Paula Goldsmid Papers, 1970-1983 | Oberlin College Archives

Paula Ann Lipnick Goldsmid was born to Milton and Sarah Okun Lipnick on January 7, 1943 in New York City.  She was a magna cum laude graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Oberlin College in 1964, after a junior year at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  At the University of Chicago Paula Goldsmid earned a master’s degree in 1967 and a doctorate in 1972 in Sociology.  Her spouse, Charles A. Goldsmid, also pursued graduate degrees at the University of Chicago culminating in a doctorate in Sociology in 1971.

During Paula Goldsmid’s graduate work, she received traineeships and a Ford Foundation fellowship, and held teaching positions at Chicago and at the University of North Carolina.  She also worked as a research analyst and research assistant for the Organization of American States, the Social Security Administration, and the University of Chicago.

After receiving her doctorate, Paula Goldsmid was the Director of Admissions for the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1973-74.  In July 1974 she was appointed Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Oberlin College.  In that position she was responsible for the development of feminist interests of curricular and professional kinds.  This included the development of the Women’s Studies program and the recruitment of women as candidates for positions in the faculty and administration.

In 1974 the Women’s Studies Committee at Oberlin, now a standing committee of the College Faculty, was made responsible for “coordinating curricular offerings in the area of Women’s Studies, including the possibility of developing guidelines for a major in Women’s Studies.”  From 1974 to 1976 the committee membership included four representatives from the College Faculty, four students, Paula Goldsmid as the associate dean responsible for women’s concerns, and two other individuals interested in women’s studies. The latter were appointed by the first nine members and approved by the College Faculty. In the spring of 1976 the committee’s composition consisted of seven faculty members (five women and two men) and seven students.

Using external grants the Women’s Studies Committee developed continuing-education opportunities and public programs.  The committee achieved a major goal when the Educational Plums and Policy Committee passed a resolution in 1982 making women’s studies a program. By this time a program coordinator had been in place for several years, and the curriculum included 27 core courses (not all taught annually) and 41 related courses. These cross-listed courses were taught mostly by tenured or tenure-track faculty members. The introduction of Women’s Studies 100 in 1981-82 constituted the program’s first class offering. Although this step did not end the financing and staffing problems that plagued the Women’s Studies Program from the beginning, it did establish a niche in the curriculum.

In July 1980 Paula Goldsmid was advanced to Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology.

At the time of Paula Goldsmid’s appointment at Oberlin in 1974, Charles Goldsmid was an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  In June 1975 he was appointed as the Coordinator of Academic Advising at Oberlin College.  For several years thereafter he was a member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Oberlin.

Paula Goldsmid left Oberlin College in June 1981.  She is the Director of Health Sciences at Pomona College in Claremont, California.

Sources Consulted

Staff file of Paula Goldsmid, RG 28/3.

Records of the Office of the Dean, RG 9.