Mary means “rebellion”. And true to her name, Mary Steichen Calderone ’25 rebelled against her life and times, with the poise and sensibility of a Vassar girl.
Born to a singer-mother and photographer-father, Calderone’s bohemian upbringing no doubt influenced her liberal perspective on life. The woman who would later be dubbed “the Grand Dame of sexual enlightenment” graduated from Vassar in 1925 with a major in Chemistry, and with the same unconventionality that would punctuate her later life, Calderone decided to pursue a career in theater instead. But by 1933 she was left with broken dreams of an unsuccessful acting career, a failed marriage and a deceased 8-year-old daughter. She plummeted into depression.
In 1934 at age 30, Calderone pushed back against her adversity and returned to her old love: science. Obtaining her M.D. degree from University of Rochester and M.P.H. from Columbia University, Calderone began her lifelong revolutionary commitment to Public Health.
Calderone joined the controversial Planned Parenthood as medical director, beginning the revolution that would lead to new perspectives and ideas on birth control, abortion and sexuality. But “handing out contraceptives was not enough” for Calderone, and in 1964, she quit Planned Parenthood and established the Sex (later Sexuality) Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).
She boldly confronted the country with brazen, brow-raising ideas on sex and sex education, proposing that sex education be taught as early as kindergarten – an idea that was especially unpopular with more conservative groups, Mothers Organized for Moral Stability (MOMS) and the MOTOREDE. And while some hailed her “the Grand Dame of Sex Education”, others called her “the leader of the SIECUS stinkpot”- despite some of her rather conservative convictions about the sex act.
Still Calderone carried on, extensively lecturing and writing, in her mission to promote sexual education “with a positive approach and moral neutrality”, until her death in 1999. Her life’s work is honored in over 12 prestigious honorary doctorates, a plethora of awards including the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for Distinguished Service to Humanity, and the critically evolved ideas on sex and sexuality we hold today.
Liberalness of thought and expression, forged in an awareness of self and society, and a commitment to (positive) radical change – this was Mary Calderone, this is Vassar.
VASS 101: 