As Women's History month concludes, The Daily reached out to some of OU's influential women, including former provost Nancy Mergler, Women's Outreach Center director Kathy Moxley and professor Elanie Steyn.
Although Women's History month ends in March, read on to see how former provost Nancy Mergler has impacted the campus for students.
Now an honors college professor, former OU provost Nancy Mergler is happy to be out of the stress and difficulty of her former position.
“I very much enjoy not being in the pressure cooker with the stress and having to make decisions all the time,” Mergler said. “I just enjoy being in the rhythm with students again.”
Mergler said being provost was also difficult due to her being a woman. When she first took the job in 1995, she was the only woman in that position at a Big 12 school.
“I can remember going to my first meeting and I was by far the youngest and the only woman,” Mergler said. “They didn’t know what to do with me.”
She said the “tired, older white men” at those meetings were made uncomfortable by her presence and that it tended to affect the way they treated her.
“They were nice, kind of,” Mergler said, laughing. “They were like, ‘Oh my gosh, who is she, what is she doing here?’”
At her resignation, Mergler was the oldest and longest-serving provost of all Big 12 provosts.
Now half of all Big 12 schools have women currently serving as provost, said Mergler. She said she was delighted by this transition because she believes it is important to have a womanly presence in any leadership position.
“I think in some ways, the presence of women in the room makes a statement,” Mergler said.
She said it creates multiple points of view and offers a diversity of viewpoints and opinions.
Overall, Mergler said it is important for women to prevail and be strong-willed in situations where they are at a disadvantage.
“When I first came to the university in the psychology department, I was one of two women," said Mergler. "Now, half of the department is women. What you do is you prevail.”
