By Joyce Kryszak
Chautauqua, NY – The Chautauqua Institution has a storied history as a place where great thinkers come to discuss and advance progressive ideas. Leading men and women from around the world are included in the impressive roster of lecturers each season.
But that wasn't always the case - at least not when it came to inviting women to come talk.
Come to Bestor Plaza in the heart of the Institution on any summer day and there's no telling who you might bump into. Many would be highly recognizable women.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is a favorite guest. And former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is a frequent visitor. Today, former Austrian Ambassador Swanee Hunt is on the grounds and will give a lecture at the Hall of Philosophy.
Laura Damon is a Chautauqua resident and Institution researcher. She said women have been advancing ideas at the Institution from its earliest days as a tent community.
Damon said they gathered outside their tents to cook and clean clothes, and to talk about the problems facing women back home.
But over the years, some of those problems could also be found at Chautauqua.
Despite its reputation for forward thinking, the Institution put up many of the same walls to the women's rights movement as did the the rest of the country.
Damon and another Chauatuqua friend spent nearly a year making a video on Chautuaqua "Ladies, Learners and Leaders." They combed the Institution's archives and piecing together the history of women at Chautauqua.
What they found was sometimes a bit shocking.
One of the Institution founders, Bishop John Heyl Vincent, was initially one of the strongest opponents to the women's suffrage movement. Damon said Vincent believed women weren't capable or rresponsible enought to vote.
Eventually, Vincent and the Institution did come around. But for decades, politically-minded women were barred from the Chautauqua lectern.
And Damon said restrictions on women even extended to the lakefront. Women were required to wear heavy, woolen bathing suits that nearly covered their bodies.
It's a funny story that Damon said didn't always have such a funny ending. The archives also show a large number of drownings during those years. The heavy woolen garments were largely to blame for pulling women under.
But eventually, Damon said Chautauqua history shows women managing to keep their heads above water.
Susan B. Anthony came to speak on occasion, as did Jane Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Coretta Scott King and many others who paved the way for women's rights.
Chautauqua visitor Dr. Monica Ondrusko came to hear Damon's lecture and to see the video. Dr. Ondrusko said she learned a lot. The first thing she said is that she will, from now on, ask to be called "doctor" Ondrusko. Women at one time were barred from using the title at Chautauqua.
And Dr. Ondrusko said those images of beautiful Victorian women in summer dress now have a whole new layer of meaning.
The video presentations are over now for the season. But copies of the DVD will soon be available to the public. Damon says the Chautauqua Women's Club is funding the project - to help support the strong, hard-fought tradition of Chautauqua's ladies learners - and leaders.
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