Women Through the Decades: 1970s

Jul 8, 2019

Thousands of women have attended Xavier since the doors opened to them in 1969. They had different experiences depending on the decade they attended. The women highlighted here represent those alumnae who leveraged the benefits of their Xavier education to reach their goals and lead fulfilling, productive lives that inspire others to follow their dreams.

THE FIRST GRADUATE

PATTY LAGRANGE BURKE | 1970 BA PSYCHOLOGY | 1973 MA PSYCHOLOGY
Retired, City of Cincinnati

Patty LaGrange was the first woman to graduate from Xavier as part of the traditional class of undergraduate students. It almost didn’t happen that way. She’d been enrolled since 1966 in Xavier’s Evening College but had been permitted to attend mostly day classes because her father, Glen, was a Xavier professor. She called herself and other women like her the “Early Integrators.”

“We would meet in the ladies’ room on the first floor of Alter Hall,” she remembers. “There were six of us. And we really bonded.”

But in the fall of 1969, in her fourth year as an Evening College student, she observed the new coeds arriving as the first-ever class of women day students in the history of Xavier, and she wanted to be a part of it. Fortunately, the dean of the Evening College, a forward-thinking priest, had an idea. All she had to do was take one extra class. She did, and the following spring, Patty Lagrange Burke was the only woman sitting with the men at graduation in May of 1970.

Now retired, she thinks about the women who followed her to campus and the impact of the Xavier education they all received. For her, it meant having the confidence to speak up when she was the only one.

“I had a voice at Xavier in a male-dominated environment and expected the same as I moved on,” she said.

ANN FINEFROCK HOFFMAN | 1975 BA SOCIOLOGY
President and co-owner, Hoffman and Albers Interiors | Member, WOX Council | Xavier Board of Trustees

Ann Finefrock Hoffman came to Xavier because she wanted the same kind of Jesuit education that her siblings had experienced at Georgetown University. She knew it would provide a roadmap of ethics and values to guide her in her business career and also open doors, which for a woman in the 1970s was invaluable.

At Hoffman and Albers Interiors, she found her sociology and psychology education beneficial when creating designs for the varying personalities of her clients. In fact, she excelled, which was remarkable for a woman in the male-dominated field of interior design.

“We were welcomed very graciously to Xavier. There were so few of us who lived on campus, we didn't have as many amenities for women as there are now. Looking back at what Xavier life was like then for women and what it is now, it's amazing the difference. Our experiences were definitely stepping stones for the future Xavier women.”

KAY STAGAMAN “NAPIER” ZANOTTI | 1979 MBA
Former CEO, Arbonne International | Former Senior VP of Marketing, McDonald’s | Former VP of North American Pharmaceuticals and Corporate Women’s Health, P&G | Xavier Board of Trustees

Kay Zanotti didn’t give up when P&G turned her down for a job after graduating from Georgetown University in 1978. Instead, she met with Tom Hailstones, dean of Xavier’s business school, who offered her a full scholarship toward her MBA.

Armed with her new degree, she tried P&G again and was hired, triggering a career that has spanned 40 years. Though Zanotti was clearly a trailblazer for women in business, she credits Xavier for the way women were welcomed, emphasizing the Jesuit value of cura personalis—care for the whole person.

“This was the gift from Xavier that I can never fully repay. My MBA gave me critical business fundamentals I have used repeatedly over the last 40 years. I don’t know what my course in life would have been without Dr. (Thomas) Hailstone’s belief in me.”