Faculty Wives: Diverse Careers Co - Exist With Teas, Children

The popular stereotype of the faculty wife, teapot in hand, is not wrong, it is simply not inclusive. While Mrs. Owen may find it indispensible to the running of Winthrop House, Mrs. Bundy may have her teapot on the top shelf, out of the reach of her four small children, and Mrs. Schlesinger Jr. may use hers for a still life. Though the University affects all faculty wives its impact varies. The wives of the Masters, department chairmen, and administrative officials have a good deal "thrust upon them." A majority of the responsibility for hostessing newcomers' teas, "visiting firemen's" dinners, and graduate and undergraduate meetings is theirs. Others elect a university affiliation: the Drs. Rudolph teach a course together on Indian Government and the Handlins work together on research. Mrs. Galbraith teaches German at the College while Mrs. Fainsod is currently working as a research assistant to Professor Paul Buck, and Mrs. Murdock is working on a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature.

A third group manages to find activities outside the University. These include the almost one hundred percent working wives of teaching fellows, the young mothers who, as Mrs. Bundy put it, "are engaged in maintenance," and those wives who do volunteer work or have careers of their own. Faculty wives have taught at Milton (Mrs. Yeager and Mrs. George Snyder), presided over the League of Women Voters (Mrs. Owen and Mrs. Feinsod), worked at the polls or for the C.C.A. (Mrs. Bundy), practiced Medicine and law, painted and sung. They have written novels and children's stories, been professional photographers and served as Radcliffe trustees. Some of them sew, Mrs. Friederich having distinguished herself among the Faculty wives by making a man's jacket. Delmar Leighton's wife, knowing Cambridge well, works for a real estate agency in the Square. Mrs. Forbes, one time Assistant Director of the Radcliffe Choral Society, still makes it to Choral rehearsals now under the direction of her husband, Elliott.

The Master's Wife

With such diversity the lives of Faculty women differ greatly. Mrs. Owen, as wife to the Master of Winthrop, has found that her life is to a large extent contained within Winthrop. A typical month's calendar, crowded with student teas each Tuesday afternoon, tutor's dinners, Winthrop House galas such as the Christmas party and the spring musical, visiting scholars, and House committee dinners, leaves her only a few days in the month to attend to her old interest, politics. "I find that I can never give to the League of Women Voters a substantial, consecutive amount of time. I spend some hours at the polls now, but I no longer am able to lobby at the State House. Winthrop House and its problems have pretty well taken over."

"There were a lot of things to learn in becoming a House Master and wife. We found that Mozart piped into the living room had a deadening influence. The musicians in the group just listened intently and the others found the atmosphere heavy going. Now we've settled on Bix Beiderick, whom everyone seems to like."

As the wife of a House Master, Mrs. Owen has become knowledgable with the concerns of the House. She knows about the problems of the Comstock-Winthrop merger, can tell you what Winthrop boys play on what teams, and has though up some answers to give Sophomores who ask about Sophomore slump.

Propaganda Analysis

The Master's situation is an extreme one, however. Few other wives of the Faculty have so thorough a connection with the college. Mrs. Fainsod, for example, has found time to hold a job of her own for almost twenty years. Currently working on a history of the Eliot Administration at Harvard under Prof. Paul Buck, she has also worked as an administrative assistant in the Russian Research Center, as an assistant to the Director of the Shady Hill School and during the war she worked for the Boston Labor Board for the propaganda analysis subsection of the Justice Department. Previous to this, in the thirties "when jobs were hard to get," Mrs. Fainsod did volunteer work. She has also served as state president of the League of Women Voters for two years.

"Work is a luxury for me," Mrs. Fainsod explains. I have always counted on doing something useful with my education (B.A. Bryn Mawr, M.A. Radcliffe). I like to put my training to a gainful and useful purpose. It is a real privilege to work. One must be able to afford it financially--the cost of housekeepers and the income tax set up make this difficult--and also, one must be sure that one's home and children are not being slighted. I have to count on really professional help at home."

In addition to her University job, Mrs. Fainsod has also had to contend with the role of "wife to the Chairman of the Department." The responsibility for entertaining visitors plus the responsibility for the newcomers to the department falls upon her. Mrs. Fainsod has also served on the College Tea Committee, which sponsors a series of teas for the wives of newcomers to the University.

'Maintenance'

But, as Mrs. Deknatel has pointed out, a lot of what the Faculty wife does depends upon what she has to do at home, rather than on her husband's position, and this was echoed by Mrs. Bundy's remark about "maintenance." With four small children, not all yet of school age, a good proportion of Mrs. Bundy's time is devoted to raising children and keeping house. In addition, however, Mrs. Bundy has found time to get over to the Radcliffe library to study Spanish in preparation for a trip to South America which she and her husband will be making, to work actively for the C.C.A., to serve as a member of a ward committee, and to help with the newcomer teas.

With her children grown, Mrs. Deknatel has found time to return to her interest in nursery schools. President last year of the Association of Day Care Services, a branch of the United Community Service, Mrs. Deknatel has spent a large proportion of her time providing day care for the children of working or problem families. She considers the value of the program a preventative one.

Along with duties as Chairmen's wife in the Fine Arts Department, Mrs. Deknatel and her husband have a responsibility towards Fogg Museum. Openings and special exhibits usually do not escape them. However, departmental duties vary, Mrs. Deknatel pointed out, with the size of the department. "The Fine Arts Department, being small, generally has a very small turn over and consequently we are not as involved in settling new comers as the larger departments are."

The plight of the newcomers is one which Mrs. Rupert Emerson feels quite strongly. Both she and Mrs. Fainsod pointed out that the Faculty wife serves as an informal settling agent. At newcomer's teas, the most common question put to the "old guard" is where one can find a good pediatrician. The vast problem of helping the newcomers find housing and friends takes up some of their time.

"Teas don't generally do this very well," Mrs. Emerson remarked. "I often think that people bring too many cookies and not enough else with them. I prefer to give dinners. By six o'clock working wives can relax and enjoy themselves, the groups are smaller, and we have time to really talk. Teas are too large and too anonymous. One time, a newcomer at a tea came over to me and asked me if there was anyone I would like to meet. I was really very delighted."

The Social Syndrome

In spite of the individuality of the Faculty wives, Harvard University is the inescapable social center for most of them. The large majority of the Faculty live in Cambridge, their friends are made within the departments. Even more corporateness is manifested than in a large business organization. It would be unusual to find all IBM employees living in the same neighborhood and to find them all friends. Whatever William Whyte may say of the organization man in business, to some extent this syndrome is ever more6Along with other Faculty wives, Mrs. McGeorge Bundy finds time for varied activities while raising a family.