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Dames, Dishes, and Degrees: Faculty Wives in America

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In 1921, the anonymous, PhD-holding wife of a college professor wrote in an article for the Journal of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, “Can it be in the divine order of things that one PhD should wash dishes a whole lifetime for another PhD just because one is a woman and the other a man?” In Dames, Dishes, and Degrees: Faculty Wives in America, author Amy Mittelman reveals what really went on behind ivy-covered walls as she explores the origins, structure, and history of faculty wives’ clubs. These comprised the well-educated women who turned their energy and unpaid labor from arranging receptions, teas, and picnics to creating social clubs that mentored young academic wives, supported philanthropic efforts, and took part in great political movements. Through historical examples and biographies, Mittelman delves into race and gender, social and cultural history, the intersection of modern feminism with other social and political causes, and the ways in which faculty wives worked to overcome chauvinism, misogyny, and tremendous odds to establish their own, autonomous identities.

by Amy Mittelman • 260 pages • Look Inside!

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In 1921, the anonymous, PhD-holding wife of a college professor wrote in an article for the Journal of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, “Can it be in the divine order of things that one PhD should wash dishes a whole lifetime for another PhD just because one is a woman and the other a man?” In Dames, Dishes, and Degrees: Faculty Wives in America, author Amy Mittelman reveals what really went on behind ivy-covered walls as she explores the origins, structure, and history of faculty wives’ clubs. These comprised the well-educated women who turned their energy and unpaid labor from arranging receptions, teas, and picnics to creating social clubs that mentored young academic wives, supported philanthropic efforts, and took part in great political movements. Through historical examples and biographies, Mittelman delves into race and gender, social and cultural history, the intersection of modern feminism with other social and political causes, and the ways in which faculty wives worked to overcome chauvinism, misogyny, and tremendous odds to establish their own, autonomous identities.

by Amy Mittelman • 260 pages • Look Inside!

Support indie publishing by buying direct.

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In Dames, Dishes, and Degrees, Amy Mittelman connects the lives of women married to college faculty members to the larger arc of women’s history. With thorough research, she brings to light this seldom-discussed aspect of women’s history and enriches our understanding of how women have worked to open new opportunities.

praise

—Kathleen Courtenay Stone, author of They Called Us Girls

Dames, Dishes, and Degrees gives a vivid picture of how women married to professors coped through decades of being accessories to their husbands in institutions that had no place for them.

—Jan Whitaker, author of The World of Department Stores

In her engaging and deeply researched history, Amy Mittelman uncovers the remarkable stories of women negotiating their conflicted and complicated social roles as faculty wives, at once privileged and constrained, conservative and progressive, excluded from working yet heavily relied upon to get things done. Mittelman expertly shows the significant contributions these women made to both the modern bureaucratic university and women’s social progress.

—Linus Owens, author of Cracking Under Pressure

Meticulously researched, this volume is an excellent contribution to women’s history and history of education.

—Mary Ellen Zuckerman, Distinguished Service Professor, SUNY Geneseo