Nina Tassler

When I arrived on campus as a freshman, my father drove me in our faux-wood-paneled country squire station wagon from Florida to Boston. We carried my boxes and single suitcase up the stairs of a really nice brownstone at 37 Carlton Street in Brookline.

As we walked by the doors looking for my room, I noticed little cut-out flowers made of construction paper on each door. There were names written on each flower – women’s names – only women’s names. I very quickly realized that my dorm was one of the few remaining all girls dorms on campus.

Are you kidding me?

This was 1975. By 1973, 30 states had ratified the Equal Rights Amendment – co-ed dorms were on campuses across the country, I was a dedicated feminist, “Our Bodies, Ourselves” was published in 1971 by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. What was going on?

Read the whole speech: Boston University’s 143rd Commencement Address: Nina Tassler