Bunting-Smith, Mary Ingraham

▪ 1999

      American scientist, educator, and administrator (b. July 10, 1910, New York, N.Y.—d. Jan. 21, 1998, Hanover, N.H.), as president of Radcliffe College (1960-72), created the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study (later Bunting Institute), which sought to advance women's role in society. After graduating from Vassar College (B.A., 1931), she attended the University of Wisconsin, where she earned a doctorate (1934) in agricultural bacteriology. She married in 1937 and divided her time between raising a family and conducting research at Yale University. Following the death of her husband in 1954, Bunting-Smith was forced to find full-time employment. Unable to obtain a faculty position at Yale (then an all-male college) because she was a woman, she became dean of Douglass College, the sister school of Rutgers University, where she also served as professor of bacteriology. In 1960 she became the fifth president of Radcliffe College. Believing there was a "climate of unexpectation" for women, Bunting-Smith founded the Radcliffe Institute of Independent Study in 1961. The centre examined the forces affecting women's position in society and provided fellowships to female scholars and artists, particularly those whose careers had been interrupted by family obligations. Alumnae of the institute include author Alice Walker and psychologist Carol Gilligan. Bunting-Smith also sought a fuller integration of the college with Harvard University, and it was during her tenure that Radcliffe students first received Harvard degrees and were granted admission to the university's graduate and business schools. In 1964 Bunting-Smith became the first female member of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

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