I never had a sense that girls were less than, but when I went to college I was an editor of the newspaper and I looked around the board table one day and realized I was the only woman on that board of twelve board I thought, “Where are all of my smart female friends? Why is this the case?” A bunch of us got together and started talking about it and we decided to start our own undergraduate feminist journal our senior year and in that process I realized how much resistance there was to the word feminism and to the idea of women speaking their minds and having interest in the politics that might concern women. So I think that I never was aware of it personally until I was at this very unenlightened elite university and suddenly you threw out the f word, feminism, and there was all sorts of resistance. And I think that made me even more interested in finding my own definition.
Stephanie Yuhl
College Professor
Abstract:
Dr. Stephanie Yuhl was born on September 17, 1966 in Santa Monica, California where she grew up in a large family of ten (five sisters, two brothers and her parents). Dr. Yuhl enjoyed being raised in Santa Monica because of the beautiful beaches, lively streets, and the diverse culture. She is the mother of her three children, Julia, Emmitt, and Phineas. Dr. Yuhl attended Georgetown University in Washington D.C. for her undergraduate degree and later attended Duke University where she earned her PhD. In 2000, she moved to Worcester to accept a job in the History Department at the College of the Holy Cross. Dr. Yuhl enjoys teaching because she takes pleasure in challenging young students. Challenging these young adults enables them to expand their perspectives on the world in addition to expanding their beliefs. This allows them to form their own thoughts as unique individuals. Although Dr. Yuhl enjoys her career, it can become stressful when trying to balance it with her family life. Dr. Yuhl is on the steering committee for the Women’s Oral History Project and heavily involved in a political organization known as “Stand for Children,” which supports increased public education funding. Dr. Yuhl would like to see young girls be true to themselves and not get shaped by what society says is “beautiful.”
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