In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America - Softcover

Solomon, Barbara Miller

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300036396 ISBN 13: 9780300036398

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1986

Synopsis

A leading authority in the field here provides the first synthetic and comprehensive history of women in American higher education in over fifty years.
“Essential reading for feminists and educators, appealing to general readers as well, this study joins familiar material with new insights gleaned from fiction, journals and the records of deans and dons.” –Publishers Weekly
“An absorbing history of women’s higher education in the United States.” –Patricia Meyer Spacks, The New Republic
“Will be invaluable to social historians or anyone interested in the education of women.” –Sue Beckwith, New Directions for Women
“An aid and resource for women to continue their struggle for equality, it is a work of both scholarship and inspiration.” –Jurgen Herbst, Reviews in American History
“[An] excellent history.” –Christine Bolt, Times Higher Education Supplement
“A major contribution to the exploration of women’s past.” –Joyce Antler, American Educator
“This marvelous and monumental book will be an enduring classic―a major contribution to our understanding of historical changes in the lives of American women during the past two hundred years.  It is a very human book, filled with humor as well as statistics, and it will be enjoyed by a general as well as an academic audience.” –Kathryn Kish Sklar

About this title

From the Back Cover:

A leading authority in the field here provides the first synthetic and comprehensive history of women in American higher education in over fifty years.

Review:

"A lively account of the struggle for women's education, based on students' letters and diaries and women's achievements over the last 200 years."―Phyllis Coons, Boston Globe

"A historical approach toward the higher education of women, tracing it from the first academies to the growth of community colleges."―Julia M. Klein, Philadelphia Inquirer

"[An] excellent, comprehensive study of women's education. . . . Demonstrating a firm grasp of the arguments, Solomon emerges as an integrationist, believing that neither women's studying nor the study of women should be done in isolation.  This is the most thorough study of women's higher education since Mabel Newcomer's A Century Of Higher Education For American Women.  Essential for public and academic libraries."―Library Journal

"Essential reading for feminists and educators, appealing to general readers as well, this study joins familiar material with new insights gleaned from fiction, journals and the records of deans and dons."―Publishers Weekly

"Tables, illustrations, and excerpts from letters, journals, and novels combine with the author's readable, thoughtful, and often amusing text to demonstrate the relationship between education and the possibility for change. . . .  (A) major contribution to women's studies and American history."―Booklist

"A solid, broad-ranging study of female students' changing attitudes and experiences. . . . (An) excellent reflection of the renewed interest in women's higher education."―Kirkus Reviews

"The broadest survey of American women's higher education written in this generation, Solomon's study is tremendously strong. It should become the starting point for scholarly and general readers asking questions about advanced schooling for women throughout history."―Choice

"Solomon has done a massive amount of research. . . . Her organization contributes to a balanced representation of the experiences of diverse groups. . . . This is a valuable book for educators and students alike."―Marie Olesen Urbanski, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"An effective synthesis of material on the history of women's higher education in this country. . . . This study raises many of the important issues regarding women's education and provided a valuable foundation on which to explore those, and other issues, further."―June Sochen, Journal of American History
"Solomon's absorbing history of women's higher education in the United States. . . . Solomon's continuing narrative intertwining social and education expectation reveals the sustained ambiguity of women's claims to autonomy even as females came to constitute an educational majority."—Patricia Meyer Spacks, New Republic 
"A comprehensive history of women's higher education in this country, it will be invaluable to social historians or anyone interested in the education of women."―Sue Beckwith, New Directions for Women
"The history in this book is so compelling and told in such detail one must constantly remind oneself that this is the history of a small minority within a minority."―Barbara Scotto, Wilson Library Bulletin
"Written for both the general and academic reader. . . . A perfectly balanced account of the often contradictory impulses and outcomes of nearly two centuries' experience of women's higher education. . . . It stands as a major contribution to the exploration of women's past."―Joyce Antler, American Educator

"Solomon traces the evolution of today's postfeminist college women, focusing on the experiences and attitudes of students from 1870, when the first great wave of women entered college, to the 1920s, when the modern college woman was born."―Wendy Kaminer, The Village Voice
"In The Company Of Educated Women demonstrates the breadth and complexity of women's college experience, and the necessity of telling its history broadly. . . . The book stands as a challenge to further scholarship."―Susan Strasser, Boston Review

Winner of the American Educational Research Association’s 1986 Outstanding Book Award
Winner of the Association of American Colleges and Universities’s 1986 Frederic W. Ness Award (in honor of the President-Emeritus of the Association) for the most significant contribution to studies on liberal education

Awarded Honorable Mention for the Educator’s Award from the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, 1986
"Solomon's story, so thoughtfully carried down to the present, is one we have needed for a long time and certainly need now when the women's movement is no longer simply contemporary but a force of historical significance.  The book is engagingly written and deeply informed."—Carl N. Degler, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Stanford University
"This excellent, meticulously researched study is the first comprehensive history of women's higher education in this country. It will immediately become the standard work in the field, and will be invaluable to social historians generally as well as to those especially interested in women or in education."—Anne Firor Scott, W.K. Boyd Professor & Chairman, Department of History, Duke University
"This marvelous and monumental book will be an enduring classic—a major contribution to our understanding of historical changes in the lives of American women during the past two hundred years. It is a very human book, filled with humor as well as statistics, and it will be enjoyed by a general as well as an academic audience."—Kathryn Kish Sklar, University of California, Los Angeles
"This is one of several recent works that, in returning to the study of women's public behavior, herald a transition in the field of women's history.  Solomon's achievement is that she does not simply refocus attention from the private to the public sphere but rather underscores the connections between the two."―Lee Chambers-Schiller, United States

"Solomon has created the new standard reference work for the field. . . . Solomon has successfully surveyed and synthesized women's encounter with liberal education from the colonial era to the present."—Lynn D. Gordon

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0300036396
• ISBN 13: 9780300036398
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336