cover image Lone Voyagers: Academic Women in Coeducational Institutions, 1870-1937

Lone Voyagers: Academic Women in Coeducational Institutions, 1870-1937

. Feminist Press, $12.95 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-935312-85-0

Contemporary scholars profile seven American and Canadian academics who helped transform popular notions of womanhood by pursuing careers beyond the confines of all-female colleges, although even in coeducational institutions some were slotted into roles like dean of women. Biographical studies are followed by revealing excerpts from letters, journals and scholarly works, out of which emerge the figures' triumphs and moments of despair. ``It seems as soon as I get over one hurdle, the president of the college sets up another,'' wrote an exasperated Lucy Diggs Slowe, Dean of Women at Howard University in 1933. An examination of Grace Raymond Hebard, chair of the department of political history of the University of Wyoming, offers a forthright, insightful analysis of the importance of close bonds between professional women in the early 20th century. The varying degrees of politicization and feminist affiliation as well as the regional heterogeneity of the subjects here produce a welcome multiplicity of voices--albeit predominantly middle-class, white voices. However, the introduction by Clifford, a professor of education at Berkeley, is disappointing in its disregard for chronology. Photos not seen by PW. (Aug.)