Women of Academe: Outsiders in the Sacred Grove
Select Format
Select Condition 
Book Overview
Drawing on more than sixty interviews, this book examines women's struggle to gain authority in the academic profession and to use that authority to change conventional practices. The authors argue that as women rise in academe, they are stymied at a certain level by the remaining force of the old norms which in the past barred women from professional life altogether. These norms decreed a sharp division between public and private realms, assigning men to public duties, women to private, men to intellectual pursuits, women to emotional and relational ones. Although the strict division of roles is eroding, prejudices about women's "lesser" intellectual power still operate, subtly but effectively, through a two-tiered system of responsibility. The top tier exercises the real authority and consists almost exclusively of men. The bottom tier carries out supportive functions and consists of some men and nearly all the profession's women, who also carry the major burden of private and familial responsibilities. Making excellent use of interviews, the authors explore in vivid detail how this two-tiered system works and the variety of ways in which academic women have responded to "the rules of the game."
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0870236075
ISBN13:9780870236075
Release Date:April 1988
Publisher:University of Massachusetts Press
Length:244 Pages
Weight:0.80 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.9" x 9.1"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Good Starting Place for Anyone Interested in Woman and Work
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
Though some people seem set on dividing the universe into arbitrary segments, the universe is not so tidy. This book supposedly is aimed at women working in universities. It is of value to a wider audience, however. It shows the "rules" by which women are expected to play, explains where the rules came from, and shows how female academics have engaged in counter-hegemonic discourse and action. The role of mentoring is emphasized. This is a good source for blue-collar women who assume university professors have it made, for students who intend to teach, for academics of both sexes, and for readers who are starting to suspect they have feminist tendencies.
A must read for women in academia
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Although written more than a decade ago, this book is still a valuable reference about the difficulties women in academia face. Based on interviews with 25 tenured women and 35 women off the normal academic career track, the authors discuss recurring themes in the experience of academic women. Arguably, little has changed since the interviews were conducted. Many of these themes indicate that women ascribe to values counter to the academic system, such as cooperation rather than competition, inclusivity rather than exclusivity, relative knowledge rather than absolute knowledge, and an impulse to integrate a work life and a personal life as a wholly natural way to live. The authors suggest that any achievement of equality of women with men in academia is necessarily a revolutionary process because it requires a change in powerful traditional social norms.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
