Abstract
This chapter argues that the key tension in the historiography of women’s progress as academics lies in its position within women’s and feminist history and the history of education. The themes of institutions, networking, money, and religion provide four hubs from which to reflect on existing work and recognize potential new directions for those seeking to improve either our understanding of the past or the problems of the present. A fifth section discusses the possibility of “border crossings” as an additional lens through which to view the field. The scope of the chapter is restricted to material published in English, and existing lacunae in terms of race, disability, and sexuality are recognized but inevitably repeated. Most examples are taken from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and Britain, and it is hoped that the themes identified may generate research with a wider geographical scope. Researching women as academics is more complex than simply charting their access and presence; it is also about recognizing their impact on university life and curricula. Two case studies highlight themes of history for the past or present. The first focuses on the role of the British and International Federation of University Women, identifying how women worked together to expand career opportunities. The second considers how campaigns for academic equality today draw on historical explanations for the origins of the problem.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Acker S. Women, the other academics. Br J Sociol Educ. 1980;1(1):81–91.
Arashiro Z, Barahona M, editors. Women in academia crossing North South borders. Gender, race and displacement. Lanham: Lexington Books; 2015.
Bagilhole B. How to keep a good woman down: an investigation of the role of institutional factors in the process of discrimination against women academics. Br J Sociol Educ. 1993;14(3): 261–74.
Bilodeau B. Beyond the gender binary: a case study of two transgender students at a Midwestern Research University. J Gay Lesbian Issues Educ. 2005;3(1):29–44.
Chouinard V, Crooks V. Challenging geographies of ableness: celebrating how far we’ve come and what’s left to be done. Can Geogr. 2003;47(4):383–5.
Cohen S. Crossing borders: academic refugee women, education and the British Federation of University Women during the Nazi era. Hist Educ. 2010;39(2):175–82.
Delamont S. A woman’s place in education. Aldershot: Ashgate; 1996.
Dyhouse C. No distinction of sex? Women in British universities 1870–1939. London: UCL Press; 1995a.
Dyhouse C. The British Federation of University Women and the status of women in universities, 1907–1939. Women’s Hist Rev. 1995b;4(4):465–85.
Dzuback MA. Gender, professional knowledge and institutional power: women social scientists and the research university. In: May AM, editor. The ‘woman question’. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar; 2008. p. 52–77.
Eggins H, editor. The changing role of women in higher education: academic and leadership issues. Cham: Springer; 2017.
Eisenmann L. Historical dictionary of women’s education in the United States. Westport: Greenwood Press; 1998.
Eisenmann L. Creating a framework for interpreting US women’s educational history: lessons from historical lexicography. Hist Educ. 2001;30(5):453–70.
Eisenmann L. Higher education for women in postwar America, 1945–65. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press; 2006.
Fitzgerald T. Outsiders or equals? Women professors at the University of New Zealand, 1911–1961. Oxford: Peter Lang; 2009.
Fitzgerald T, Collins J. Historical portraits of women home scientists. The University of New Zealand, 1911–1947. Amherst: Cambria Press; 2011.
Fitzgerald T, Smyth EM, editors. Women educators, leaders and activists. Educational lives and networks 1900–1960. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2014.
Giroux H. Border crossings: cultural workers and the politics of education. New York: Routledge; 1992.
Goodman J. International citizenship and the International Federation of University Women before 1939. Hist Educ. 2011;40(6):701–21.
Harford J. An experiment in the development of social networks for women: women’s colleges in Ireland in the nineteenth century. Paedagog Hist. 2007;43(3):365–81.
Harford J. The opening of university education to women in Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Press; 2008.
Harford J. Courting equality: Catholic women and agency in the reconfiguration of university education in Ireland. In: Fitzgerald T, Smyth EM, editors. Women educators. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2015.
Harford J, Rush C, editors. Have women made a difference? Women in Irish universities, 1850–2010. Bern: Peter Lang; 2009.
Horne J. Looking from the inside out: rethinking university history. J Educ Adm Hist. 2014;46(2): 174–89.
Joncich Clifford G. Lone voyagers: academic women in coeducational institutions, 1870–1937. New York: Feminist Press; 1989.
