"...because I was allowed to teach as a married woman...I felt it was not restricting me..." from Natalie Saltmarsh Pogson '45
Title
"...because I was allowed to teach as a married woman...I felt it was not restricting me..." from Natalie Saltmarsh Pogson '45
Creator
Lesley University
Source
From 7:18 of Natalie Saltmarsh Pogson's oral history.
Publisher
Lesley University
Rights
Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright.
Language
English
Type
Sound
Identifier
3.001 Lesley University Archives Oral History Collection, 2008-2010
Interviewer
Alyssa Pacy
Interviewee
Natalie Saltmarsh Pogson
Transcription
"Lesley students were not supposed to pursue Harvard students who were nearby the Harvard military ROTC, and the war was going strong, and we were just supposed to be young ladies that were very much young ladies going into teaching. And at that time, going into teaching was not a profession where you expected to be married to teach, because it was all single teachers. I was very very fortunate the year I graduated from Lesley in '45 to find a position in the town of Western Mass where they accepted a married teacher because I got married in the spring of my senior year. And at that time we had to get permission from Lesley to be married [while still a student]."
NSP: "We were very much expected to be ladies at all times and we were going into teaching which was considered a very special profession at that time for women and therefore we were just expected to act as such at all times...That we would be an example in the community as teachers, our behavior, our actions at all times were to be of the type to--you could teach the children...For the teas that Mrs. Wolfard used to give, they were a hat and gloves sort of thing and you were expected, yes, your dress was very much a part of your being someone in the community that could be looked at as a very special person."
AP: "And when you talked about teaching being a special profession for women, what did you mean by that?"
NSP: "It was one of the few professions that a woman could go into at that time. There weren't a lot of them, although during the war years the women went into everything from working into defense factories to everything, but if you chose teaching, it was because it was considered one of the professions, and it was considered that you went into it unmarried. I mean they always talk about old maid school teachers, and that's what you were considered at that time if you went into teaching."
AP: "So you had to make a choice then...between...?"
NSP: "Probably yes, although I don't think I ever felt it as that kind of a choice, and because it was wartime, and because I was allowed to teach as a married woman, it was probably...I felt it was not restricting me in that way. The years that I was at Lesley, because they were wartime years, made it very much more unusual than it would have otherwise."
AP: "And why was that? What were you able to do that might not have otherwise?"
NSP: "Well I think that there was a general feeling that everything was different. And at that time no one knew exactly what the outcome and when the war would end when I started at Lesley. and there weren't the formal things, probably not as many outside activities, that type of thing as there would be and that there were restrictions on night affairs and this kind of thing, blackout conditions if there were such things."
AP: "So it really gave you an opportunity to concentrate on your studies then?"
NSP: "Yes. I would say so. I would say that our studies were the main thing, although I'm not sure as young ladies there weren't a lot of other things too. And people dated at the time and I as I say was married was dating definitely this man. He was in the Naval R.O.T.C. at Tufts and I was dating and then was married in April of my senior year at Lesley.
AP: "Did you have to get permission to get married?"
NSP: "Yes, I did, from the school to be married while I was still a student. And I remember there was a dean, Clara Thurber was the dean at the time, and her restriction to me were that I was not to tell anyone about my married life or anything like that, that I was just to be the same young lady that I had always been."
NSP: "We were very much expected to be ladies at all times and we were going into teaching which was considered a very special profession at that time for women and therefore we were just expected to act as such at all times...That we would be an example in the community as teachers, our behavior, our actions at all times were to be of the type to--you could teach the children...For the teas that Mrs. Wolfard used to give, they were a hat and gloves sort of thing and you were expected, yes, your dress was very much a part of your being someone in the community that could be looked at as a very special person."
AP: "And when you talked about teaching being a special profession for women, what did you mean by that?"
NSP: "It was one of the few professions that a woman could go into at that time. There weren't a lot of them, although during the war years the women went into everything from working into defense factories to everything, but if you chose teaching, it was because it was considered one of the professions, and it was considered that you went into it unmarried. I mean they always talk about old maid school teachers, and that's what you were considered at that time if you went into teaching."
AP: "So you had to make a choice then...between...?"
NSP: "Probably yes, although I don't think I ever felt it as that kind of a choice, and because it was wartime, and because I was allowed to teach as a married woman, it was probably...I felt it was not restricting me in that way. The years that I was at Lesley, because they were wartime years, made it very much more unusual than it would have otherwise."
AP: "And why was that? What were you able to do that might not have otherwise?"
NSP: "Well I think that there was a general feeling that everything was different. And at that time no one knew exactly what the outcome and when the war would end when I started at Lesley. and there weren't the formal things, probably not as many outside activities, that type of thing as there would be and that there were restrictions on night affairs and this kind of thing, blackout conditions if there were such things."
AP: "So it really gave you an opportunity to concentrate on your studies then?"
NSP: "Yes. I would say so. I would say that our studies were the main thing, although I'm not sure as young ladies there weren't a lot of other things too. And people dated at the time and I as I say was married was dating definitely this man. He was in the Naval R.O.T.C. at Tufts and I was dating and then was married in April of my senior year at Lesley.
AP: "Did you have to get permission to get married?"
NSP: "Yes, I did, from the school to be married while I was still a student. And I remember there was a dean, Clara Thurber was the dean at the time, and her restriction to me were that I was not to tell anyone about my married life or anything like that, that I was just to be the same young lady that I had always been."
URL
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/oral_histories/20/
Citation
Lesley University, “"...because I was allowed to teach as a married woman...I felt it was not restricting me..." from Natalie Saltmarsh Pogson '45,” Digital Exhibits | Lesley University Archives, accessed May 2, 2024, https://lesleyarchives.omeka.net/items/show/165.