Wildcat women
This week, I was honored to be a recipient of the 30 Under 30 Award from the University of Kentucky Wildcat Forum — a recognition given to both UK alumni and current undergraduates who have made “significant contributions” to the university and the Commonwealth.
Just after I was recognized, my sister said, “30 Under 30…got in just under the wire.” No one can humble you like a sister. Also, I’m two-and-a-half years under the wire.
The award was given as part of UKWF’s annual Sarah Bennett Holmes Awards Luncheon. I knew I’d read about her before, so when I got home, I checked Our Rightful Place, a wonderful book about the history of women students at UK, co-written by the late Terry L. Birdwhistell—a former UK Dean of Libraries who shared a lot of history with me.
Sarah Bennett Holmes wasn’t a native Kentuckian but made her home here. Her husband was the head of the UK Hygiene Department; he died in 1925. Five years later, while raising four young children, Holmes earned her bachelor’s degree. She earned a graduate degree a decade later. After serving as an assistant and interim dean, Holmes then served as Dean of Women from 1942 to 1957.
She was a fierce advocate for women students at UK during the tumultuous years of the Great Depression and World War II. She consistently criticized the inadequate housing for women at UK. “At one point,” wrote Birdwhistell and co-writer Deirdre A. Scaggs, “she sarcastically noted that horses in Central Kentucky could expect better housing than UK’s women students.” UK named a dorm after her in 1958; a Holmes Hall still exists on campus today.
Holmes was also concerned about women’s vocational and educational opportunities, particularly after the war ended and men returned home. Holmes went “on record vocally opposing” the discrimination that women faced as those in power tried to return to a pre-war “normalcy.” In 1946, she wrote, “It is a short-sighted policy to provide educational benefits for veterans at the expense of women.”
I am incredibly honored to be in the company of the wonderful women who have graduated from the University of Kentucky, like Holmes, and my mother, and my sister Ashtyn, and my friend Lexi, who very graciously nominated me for this award.
In a truly incredible act of kindness for a words of affirmation girlie, not only did Lexi nominate me but she also made a beautiful PDF of her nomination to share with me. “Bailey Vandiver is what I would call a Kentuckian,” she wrote. “Her blood runs blue as she’s not only a diehard Kentucky fan but the definition of someone who wants to make the Bluegrass state better.” How I love being a Kentucky woman!
I’ll close with an Alice Dunnigan connection: one of my very favorite quotes from all my interviews and research, said by sculptor Amanda Matthews.
“I really love to tell the stories of women who have grit, women who have passion, women who have purpose,” she said, “and Kentucky has a lot of those women.”