Lefkowitz Horowitz H. The body in the library. In: May AM, editor. The ‘woman question’ and higher education. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar; 2008. p. 11–32.
Levine S. Degrees of equality. The American Association of University Women and the challenge of twentieth century feminism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press; 1995.
Mabokela RO, Mawila KFN. The impact of race, gender, and culture in South African higher education. Comp Educ Rev. 2004;48(4):396–416.
Malkiel NW. “Keep the damned women out”: the struggle for co-education. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2016.
May AM, editor. The ‘woman question’ and higher education: perspectives on gender and knowledge production in America. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar; 2008.
McCulloch G. Historical insider research in education. In: Sikes P, Potts A, editors. Investigations from within. London: Routledge; 2008.
McKnight M, Hill M. ‘Doing academia’ in Queen’s University Belfast: gendered experiences, perceptions and strategies. In: Harford J, Rush C, editors. Have women made a difference? Bern: Peter Lang; 2009.
Morley E. Before and after, reminiscences of a working life (ed: Morris B). Reading: Two Rivers Press; 2016.
Morley L, Crossouard B. Women’s leadership in the Asian century: does expansion mean inclusion? Stud High Educ. 2016;41(5):801–14.
Morris Matthews K. In their own right: women and higher education in New Zealand before 1945. Wellington: NZCER Press; 2008.
Newman J, Williams F. Diversity and change: gender, welfare and organizational relations. In: Newman J, Itzin C, editors. Gender, culture and organizational change: putting theory into practice. New York: Routledge; 1995. p. 108–23.
Raftery D. New turns in the history of women and education. In: Fitzgerald T, Smyth EM, editors. Women educators. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2014.
Rankin S, Beemyn G. Beyond a binary: the lives of gender-nonconforming youth. About Campus. 2012 (wileyonlinelibrary.com) © 2012 by American College Personnel Association and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.21086.
Renn K. LGBT and queer research in higher education: the state and status of the field. Edu Res. 2010;39(2):132–41.
Rhoads RA, Yu Gu D. A gendered point of view on the challenges of women academics in the People’s Republic of China. High Educ. 2012;63(6):733–50.
Rowold K. The educated woman. Minds, bodies, and women’s higher education in Britain, Germany and Spain, 1865–1914. London: Routledge; 2010.
Rumsey Strong S. Thought knows no sex: women’s rights at Alfred University. Albany: State University of New York Press; 2008.
Sartorius K. Deans of women and the feminist movement. New York: Palgrave; 2014.
Silver H. ‘Things change but names remain the same’: higher education historiography 1975–2000. Hist Educ. 2006;35(1):121–40.
Solomon B. In the company of educated women: a history of women and higher education. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1985.
Spencer S. Imagining a future, living in the present and remembering the past. J Educ Adm Hist. 2017a;49(4):321–9.
Spencer S. Cosmopolitan sociability in the British and International Federations of University Women, 1945–1960. Women’s Hist Rev. 2017b;26(1):93–109.
Spencer S, Jacobs A, Leach C. Alumni voices: the changing experience of higher education. Winchester: Winchester University Press; 2015.
Stiver Lie S, O’Leary V, editors. Storming the tower: women in the academic world. London: Kogan Page; 1990.
Taylor A. Making disability (matter) in philosophy of education. In: Duarte E, editor. Philosophy of education. Urbana: University of Illinois Press; 2015. p. 224–32.
Whitehead K. Lillian de Lissa, women teachers and teacher education in the twentieth century: a transnational history. Oxford: Peter Lang; 2016.
Wilson-Kovacs D, Ryan M, Haslam SA, Rabinovich A. ‘Just because you can get a wheelchair in the building doesn’t necessarily mean that you can still participate’: barriers to the career advancement of disabled professionals. Disabil Soc. 2008;23(7):705–17.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Spencer, S., Smith, S. (2020). Women Professors and Deans. In: Fitzgerald, T. (eds) Handbook of Historical Studies in Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2362-0_45
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2362-0_45
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2361-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2362-0
eBook Packages: EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education