1.6 Using the Society's Attitudes towards Women interview

By Kristin Post

Provided by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South

Introductory script

Though it may seem surprising, Dr. Boyd always saw herself as equal to a man, and says her life was relatively free of sexual discrimination. She was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she was an only child in a middle class family. Her father was involved with the Methodist church and her mother stayed at home. She had an uncle who was a lawyer. She says she grew up knowing about and discussing issues of the day, and she was always interested in current events when she attended the Girls’ Preparatory School. Between 1918 and 1920, she attended Randolph-Macon, a women’s liberal arts college in Virginia.

After eleven years of marriage, her first husband died, and she was left with a six-year-old daughter. She moved to Columbia, South Carolina and attended the University of South Carolina (USC) where she expected to graduate as a teacher. This was 1931, the Depression had started, and there was an oversupply of teachers.

On the advice of a friend, Dr. Boyd instead chose to major in Sociology, a relatively new academic field at the time that involved looking critically at society as a whole, and the rules and roles that guide different societies. Upon graduating in 1933, she was asked to teach all of the undergraduate Sociology classes at USC. For this she earned $25.00 a week.

Four years later, the federal government took away funding for her position. In 1937, she began teaching at Converse College, an all women’s college in South Carolina. She also started working on her PhD at Duke. She took summer classes, and matriculated as a full-time student in 1942, and completed her degree in 1944. During this time, she was also raising her daughter, teaching classes at Converse, and acting as the Chair of the Sociology Department. She served as Department Chair for twenty-one years, while also being active in women’s organizations for academics, and for the Y.W.C.A. We will next hear a discussion between the interviewer and Dr. Boyd as to reasons why women in society generally take a more deferential role toward men.

Preliminary questions

1. How equivalent are women and men in terms of mental ability endurance, life expectancy, or abilities to shoulder responsibilities?
2. What is your opinion as to why women sometimes defer to men?
3. Is there a different between how women of different classes see their roles in society?

The recording

Play the Society’s Attitudes towards Women oral history excerpt. Running time: 2 minutes 41 seconds.

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Transcript

Rosamonde R. Boyd

Of course, with fellow students my whole philosophy is that women are persons. And that women have as much mental ability as men. Women have as much stamina as men. Women, in fact, live five years longer than men. That little book of Ashley Montague’s on the natural superiority of women speaks of the biological and natural aspects of womanhood that equip women for very active service and to assume responsibility alongside men. In fact, women are equipped by nature to surpass men with endurance and things of this sort. So I’ve always believed in complete equality.

Constance Myers

Why do you think women have rather consistently in human history fallen behind or, not indeed, have attained the level?

Rosamonde R. Boyd

I think that it’s a cultural matter. When society disapproves, I think women take the way of least resistance and they yield to protection of the male. I saw something in the morning paper in the magazine section yesterday where there was an actress that thought it was just wonderful to be dependent on a man. Don’t you see? It was just a means of security in the way of least resistance and an easy way to live and to enjoy life in a rather relaxed fashion. As long as there was a provider, and as long as women had—produced the children and reared the children, which tied them down to a large extent, they just didn’t care to upset their security.

Constance Myers

This was indeed true for women of the upper-income, and middle-income women, but the mill woman had no such experience with the leisure life. Yet, she consistently drew lower wages than her male fellow workers.

Rosamonde R. Boyd

I think she probably felt that this was just the lot of women—that women were the child bearers, that women were the ones that did the home work and housework, and just accepted that division of roles that the mill worker had always learned from parents and grandparents. It was the way of life.

Follow-up questions

1. What is Dr. Boyd’s view on women and men in terms of mental ability endurance, life expectancy, or abilities to shoulder responsibilities?
2. How do you think Dr. Boyd’s background in sociology contributes to her answers in this interview?
3. What is your reaction to Dr. Boyd’s views?
4. The interviewer, Constance Myers, often mentions differences between the wealthy and poor women in terms of their fight for equal rights. Why would she do this?
5. Is there a significant difference in outlook and attitude between the wealthy and the poor? If so, is there also a significant difference in the outlook of “wealthy women” and “poor women” or “wealthy minorities” and “poor minorities”? Between race, class and gender, what shapes your outlook the most?

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Related topics

• Search LEARN NC for more resources on Rosamonde Boyd, equality, wages, women, and women's work.