Women in Higher Education, 1850-1970 : International Perspectives

This volume undertakes a comparative study of 19th- and 20th-century universities in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, where unequal gender relations commonly regulated the voice of women and their perpetuation as a marginal group of academic intellectuals. It uses a variety of sources and methods to examine the experiences of the women students and professors who inhabited, constructed, and reproduced social and intellectual worlds within that context, showing how women negotiated their subjectivities and challenged expected norms in particular ways and forms within—and sometimes outside of—the intransigent rules and expectations on campus.

This edited collection illustrates the way in which women’s experiences of academe could be both contextually diverse but historically and culturally similar. It looks at both the micro (individual women and universities) and macro-level (comparative analyses among regions and countries) within regional, national, trans-national, and international contexts.
 
The contributors integrally advance knowledge about the university in history by exploring the intersections of the lived experiences of women students and professors, practices of co-education, and intellectual and academic cultures. They also raise important questions about the complementary and multidirectional flow and exchange of academic knowledge and information among gender groups across programmes, disciplines, and universities.
 
Historical inquiry and interpretation serve as efficacious ways with which to understand contemporary events and discourses in higher education, and more broadly in community and society. This book will provide important historical contexts for current debates about the numerical dominance and significance of women in higher education, and the tensions embedded in the gendering of specific academic programs and disciplines, and university policies, missions, and mandates.