It is no accident that the Southern Association for Women
Historians enjoys the founding date of 1970. After extended and
often bitter engagement with entrenched sexism in the decades
following World War II, women historians found their voices and
crafted a means by which to be heard. The years between 1970 and
1980 represented a decade of optimism for women who sought equality
in the workplace. Professional women, professors of history most
especially, found hope in organizations such as the SAWH, created
to address issues of visibility, legitimacy, and equality in
historical associations and in employment.
In "Clio's Southern Sisters," Constance B. Schulz and Elizabeth
Hayes Turner collect the stories of the women who helped to found
and lead the organization during its first twenty years. These
women give evidence, in strong and effective language, of the
experiences that shaped their entree into the profession. They
vividly describe the point at which they experienced the shift in
their lives and in the lives of those around them that led toward a
new day for women in the history profession.
Some found that discrimination followed them like a shadow, and
the pain of those days still remains with them. Others sought their
graduate education in institutions where women were welcomed and
where professors valued their work and encouraged their success.
Yet when they entered the job market, they found that some
employers flatly refused to consider them because they were women.
Lost job opportunities for women were linked in tangled ways to the
prevailing image of women as less desirable as colleagues, or as
intellectually weaker than their male counterparts.
Through the SAWH, these women were able to make changes from
within the profession. They felt an obligation to help the next
generation of women scholars. In the midst of a national movement
to end sex discrimination through legislation, to increase women's
consciousness-raising efforts, and to acknowledge the economic
realities of women in the workforce, these women came together to
form an organization that could enable them to have the careers
they deserved. This timely volume will be appreciated by all those
who reaped the benefits for which these "southern sisters" fought
so hard.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!