Back Cover Blurbs:
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
Dames, Dishes, and Degrees gives compelling voice to the tapestry of women involved in faculty wives’ clubs over the course of the twentieth century. Mittelman shows how faculty wives, stymied by antinepotism rules and geographic isolation, organized these clubs to connect, engage in philanthropic causes, and participate in cultural interests. Mittleman skillfully contextualizes the clubs’ developments within the history of higher education and gender, race, and class structures. Meticulously researched, this volume is an excellent contribution to women’s history and history of education.
—Mary Ellen Zuckerman, Distinguished Service Professor, SUNY Geneseo
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. 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.
—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. The author reveals through interviews and archival material how, through clubs, faculty wives found friendship, useful roles in the institutions, and at least a partial recognition of their value.
—Jan Whitaker, author of The World of Department Stores
Some pictures from Dames, Dishes, and Degrees:
Pre-Publication Buzz:
“I’ll be delighted to read Dames, Dishes, and Degrees. I’m glad to know that people of every generation will now have a chance to learn about these worthy women and the battles they fought.” Elissa Greenwald, author of Realism and the Romance: Hawthorne, Henry James, and American Fiction.
“Dames is a labor of love. Reading this book made me realize that there’s a whole all-but-invisible part of the campus community — the wives, husbands, & children of the faculty & administrators. It opened my eyes.” Michael Fleming, author of Bags and Tools.
“All these amazing women, with their untold lessons and experiences as spouses, scholars, and community-builders, needed their stories told.” Caroline Malloy, Nevertheless She Published (Substack)