| Synopsis: |
In the patriarchal halls of 1970s academe, women who spoke their minds risked their careers. Yet intrepid women -- students, faculty, administrators, members of the community -- persisted in building women's studies. In doing so, they created a movement and altered curricula and teaching styles across the disciplines. Now, in an unprecedented volume that captures both the history of a pivotal era and the drama of personal risks, triumphs, and losses, 30 scholars and activists document their work to establish women's studies programs. These original essays by 'founding mothers' feature a diversity of voices: young graduate students or new PhDs just beginning to teach and untenured; tenured professors in search of ways to improve their students' capacities to learn; older, veteran academics at last witnessing change; and even a few administrators. Founders grappled not only with issues of gender, but with those of class, race, and sexuality, in a decade infused with political unrest, when civil rights and anti-war activism as well as feminism shaped academic worlds. |