No Straight Path: Becoming Women Historians - Rilegato

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0807170437 ISBN 13: 9780807170434

Casa editrice: Louisiana State Univ Pr, 2019

Riassunto

No Straight Path tells the stories of ten successful female historians who came of age in an era when it was unusual for women to pursue careers in academia, especially in the field of history. These first-person accounts illuminate the experiences women of the post–World War II generation encountered when they chose to enter this male-dominated professional world.

None of the contributors took a straight path into the profession; most first opted instead for the more conventional pursuits of college, public-school teaching, marriage, and motherhood. Despite these commonalities, their stories are individually unique: one rose from poverty in Arkansas to attend graduate school at Rutgers before earning the chairmanship of the history department at the University of Memphis; another pursued an archaeology degree, studied social work, and served as a college administrator before becoming a history professor at Tulane University; a third was a lobbyist who attended seminary, then taught high school, entered the history graduate program at Indiana University, and helped develop two honors colleges before entering academia; and yet another grew up in segregated Memphis and then worked in public schools in New Jersey before earning a graduate degree in history at the University of Memphis, where she now teaches. The experiences of the other historians featured in this collection are equally varied and distinctive.

Several themes emerge in their collective stories. Most assumed they would become teachers, nurses, secretaries, or society ladies—the only “respectable” choices available to women at the time. The obligations of marriage and family, they believed, would far outweigh their careers outside the home. Upon making the unusual decision, at the time, to move beyond high-school teaching and attend graduate school, few grasped the extent to which men dominated the field of history or that they would be perceived by many as little more than objects of sexual desire. The work/home balance proved problematic for them throughout their careers, as they struggled to combine the needs and demands of their families with the expectations of the profession.

These women had no road maps to follow. The giants who preceded them—Gerda Lerner, Anne Firor Scott, Linda K. Kerber, Joan Wallach Scott, A. Elizabeth Taylor, and others—had breached the gates but only with great drive and determination. Few of the contributors to No Straight Path expected to undertake such heroics or to rise to that level of accomplishment. They may have had modest expectations when entering the field, but with the help of female scholars past and present, they kept climbing and reached a level of success within the profession that holds great promise for the women who follow.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull'autore

Elizabeth Jacoway is the author of Yankee Missionaries in the South: The Penn School Experiment and Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis that Shocked the Nation.

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore is the Peter V. and C. Van Woodward professor of history at Yale University. She is the author of several books, including Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920.

Dal risvolto di copertina interno

"A remarkable collective autobiography of how a generation of women historians of the American South challenged and overcame entrenched perceptions in allegedly enlightened academia to build successful teaching and research careers not only for themselves, but also for the women who came after them. Each account is both frustrating and inspiring: there were indeed no straight paths to success, and the work for full equality is not yet over." David Goldfield, Robert Lee Bailey professor of History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

"No Straight Path consists of moving autobiographical essays by ten prominent women historians of the South who relate the complicated and various paths by which they became accomplished scholars. Each had to overcome obstacles and faced sometimes shameful gender discrimination and harassment but though grit and ability triumphed nevertheless. Every scholar who directs graduate work should read this marvelous book, as indeed should every college professor." John B. Boles, William P. Hobby professor, Rice University

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Louisiana State Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2019
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0807170437
• ISBN 13: 9780807170434
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 246
• Redattore: Jacoway Elizabeth
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile