Jill Ker Conway, trailblazing historian and Smith College president, dies at 83

Jill Ker Conway, a historian who chronicled the role of women in American society and then made history of her own, serving as the first female president of Smith College and one of the first female board members of several major corporations, died June 1 at her home in Boston. She was 83.

A spokeswoman for Smith College, Stacey Schmeidel, confirmed the death but said she did not know the cause.

The Australian-born Dr. Conway was just 40 when, in 1975, she became the first woman to lead Smith, the nation’s largest liberal arts institution for women. In her decade-long tenure, she presided over a transformation that brought the women’s movement to a school dominated for more than a century by conservative male faculty and administrators.

“Jill Ker Conway came to Smith at a time when gender roles were being transformed — and there were people here who tried to stand in her way,” Kathleen McCartney, Smith’s current president, said in a statement. “But at a time when the academy didn’t see women as college presidents — or as leaders at all — she demonstrated a leadership that was innovative and effective.”

While Dr. Conway paved the way for women such as Judith Rodin, who in 1993 was named the first female president of an Ivy League school (the University of Pennsylvania), women remain underrepresented at the highest levels of academia. A 2017 study by the American Council on Education found they hold just 30 percent of the top jobs at colleges and universities. ...