Sophia Smith

But there are still quiet corners on our planet where a unique combination of circumstances can result in a tranquil atmosphere conducive to reflection and clear thinking.

The small community of Northampton, Massachusetts, is home to Smith College, established 156 years ago and explicitly designed by its founder for the, quote, "Higher education of young women with the design to furnish for my own sex means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded now in our colleges to young men." The founder, Sophia Smith, added, "I would have it a perennial blessing to the country and the world." Thanks to her generous 1871 endowment, the equivalent of over $8 billion US today, Smith College has become a setting in which clear thinking by women scholars about important issues that affect women and society as a whole is possible, unfettered by social prejudice and marginalization.

So it is perhaps no accident that in recent years, its home base of Northampton has been characterized as the most politically liberal medium-sized city in the United States, raising speculation in my mind when I read it about what the world would be like if the human community was formed and informed by the consciousness of women.

Our guest today is Nancy Whittier, Professor of Sociology at Smith College, where she has spent over three decades exploring the history of feminism, child sexual abuse and its consequences, violence against women, and the tension between liberal and conservative factions in the United States and elsewhere.

Yes.

Now the interesting thing is that Smith College was explicitly created t- to advance evangelical Christian teachings.

But you pointed out to me when we were talking earlier that that didn't last very long, and it seems to me that it's the spirit of, uh, Sophia Smith that must have been at work in...

Although she explicitly had all this language, she herself was quite an extraordinary human being.