Pictured above: the late Professor Emeritus of Politics and Women Studies Jean Grossholtz. Photo courtesy of Sonali Gulati ‘96.
By Zoë Farr ‘21
Managing Editor of Web Content
Content warning: The following article contains mentions of sexual assault, battery and rape.
In 1971, Professor Emeritus of Politics and Women Studies Thelma “Jean” Grossholtz, with the help of Smith College’s Professor Emerita of Government Susan Bourque, taught the first-ever women’s studies course in the Five College Consortium. The class was initially taught at Smith College and focused on sex and violence, hoping to broaden students’ perspectives to a new curriculum that specifically focused on women.
In October 1977, Grossholtz told the Mount Holyoke News, “I have always tried to make feminism an issue, to raise questions about students’ assumptions. I have to use brute force against students who don’t want to hear it. I think students don’t think it’s legitimate in the classroom.” Even so, Grossholtz was determined to forge a new area of study for Mount Holyoke students to consider, becoming one of the founders of the women’s studies program, the precursor to the College’s present-day gender studies department.
On Feb. 9, 2021, Grossholtz died at the age of 91. But the impact her life had on Mount Holyoke and its community continues on. To commemorate Grossholtz, we at Mount Holyoke News have collected the stories of her life from Mount Holyoke community members.
After receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Grossholtz began teaching at Boston University in 1960. Her time there, though, was short-lived, and the next year she began teaching at Mount Holyoke, where she would remain as a professor of politics until she retired in 1999 after 38 years.
Those who knew Grossholtz at Mount Holyoke remembered her as an activist who advocated for change wherever she could.
According to an article published by the Mount Holyoke News in 1995, Grossholtz taught anti-racism and anti-homophobia workshops in the Pioneer Valley in an attempt to teach her community about social issues. Additionally, Grossholtz worked with the violence against women movement to create resources for victims of sexual assault and battery, establishing crisis hotlines and shelters on local, state and national levels.
A 1983 article published by the Mount Holyoke News recalled Grossholtz as having taken part in the Seneca Women's Peace Encampment in Romulus, New York, where she protested the distribution of missiles in Europe. Grossholtz recalled the experience, saying, “Sleeping on the asphalt, under the floodlights, in mud puddles, with other women … there’s just nothing like it!”
Despite being a pacifist, Grossholtz found herself arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience on numerous occasions. According to Professor of History Daniel Czitrom, he and Grossholtz had been arrested at the Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts, on Dec. 1, 1990, while protesting U.S. involvement in Iraq and the impending first Gulf War. While only spending one night in jail, both Czitrom and Grossholtz had their arrests published in the paper, agreeing to go to court and use their trial as a forum to try the war. In the end, their case was dismissed and the district attorney declined prosecution.
Czitrom described Grossholtz as “a one-of-a-kind force of nature who always stood on principle and remained a committed activist her entire life.”
Grossholtz's activist spirit influenced the way she taught at Mount Holyoke, as she took every opportunity to broaden the perspectives of her students. “My students — who loved her classes — told me that she often began a class by drawing the image of a baby on the blackboard and asking the class to tell her about the child’s future. They were always stymied and always asked for the sex or gender of the child. And, of course, that was just her point: … to expose our hidden biases, assumptions [and] expectations,” Professor Emeritus of Religion Jane Crosthwaite, who worked with Grossholtz, said. “Jean had this startling ability to be clear, to make us all think and rethink what we thought we knew — students, faculty and friends alike.”
Grossholtz’s advocacy wasn’t just contained to her revolutionary teaching style. She also had changes she wished to see on campus for the betterment of Mount Holyoke.
In 1977, she critiqued the Mount Holyoke education, saying, “It seems to me that one thing you can say about the curriculum on this campus is that it’s systematically patriarchal. It’s white boys’ curriculum taught to white boys’ wives.”
Through her establishment of the women’s studies program, Grossholtz began the process of changing Mount Holyoke’s approach to education to include women in a more holistic manner. “[Women’s studies] always existed in my early years [at Mount Holyoke] on just the barest of shoestrings. And I mean, that was a labor of love from [Grossholtz] to get that up and running,” Professor of History Lynda Morgan explained, detailing the effort Grossholtz put in to keep the program afloat, even in 1988, when Morgan joined the Mount Holyoke faculty.
Over the years, the women’s studies program would evolve, eventually morphing in the 2005-2006 academic year to become the gender studies department. Despite her foundational role in the creation of the program, Grossholtz was always open to new ideas on the direction the program would take.
According to Professor of History Mary Renda, Grossholtz’s encouragement had a profound effect on her first years at Mount Holyoke. “I remember one point in the history of women’s studies … Jean saying, very clearly, ‘We have to listen to the next generation. We have to let them lead,’” Renda said.
“Jean valued what other people brought to the table,” Renda continued. “She supported us and cheered us on. She wanted women’s studies to be a powerful presence, for all of us and for the world. She saw the difference it could make, the difference we could make.”
