Inventory   [ + ]

Guide to the Dorothy Rosevear Strawn Papers
1938-1996

Dorothy Rosevear Strawn. In Tyee (UW yearbook), v. 69, 1968. Special Collections, UW Libraries

Biographical Note

Serving in the 1960s and early 1970s as the last Dean of Women and the first Director of Women's Studies, Dorothy Rosevear Strawn played a major part in transforming the role of female students at the University of Washington. When Strawn began her career at UW, her job consisted largely of enforcing social restrictions for women, but by the time she left she had initiated and directed programs that were grounded in the feminist ideas of the 1960s. Strawn was born in 1916 in Glenn's Ferry, Idaho. She graduated from the University of Idaho in 1937 where she was a member of a sorority and majored in journalism.

After marrying Loren Strawn in 1937, the couple moved to Kooskia, Idaho, where Dorothy taught high school for a year. During this time she also did freelance writing for various publications, and when she moved to Seattle in 1938 she wrote for theUniversity District Herald for a year. After the start of World War II, when her husband worked for naval intelligence, Strawn served as the chief clerk for the Selective Service Board in Corvallis, Or., from 1940 until 1942. After the war Strawn moved back to Seattle. Once her daughter began attending school in 1950, she worked as a substitute teacher at Shoreline High School and began taking classes at UW. At Shoreline Strawn worked as a teacher and counselor, and from 1955 to 1960 she served as the Chairman of the Guidance Department.

In 1959 Strawn earned her master's degree in education at UW after writing a thesis on the management of Shoreline schools. In 1960 she began her professional career at the University when she accepted a position as Dean of Women and Associate Dean of Students. One of Strawn's responsibilities was to enforce an elaborate system of rules designed for women only, including early closure and visitation restrictions in women's dormitories. Under Strawn's leadership, however, UW became one of the first large universities to eliminate a separate set of regulations for women.

In addition to changes in the University's policies toward women, much of Strawn's other work during the 1960s received attention. Strawn provided leadership for various national and state women's education organizations, and in 1966 the Business and Professional Women's Club named her Business Woman of the Year. In addition to her duties as Dean, in 1968 Strawn founded the Women's Continuing Education program, which she directed until 1970. This was a tremendously popular, non-credit program designed for women who wanted to begin a new career after their children left home. Also in the late 1960s, Strawn handled complaints about sororities' discrimination against African-American students.

In 1970 Strawn became the first Director of Women's Studies, and the University eliminated the Dean of Women post. In 1972 Strawn left her directorship to work on the Discovery Internship Project, a program designed to place "mature" women in new careers. Strawn retired from the University in 1973 and continues to live in Seattle.

Scope and Content

The total size of the accession is 2.21 cubic feet, with one reel-to-reel audio tape. Papers date from 1938 to 1973, but the vast majority of the material covers 1960 to 1972 and is divided into subgroups based on the positions Strawn held at the University, plus other files relating to Shoreline schools and a publication she edited in 1940. The exception to this arrangement is that the records from Women's Continuing Education have not been separated from the Women's Studies records.

The first three folders of the first box contain papers relating to allegations of sororities' discrimination. These files contain letters from 1965 to 1969 from sorority alumnae, and range from protest and testimony about discrimination to letters that defend the organizations. This accession contains the master copy of the history of the Decision Is Destiny conference of 1963. This conference was an early manifestation of the women's movement and featured classes, workshops, and speakers such as Betty Friedan. Strawn wrote in her notes that this conference led to grants for the Discovery Internship Project.

The accession also contains the newsletterDames Diary from 1940 to 1941 when Strawn was its editor. TheDiary was a publication of the Dames Club, an organization of married women who attended UW or whose husbands were students.

Acquisition Info

Strawn donated her papers to the library in 1996.

Processing Info

The papers were processed in 1996.

Inventory