"This was long before the all ever happened,"Maynard says. "Virginity was supposed to be thenorm... That of course was a major difference fromnow."

"In those days, everything was veryconservative," Marjorie Wood Drackett '44 says."No relationships unless you were married... Wevery much did exist within the framework of highpuritanical morals brought down by our parents."

War Changes

After Pearl Harbor in 1941, World War IItouched nearly every aspect of student life,including romantic relationships.

"It was very critical time," Mary ThorpeEllison '44 says. "The first two years and thelast two years were totally differentexperiences."

When the war began, formerly stiff and properHarvard underwent dramatic changes. Formalcoat-and-tie dinners gave way to casual meals.Radcliffe women found themselves clearing tablesinstead to being waited on by Universityemployees.

And dances--which were generally formal affairshosted by houses or the first-year class--seldomhappened at all.

Social life was affected by war rationing,which limited most students to the campus forentertainment and dates.

This had a positive romantic effect for sameRadcliffe women, however. Harvard men couldn't getto Wellesley to meet women there, even if theywanted to.

"All this business about Harvard men datingWellesley girls was not true," Ellison says.

Drackett says the distance from Wellesley keptRadcliffe women in higher demand.

"We were very popular because they just didn'thave gasoline," Drackett says. "We could walkanywhere."

Co-Ed Classes

Perhaps the most dramatic change in relationsbetween men and women at Harvard came in 1944,when the wartime enrollment decline forced theCollege to consolidate Radcliffe and Harvardcourses.

Men and women could interact socially on muchcloser basis in the new co-ed classes.