School is almost out for the holidays, and for one local elementary, it’s the midpoint of an impressive first year. After a $20 million renovation, The Dufrocq School, on South 19th Street, reopened in August with more than 77,000 new or updated square feet, an expanded Montessori program and a new academic magnet. With a revised attendance zone that now includes the Garden District, the school is set up to draw more families back to the East Baton Rouge Public School System. Countless people worked on expanding the historic school, but several female activists stand out as early champions when few thought the project possible.
Ten years ago, the Rev. Mary Moody, a longtime resident of the neighborhood surrounding Dufrocq; Ferrill Ann Coates, a landscape architect who attended the school as a child; and other residents from the Garden District and Mid City formed a small, grass-roots group called the Government Street Neighborhood Coalition, which met occasionally in the Dufrocq library to discuss revitalizing storefronts and building a sense of community along the east-west corridor.
Government Street was showing some signs of return. Developers Danny McGlynn and Dennis Hargrove had transformed a shuttered drug store at the northwest corner of 19th and Government streets into a mixed-use retail complex. But there was a vacant lot on the northeast corner. Moody and Coates suggested expanding Dufrocq to Government Street, and encouraging families from both sides of the street to attend the school.
“It was such an important part of the community,” Moody says, “and we wanted to see it become a real neighborhood school.”
But the spot was picked up by entrepreneurs who opened a self-serve car wash.
The idea never died, and Moody, characteristically positive and subtle, kept pushing. Events conspired to make Dufrocq the right choice for expansion. The car wash went out of business. In an effort to consolidate elementary schools in downtown and Mid City, the School Board found Dufrocq the appropriate site to place resources.
“We always believed it would happen,” Moody says. “It was too important not to.”
Ladies vs. women
Earlier this year, European Union Secretary General Harold Romer issued guidelines to the EU’s 785 Members of European Parliament encouraging the use of so-called gender-neutral language. The rules suggested members be addressed by their full names only, and that the traditional use of titles that connote a woman’s marital status, like senora/senorita and madame/mademoiselle, be dropped. Furthermore, the guidelines stated that words with an obvious gender bias be scrubbed for terms with universal application. “Statesmen,” for example, should be “political leaders,” while “sportsmen” should be “athletes.”
Criticized by a conservative Scottish MEP as “political correctness gone mad,” the pamphlet caused quite a stir among MEPs and European journalists. But supporters believed it an important step in creating a balanced and inclusive atmosphere, particularly during a time when women around the world face issues like rape, poverty and the lack of access to capital.
The language debate is not a new one. The same concerns fueled the grass-roots move in the early 1970s in the U.S. to adapt the use of the term “Ms.” In the ’80s, college campuses were hit by pressure to refer to female students as women rather than girls. In both instances, the edicts rattled the status quo. Now, they’re part of the cultural fabric.
Locally, there’s still subtle tension about which term is more appropriate: ladies or women. Most women in business want to be referred to as women, no matter how ladylike they are. On the other hand, some powerful all-female groups still embrace the term, including the Junior League of Greater Baton Rouge, which addresses its members as “ladies” despite that the majority work full time. Then there’s the LSU Lady Tigers basketball team, which doesn’t seem to have lost its physical edge because of the reference.
Still, creating an environment that invites participation and showcases inclusion is crucial to success in business. The way we refer to ourselves and to others has always morphed, and it will continue to do so. Smart companies will get out in front of the issue.
