Doris MacDougal began her career in education at the start of the Depression. The choice was practical, since school teachers at the time could earn a degree in only two years. After graduating, she was fortunate enough to land a job in her native Rockland, Maine in 1932, when the unemployment rate reached 23.6%. This first position was in a one-room schoolhouse.

By the time Kosti Ruohomaa interviewed her in 1951, her career had brought her to the McLain Grammar School, also in Rockland, for the second time. These were the early years of the Baby Boom, and swelling populations created a growing need for larger, more consolidated schools.

A teacher’s salary in midcoast Maine in the early 1950s was meager. Despite her numerous responsibilities MacDougal, who had been married to a fellow teacher for a year and a half, earned the 2020 equivalent of $23,000 annually. The gender wage gap was a fact of life; male teachers in the area made roughly 13% more.

For this shoot, Ruohomaa took pains to illustrate the many demands on a woman in this position. In addition to her hours of attention to educating kids, MacDougal had a long list of administrative tasks and regular meetings. In the evenings, she “kept house”, cleaning the 3-room apartment she shared with her husband and cooking their meals.