'Life choices' will be topic of Reunion session

	The Feminine Mystique was the Class of 1967's reading assignment the summer before their freshman year.

What would you change about how you raised your children? How important has your work been in helping you define yourself? Has your marriage or partnership been as satisfying as you hoped?

The Class of 1967 is getting ready for this year's Reunion by answering those and other questions—part of a survey drafted by Frances L. Hoffmann, a professor of sociology and outgoing Dean of the Faculty. She will present the results to the class June 2.

Hoffmann's questions are based on a survey used by Betty Friedan as research for The Feminine Mystique. That book, published in 1963, was the Class of 1967's reading assignment the summer before their freshman year.

"We're very pumped about this feature of the Reunion," said Rae Downes Koshetz '67, a member of the planning committee. "Since our last reunion, the members of our class turned 60 years old. Many of us became grandparents, and are discussing choices with our own children. There couldn't be a better time to talk together about the choices we made, how they shaped our lives, what we would have done differently, and how our lives are today."

The survey evolved from discussions among Koshetz, Carol Friedman Dressler '67, Hoffmann and Bridget McShane, director of alumni relations.

The classmates talked about rereading The Feminine Mystique but weren't sure. McShane put them in touch with Hoffmann. Dressler asked about a questionnaire, and Hoffmann hit on the idea of adapting the one Friedan had used for querying Smith College alumnae.

The women in the Class of '67 were raised largely by stay-at-home mothers. The world they graduated into, though, was being reshaped by the women's movement, Koshetz said. Some chose to make marriage and child-rearing their principal focus, while others dove headfirst into careers, graduate school and, in some cases, careers with marriages and children. Still others raised children or stepchildren, then pursued graduate studies and careers.

"The keyword here is choice," Koshetz said. "We were able to choose what we wanted to do. It wasn't always easy. Young women today would be amused to hear that a pregnant lawyer arguing a case before a jury was a curiosity when we were in our child-bearing years."

The session with Hoffmann is open only to members of the Class of '67, but watch for coverage of the findings in a future newsletter. Members of the Class are reminded to return their surveys to Hoffmann by May 1.