World War II had an unintended consequence for those on the homefront—an uprooting of traditional gender roles. Drew was not left untouched by such dramatic change. In 1943, the first female students arrived, and upon arrival they were tasked with adapting to the campus traditions, navigating the patriarchal environment and laying the groundwork for the women that would follow. One extraordinary example of their success is seen in the formation of the Women’s Athletic Association. Organized athletic activities proved to be an important part of the new female students’ journey in finding community on campus and gave young women the power to step into leadership roles and establish women’s sports at Drew.
As the United States was plunged into World War II, the demand for young men to fill military positions in support of the war effort skyrocketed. College-aged men, both volunteers and draftees, proved especially useful to a war effort that required “man-power” to staff a fighting force overseas. The increasing number of recruits meant a shrinking population for Brother’s College. The college, still an institution in infancy, sought a solution to the lack of men, and it eventually settled on the decision to open its doors to female students. It is important to note that this decision was primarily made to maintain university finances and guarantee the survival of Drew’s liberal arts program as male enrollment plummeted.
Anette Buck (C’47), the first female voice to be featured in the Acorn, summed up the circumstances perfectly on March 26, 1943, writing, “In centers of learning…women must carry on in the place of men who are at the fighting fronts to preserve just such ideals as [Brother’s College] represents.” As a result, in the fall of 1943, the “co-eds” arrived at Drew. According to newspapers from the time period, they were only guaranteed attendance “for the duration of the war.”
The new young women at Drew were faced with carving out space for themselves at the historically male institution. Women were met with a lack of appropriate housing, strict curfews written up by the Student Government prior to the co-eds’ arrival and a lack of representation within extracurricular activities on campus. The co-eds, in search of the robust social atmosphere that Brother’s College was noted to harbor, worked to foster such an environment for the female students.
War-time social changes in the 1940s facilitated the strengthening of homosocial environments consisting of community members of the same sex. All boys schools, women’s colleges, male military units and a transition to a female labor force exemplify the importance of homosocial environments in all aspects of life. As in prior periods, these social interactions defined the college experience, especially upon the arrival of female students. As social spaces remained mostly separated by sex, December 1943 saw women of Brothers College organizing the Women’s League, following a meeting attended by all of Brothers College’s female students. The league, later renamed the Drew-eds, was created to “manage all co-ed activities,” according to a Dec. 31, 1943 article from The Drew Acorn.
Many women arrived at Drew with aspirations to continue various sports they had played in high school. Luckily for these women, a branch of the newly formed Women’s League, The Women’s Athletic Association, was dedicated to providing athletic opportunities for the women on campus. The organization was loosely formed prior to the Women’s League and mainly provided a basketball program for the co-eds. The same Dec. 31 article dictated female students’ aspirations of going varsity in hopes of seeking intercollegiate competition and continuing their athletic careers on a larger scale.
Female Brothers College students took their athletics very seriously. As the shortage of male athletes caused women to step into the spotlight of professional sports for the first time, folks across the U.S. increasingly took an interest in women’s athletics in search of entertainment. By the end of the war, Drew boasted a robust women’s athletic program of its own. The activities included cheerleading, archery, basketball, swimming, tennis and bowling according to the 1945 Oak Leaves, and most girls took part in at least one, basketball being especially popular. According to the same Oak Leaves spread, the athletic program saw continuous progress “despite the almost complete lack of any accommodations for women’s athletics” from the university. Brief mentions of basketball games held against other female teams from St. Elizabeth and an ever-expanding list of sports for the women to choose from display the progress the women were making. The 1945 Oak Leaves goes on to state that such progress “resulted from the efforts of the girls themselves” as they “conducted a program of interclass and individual competition.” These competitions allowed women to continue their athletic endeavors, exercise autonomy over extracurriculars and find community with other young women.
Several women pivotal in advocating for continued co-education following the war’s end were members of the Women’s Athletic Association. In the fall of 1946, three women met with the board of trustees and successfully reached a decision that allowed women to continue attending Brothers College. One of these women was Joy Werner (C’47), who was voted in as president of the Women’s Athletic Association in January 1947. Under Werner’s leadership, the Association developed as an entity separate from the Drew-eds. In addition, the Association established intercollegiate “play days” and competitions with local universities, and they made connections with other women’s athletic programs via a meeting held by Wellesley College. Horseback riding, riflery and softball were added to the roll of sports for women to choose from. Once again, the female undergraduates themselves pushed for the progress made within the organization.
Alongside the stiff athletic competitions, the Women’s Athletic Association organized monthly social activities that ranged from hotdog roasts to square dances. Yet even as the Association grew more separate from the Drew-eds, and the latter took up the planning of social functions, the Association continued to host various gatherings beyond practices and “play days.” It is important to note that while the men of Brothers College did hold parties and social gatherings, these activities were not typically associated with their athletics. When parties and dances did take place in accordance with games and matches, the responsibility for planning them fell to the social committee, not the sports teams themselves.
Still, athletic programs provided a corner of campus that the co-eds had control over and in which they were taken seriously. By the late 1940s, reporters for The Acorn covered interclass competitions as they would cover the men’s intercollegiate games and receive full spreads filled with optimism in the Oak Leaves.
Sadly, as the decade ended, so too did the dedicated coverage of women’s athletics; one writer observes in a March 4, 1955 edition of The Acorn “that little if anything is ever written about the athletic endeavors of the fairer sex.” As the war came to a close and the male draftees returned to Brothers College, as they did to colleges across the country, women’s sports fell out of the spotlight. The golden age of women’s athletics seems to be contained to the 1940s. The period was characterized by shifting gender demographics in the U.S. that resulted in young women redefining the social dynamics of college campuses, women’s athletics receiving national attention and the development of the intercollegiate community around women’s sports. Despite the strides made, women’s sports were put on the backburner. An end to the war and a craving to return to pre-war gender standards caused society as a whole to pay less attention to women’s athletics. Nonetheless, the legacy of the Women’s Athletic Association remains.
Today, women’s sports continue to serve as places to foster a sense of community that grows out of a shared passion on the field, on the court and in the pool. The first female graduates of Drew would be amazed to see how far athletics have come since they first began the push for their inclusion in the world of sports. As new sports continue to be added, athletes continue to break records and conversations about inclusion and equality remain vital to the story of women’s athletics, it is important to acknowledge the endless fight of women of the past. Continuing to tackle difficult conversations about carving space for women’s sports to be respected is vital to continuing the legacy of Drew’s Women’s Athletic Association and the women that worked hard to build a place where they could compete in the sports they loved.
Jocelyn Freeman is a junior majoring in history and English and minoring in Chinese.