Grossholtz lived by her teachings, demonstrating her views in her everyday life. In 1994, at the age of 65, Grossholtz entered the Gay Games in New York City, winning a silver medal in bodybuilding. She entered this competition to combat body shaming, a subject that she lectured about at Mount Holyoke.
“I couldn’t believe that because I never really thought of Jean as athletic,” Morgan said. “And all of a sudden, Jean has become a bodybuilder. But she did it to combat body shaming and stuff like that. … So even that was part of her activism.”
Above all else, Grossholtz wanted to support the students at Mount Holyoke, whether that be to achieve their goals or to accept themselves. Barbara Smith ’69, a renowned activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, found support in Grossholtz in 1977.
According to Morgan, a group of African American women activists approached Grossholtz about their desire to convene and discuss a new intersectional approach to politics, specifically pushing at the boundaries of gender and race. Grossholtz offered the group her house for a retreat in order to discuss their ideas and plans, allowing them the space to gather and communicate. The group was the Combahee River Collective, a socialist Black feminist organization that gained importance and traction in the 1970s and 1980s.
Her support for her students extended past activism and into their personal lives. In 1970, Grossholtz came out as a lesbian to the Mount Holyoke community. Despite facing challenges from her colleagues at the time, Grossholtz felt her coming out was important to any closeted members of the student body at Mount Holyoke. She said in 1994, “[Coming out has] been important to me, and I think it’s been important to the students for me to be out.”
Sonali Gulati ’96, a former student of Grossholtz, reaffirmed that sentiment, saying, “Jean made it okay for me to accept myself as an out, proud lesbian.”
Grossholtz’s support of Gulati transcended graduation, as she set up a room for Gulati at her home after Gulati’s mother passed away, took Gulati to her driver’s license test and went to the hospital the day Gulati’s son was born over 15 years after her graduation.
When thinking about the impact Grossholtz had on her life, Gulati described her as “my speed dial person, my rock, my anchor who pulled me through some of the darkest times of my life.”
According to Renda, Grossholtz’s support and dedication to the people in her life was felt by everyone around her, as she actively worked to better the lives of everyone she knew. “Jean cared so much about us and about other people. … She thought a lot about how to make things go well for people,” Renda said about Grossholtz. “When she saw that somebody was in trouble, that they didn’t have the resources they needed, when things were going awry in some way, she was always thinking about how to support people.”
In the quieter moments of Grossholtz’s eventful life, she enjoyed watching the annual Miss America Beauty Pageant and insisted upon teaching her classes at Mount Holyoke on Fridays in order to see which of her students were truly committed to the coursework. When asked about her life after retiring from teaching, she mused about the world of possibilities open to her.
In a 1995 interview with the Mount Holyoke News, she told the paper she planned to spend her retirement in an RV with her dog in order to “travel around and see all the women I know in the country.” She went on to mention her plans to become a stand-up comedian and write murder mystery novels.
While not every student who knew Grossholtz shared a bond with her for the rest of their life like Gulati, she still impacted those she taught in a way that was fundamental to their development. Sue Dodell ’76 took an introduction to politics course with Grossholtz during her first year at Mount Holyoke and doesn’t recall the specifics of the class — yet she was inspired and continued to take courses in the department, ultimately becoming a politics major and going to law school after graduation. She credits her interest in politics and subsequent 40-year-long career as a lawyer in New York City government to Grossholtz’s class.
After hearing the news of her passing, Mount Holyoke alumni have taken to sharing their stories about Grossholtz on various social media platforms. Barbara Smith tweeted on Feb. 16, “I was so sad to hear that Prof. Jean Grossholtz died last week. Jean was extraordinary as a teacher, an intellectual, an activist & a friend. We held the first Combahee River retreat in 1977 at her home in S. Hadley, which she & her housemates vacated for the weekend.” As stated in her obituary, she left behind generations of fueled activists who are following her unfinished dream of smashing the patriarchy, dismantling racism, defeating capitalism, fighting for equality and caring for the environment.
The legacy of Grossholtz lives on through the Mount Holyoke community and her surviving family. Grossholtz brought her love of activism and education to all aspects of her life, encouraging growth in her students, in her community and in her friends.
“I think she had an abiding belief that no matter where anybody came from, or what difficulties they might be facing, she had complete confidence in their ability to face whatever it was that they had to face and their ability to overcome it. And she was always there, very supportive,” Morgan described.
A virtual memorial service for Grossholtz will be held on March 7, 2021, at 10 a.m. Please visit MyKeeper.com to RSVP, share a memory or send a tribute.
