, one of the fears that one of the Home Ec people said is "they're going to expect us to bake cookies and bring them to every damn meeting," which is an irritation when you're the woman in the group. And I had some alums tell me "you guys merged with Health and all those Exercise Science guys? You're going to get—those jocks will run right over you."

~ Clara Pratt

I worked for the woman who was the Affirmative Action Director for Oregon State University. Pearl Spears Gray was her name—fabulous, amazing, strong woman. I just thought she was awesome! [Laughs] Pearl was very, very kind. [She] encouraged me to go back to school … to get my degree … to pursue a career.

My mother dropped out of school when she was in the eighth grade. I could see the connection as I was growing up between education and opportunity so clearly.

~ Susan Castillo

[We need to] continue to see these points of light. There's always going to be the negatives, and our hearts will get broken from time to time, but we just have to keep moving forward. I think back to my mother being educated … there were just some schools she was not allowed to even apply to as an African American. We don't have to go through that … but there's work to do.

I guess there's just not enough of us [faculty of color] to go around, but that will hopefully get better.

~ Dawn Wright

I saw this position for a [business] reference librarian at [the OSU] Library. I knew nothing about business, but why let that bother you? I applied [and] got this job. I had amazing [work] experience [from my job in] Santa Barbara as an assistant librarian. [There] I could walk into a room … and say, "I think we should do X," and people would go, "Oh, okay, okay."

When I was at OSU, I was a beginning-level librarian—even though I was still the same person. I would have an idea, and they would just blow me off. And that's when I realized … that all authority is positional, and that it wasn't about me being really smart and really clever. [When] I did become head of the university library ... I always knew my ideas weren't any better than anybody else's, but I had the position, so I can make them happen.

~ Karyle Butcher

The clear message I got [was] if you weren’t wearing a dress you better not try to head to the sixth-floor administration building [in the 1980s]. 

~ Janet Nishihara