of Notre Dame asked permission from Laval to complete a B.A. The rector of Saint Dunstans supported her request, but said it was out of the question for her to attend the university. She would have to study privately.

In Prince Edward Island, most female students, Protestant and Catholic, attended Prince of Wales College, but it was not a degree—granting institution. Several of Kathleen’s sisters had attended Prince of Wales. Those who wished to pursue a degree had to leave the province; between the 1880s and 1942, the year that Saint Dunstans began to officially admit women, approximately 500 women from Prince Edward Island went to universities off—Island.

Only one of the siX Catholic universities in the Maritime provinces, St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, developed formal ties with a woman’s college. That was Saint Bernards Ladies Academy, administered by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. That was where Kathleen’s older sister, Sister Mary Angela, studied for her degree in nursing, a degree that was granted by St. Francis Xavier.

There was also a strong conservative attitude among Roman Catholic clergy about women’s “proper” place in society. Bishop of Charlottetown James Boyle told a Catholic Women’s League convention in Kinkora in 1948 that a woman’s proper place was in the home where they would be “mothers and housekeepers” although he added that did not preclude

them from engaging in religious—related activities in their communities.

Despite the restrictions, females were on campus at Saint Dunstans. They served as support staff, performing housekeeping duties for the most part. In 1916, the newly—formed Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha took over domestic duties on the campus. By the 1930s, the Marthas had significantly expanded their role, including administering the Catholic hospital in Charlottetown and running the orphanage. In the 1930s, the congregation was asked to provide high school teachers for the school district in Kinkora. The provincial department of Education required that high school teachers have university degrees. Since the congregation was unable to afford to send its sisters out of province to obtain degrees, two

76 KATHLEEN MURPHY, MAITRIARC