Higher Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945-1965

by Linda Eisenmann

Overview

Outstanding Academic Title for 2007, Choice Magazine

This history explores the nature of postwar advocacy for women's higher education, acknowledging its unique relationship to the expectations of the era and recognizing its particular type of adaptive activism. Linda Eisenmann illuminates the impact of this advocacy in the postwar era, identifying a link between women's activism during World War II and the women's movement of the late 1960s.

Though the postwar period has been portrayed as an era of domestic retreat for women, Eisenmann finds otherwise as she explores areas of institution building and gender awareness. In an era uncomfortable with feminism, this generation advocated individual decision making rather than collective action by professional women, generally conceding their complicated responsibilities as wives and mothers.

By redefining our understanding of activism and assessing women's efforts within the context of their milieu, this innovative work reclaims an era often denigrated for its lack of attention to women.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801882616
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	01/19/2006
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.95(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Linda Eisenmann is the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at John Carroll University, past president of the History of Education Society, and president-elect of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Ideologies
1. Postwar Gender Expectations and Realities
2. Educators Consider the Postwar College Woman
Part II: Explorations
3. Research: The American Council on Education's Commission on the Education of Women
4. Practice: Advocacy in Women's Professional Organizations
5. Policy: The President's Commission on the Status of Women
Part III: Responses
6. Women's Continuing Education as an Institutional Response
7. The Contributions and Limitations of Women's Continuing Education
Conclusion
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Linda M. Perkins

Through the use of primary sources of early women's organizations, commissions, and continuing education institutions, Eisenmann explains the actions of a group of women in higher education, while noting the racial and class differences all along the way. The book will expand our understanding of this era.

— Linda M. Perkins, Claremont Graduate University

From the Publisher

No other history of this era has explored so many facets of American gender ideology, including economic, cultural, and psychological ideologies. Eisenmann offers well-supported and original arguments that will make this book a 'must read' not only for historians of higher education and American women but also for women who lived through the experiences described in the book.
—Lynn D. Gordon, University of Rochester

Through the use of primary sources of early women's organizations, commissions, and continuing education institutions, Eisenmann explains the actions of a group of women in higher education, while noting the racial and class differences all along the way. The book will expand our understanding of this era.
—Linda M. Perkins, Claremont Graduate University

Lynn D. Gordon

No other history of this era has explored so many facets of American gender ideology, including economic, cultural, and psychological ideologies. Eisenmann offers well-supported and original arguments that will make this book a 'must read' not only for historians of higher education and American women but also for women who lived through the experiences described in the book.

— Lynn D. Gordon, University of Rochester

Editorial Reviews

Eisenmann gives the postwar activists the attention they merit and insightfully conveys their value in women's educational history.

Journal of American History - Nancy Woloch

Eisenmann also makes an important contribution to our understanding of postwar American society.

Journal of Cold War Studies - Susan Ware

Eisenmann also makes an important contribution to our understanding of postwar American society.

— Susan Ware

Journal of Cold War Studies

For social, labor, and women's historians interested in the middle twentieth century, the book is a critically important one.

— Marry Ann Dzuback

Journal of Social History

Eisenmann gives the postwar activists the attention they merit and insightfully conveys their value in women's educational history.

— Nancy Woloch

Journal of American History

Historians of education and gender will find the book useful.

— Amy Thompson McCandless

History: Reviews of New Books

This is an interesting book and Eisenmann skillfully demonstrates the connections between governmental policy, social ideologies, and higher education.

— Jana Nidiffer

Review of Higher Education

Groundbreaking synthesis . . . Highly recommended.
—Choice

This is an interesting book and Eisenmann skillfully demonstrates the connections between governmental policy, social ideologies, and higher education.
—Jana Nidiffer, Review of Higher Education

Historians of education and gender will find the book useful.
—Amy Thompson McCandless, History: Reviews of New Books

Eisenmann gives the postwar activists the attention they merit and insightfully conveys their value in women's educational history.
—Nancy Woloch, Journal of American History

For social, labor, and women's historians interested in the middle twentieth century, the book is a critically important one.
—Marry Ann Dzuback, Journal of Social History

Eisenmann also makes an important contribution to our understanding of postwar American society.
—Susan Ware, Journal of Cold War Studies

From the Publisher

For social, labor, and women's historians interested in the middle twentieth century, the book is a critically important one.

Journal of Social History - Marry Ann Dzuback

Groundbreaking synthesis . . . Highly recommended.

Choice

Historians of education and gender will find the book useful.

History: Reviews of New Books - Amy Thompson McCandless

This is an interesting book and Eisenmann skillfully demonstrates the connections between governmental policy, social ideologies, and higher education.

Review of Higher Education - Jana Nidiffer