Although women only began graduating from the College slightly more than 25 years ago, some Daughters of Dartmouth have already reached prominence in a multitude of fields including entertainment, government and business (no pressure, '10s who have recently littered the corporate world with your resume droppings).
After four years in this cutthroat, frozen wasteland, Dartmouth's alumnae seem to have had no trouble conquering the real world.
In addition to the stress of normal Dartmouth life, some of the College's earliest female graduates faced even greater obstacles. The rough-and-tumble Men of Dartmouth defended their territory and many didn't want to welcome the so-called "co-hogs" to their masculine, wilderness paradise.
But Dartmouth's women persevered. They did well in classes, rose in the ranks of our publications, clubs and athletics. And finally, they graduated and started to penetrate the upper echelons of their fields. Two such women, award-winning soap opera writer Jean Passanante '75 and accessories designer Eugenia Kim '96 recall how different Dartmouth experiences prepared them for success.
As one of the earliest women at Dartmouth, Passanante recalls a harsh welcome from her male classmates.
"It was like having cold water poured over my head literally," she said in an e-mail. "The first day I was there, I was walking by a window in [Mid-Mass] where I lived, and some clever young men had a garden hose in their room, and they hosed me down as they walked by. That was their welcome to co-hogs' at Dartmouth."
The attitude of Dartmouth men shocked Passanante.
"It was a glimpse into the ways in which some men regarded women as a threat or as sexual chattel take your pick and into the astonishingly deep level of fear and resentment about how women were about to become serious competitors in the workplace and in life," she said.
Instead of succumbing to the humiliation and anger some male students subjected her to, Passanante said she remained determined to succeed.
"I rose to the occasion and reacted very competitively," she said. "I was determined to fight back in the only way I knew how by succeeding academically and extra-curricularly. I was the first female president of the Dartmouth Players [theater group], and I basically kicked ass academically."
Passanante found refuge in the theater department where she, a drama major, acted and directed numerous plays in her years at Dartmouth. Passanante's interest in drama has led her to her current career as co-head writer for the long-running CBS soap opera "As the World Turns."
While life at Dartmouth might seem like a soap opera to many, it's nothing compared to the real deal Passanante writes for each day. She has written soaps for 18 years, and is always looking to push the envelope in her stories.
"[I've] been proud to write some ground-breaking stories addressing serious social issues," she said. "I've won several GLAAD Media awards (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) for stories on three different shows. Currently on As the World Turns' we have the first long-running gay male couple, and we've won multiple awards for that story,"
Passanante has also won four Daytime Emmys and four Writers Guild of America awards for her television writing.
While her activities in the theater department directly prepared her for her current work, Passanante also cites the importance of a broad, liberal arts education in stimulating her creative talents.
"I don't believe any kind of creative person be it writer, director, actor, artistic producer can create anything worth a damn if he or she doesn't know how to think and hasn't read important books and studied history and language, arts, sciences," she said. "In other words, there's no point in creating anything if you have nothing to say and no basis on which to say it."
Eugenia Kim, who graduated nearly 20 years later, also continues to draw on her Dartmouth education as owner of her own accessories business.
Kim started out designing hats ranging from knit berets and cloches to dramatic fedoras and her line, which now includes shoes, is sold at high-end department stores and over 100 luxury boutiques worldwide.
Although Kim never made hats or studied fashion at Dartmouth, she believes the broad scope of a liberal arts education has benefitted her, although she works in a field far from any discipline taught at Dartmouth.
"It made me well-rounded," Kim said, "so I can relate to more kinds of people, not just those working in fashion."
Unlike Passanante, Kim did not have experience in her field while at Dartmouth, but drew on some of the basic skills she honed while at the College to become successful.
"What I do now, running my own business, doesn't completely relate to what I did at Dartmouth," Kim said. "But I was a psych major, and I have insight into the psychology of design: how to know what people want and how to get people to buy [my product]."
Kim's path to starting her own accessories line was not a direct line from Dartmouth.
"I took a Radcliffe publishing course," she said. "And then I worked at Conde Nast for a year and a half."
During this time, Kim took a millinery class at Parsons School of Design where she learned the craft of hat making.
Kim received the Perry Ellis award for Accessories Design from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2004, one of the highest honors awarded to emerging names in fashion.
At Dartmouth, Kim was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, and held an officer position although she couldn't remember which one (see, overly ambitious appliers and campaigners, nothing you do now will mean anything in a decade!)
Still, she believes that being active in her sorority played a role in preparing her for a career in design.
"That geared me up for working with a lot of women," she said, which describes the majority of fashion professionals she deals with each day.
When Kim returned to Hanover to participate in a Women at Dartmouth conference in November 2007, she realized how her atypical success story could prove inspiring.
On a panel entitled "How to Be a Global Fashion Brand before You're 35" Kim discussed how she started designing and eventually launching her own business.
"It was inspiring for some in the audience since fashion is such a big thing now," she said. "There are quite a few fashion people coming out of Dartmouth, even though there is no set coursework to prepare you for that."
Both Kim and Passanante are part of a growing number of Dartmouth alumnae who have found success in unique and varied fields.
Their success should prove inspiring for women and men at Dartmouth today who are beginning to imagine careers where they can incorporate the wide range of skills and experiences they've acquired at the College.