Statements and testaments from the Mount Holyoke community about the death of Jean Grossholtz:
“Jean was a force to be reckoned with. She was the epitome of the scholar/activist. She not only thought deeply about things but acted on her analysis and organized with others to make the world a better place.” - Professor Emeritus of Politics Douglas Amy
“Jean was a fierce and absolutely fearless advocate for justice, especially justice for women, working-class people, and marginalized groups all over the world. She was an activist-scholar who hated hypocrisy, unthinking privilege, and oppression of any kind and devoted her life in the academy and out to fighting against them.” - Professor Emeritus of Politics Joan Cocks
“I knew Jean well. Actually, she hired me, when she was chair, in 1971. She had a very focused, keen intelligence, and she used it to understand deeply how the practices of patriarchy structure our world. She led the long process of organizing a women's studies program at Mt Holyoke. With Professor Susie Bourque of Smith, she co-taught a powerful course on women on both campuses. Jean was fearless, articulate, and radical in the deep sense of that word.” - Professor Emeritus of Politics Penny Gill
“She was one of a kind force of nature who always stood on principle and remained a committed activist her entire life. Thirty years ago, on December 1, 1990, Jean and I were part of a group of 40 protesters who engaged in non-violent disobedience outside the gates of Westover AFB in Chicopee. We opposed the US build-up in Iraq and the impending first Gulf War, a/k/ Desert Storm. We refused to leave, got arrested, and spent the day in the Chicopee jail before being released on personal recognizance. Our idea was to go to trial and use that forum to try the war. But the war ended in just a few days and our case was "nolle prossed", meaning the DA declined to prosecute. All our names were published in the papers, of course, and I recall several of my students being shocked and scared by our arrests. That was only one of the many actions she took part in.” - Professor of History Daniel Czitrom
“Jean's idea of what feminism was very big, very expansive. It was very powerful. You know, there was nothing outside the realm of what she was trying to think about in terms of how to make things right. And how to fight for justice.” - Professor of History Mary Renda
“I’d been involved in protest movements since grad school days, but no one I knew quite matched Jean’s commitment and zeal, especially of course in issues concerning not only social justice but social justice particularly as it pertained to women. Show her a demonstration and she’d be there, often as not ending up arrested. What was also unusual about Jean was her global perspective. Her dissertation, published not long after, focused on Sri Lanka. She kept in contact with women activists in South Asia, then with the advent of the internet with Africa and who knows where else. She brought some of them to campus, for example, Vandana Shiva. Vandana was trained as a physicist but took on a dizzying array of issues in India, especially effects of the development of the lives of rural women.”
“Jean and I both retired in June 1999. On a cold winter’s night a few months before we had dinner together in Amherst. Once settled in, I asked her what she intended to do when she retired. Without hesitation, she replied, “Save the world.” When she asked me the same question—well, you can imagine how lame any ideas of mine were!”
- Professor Emeritus of History Eugenia “Fi” Herbert
“When I arrived at Mount Holyoke in the fall of 1972, I had worked on local political campaigns and thought I wanted to major in Political Science. So, I took Poli Sci 101 with Professor Grossholtz! I don't have any specific memories of the class, but she was a wonderful professor and I was inspired to take political science classes and be a Poli Sci major. After MHC, I went to law school, and for more than 40 years, I have worked as a lawyer in NYC government, including for elected officials and for the City agency that regulates campaigns. I credit Professor Grossholtz with inspiring me with my interest in politics and my career in government.” - Sue Dodell ‘76
“Having been indoctrinated by Victoria Schuck freshman year, I took at least one class with Jean, team-taught with Susan Bourqe from Smith - an amazing duo. I think that was the first time I was ever really challenged to think, analyze and argue; it may have been the first time I learned not to go to a class unprepared - haha! “ - Pamela Guren Bach ‘76
“I was so sad to hear that Prof. Jean Grossholtz died last week. Jean was extraordinary as a teacher, an intellectual, an activist & a friend. We held the first Combahee River retreat in 1977 at her home in S. Hadley, which she & her housemates vacated for the weekend. Solidarity is the word I think of when I remember Jean. Genuine, principled solidarity & sisterhood. The history of left, anti-racist 2nd wave feminism is generally unknown because the ruling class doesn't want us to know it. Jean helped to build that.” - Barbara Smith ‘69
“Like everyone who had the privilege of knowing Jean, I admired her above all for her fierce and loving commitment to social justice, achieved especially through the original and effective mode of feminist activism she modeled through her example and the worldwide networks she forged. When I arrived at Mount Holyoke in 1982, to teach South Asian studies in the fledgling Asian Studies program, I was thrilled to learn from my students about Jean’s introductory course in politics, where she inspired them by opening up paths toward resisting the connected web of patriarchy, racism and social inequity.
Everyone knows of Jean as the founder of Mount Holyoke’s Women’s Studies program. As a member of the Women’s Studies Steering Committee (the Committee that shaped the College’s “Women Studies” program in the 1980s) and as an Asianist, I am deeply grateful to Jean for her immense contributions to the Asian Studies Program. Jean generously gave of her gifts, through her passion for teaching, her dedication to diversity and her expertise in South Asia (she had written her dissertation on Sri Lanka). In the nineteen-eighties and nineties, Jean mentored a large number of Mount Holyoke students from South Asia, engaging with them over issues relating to South Asian feminisms. Thanks to Jean, South Asian feminist leaders, most notably Vandana Shiva, who continues to be India’s foremost environmental activists, routinely visited the College, enriching our thinking. Jean was one of kind: an inspiring colleague and mentor, an icon of how to meld a life of teaching with untiring activism. I shall miss her very much.” - Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies Indira Peterson