The death of Gloria Steinem reminds us, in case we had forgotten or never knew, that the early 1970s were a time of great ferment. Steinem, the founder of Ms. magazine was a key figure in the rise of the second wave of feminism. Along with many other accomplishments, she helped promote the consciousness-raising that helped some of us figure out who we weren’t.
One of the terms that came to be recognized during that time was “derived identity.” For many of us in this valley full of colleges, that meant looking at our roles as what was then called the “faculty wife.” Was that who we wanted to be? The term, if not taken humorously, was surely demeaning. Whose wives were we? The faculty’s? Could we claim an identity of our own?
Amherst resident Amy Mittelman, in her extensively researched book, “Dames, Dishes, and Degrees,” takes on the larger implications of these questions and how they played out over time in many places in our country. Exploring the lives of dozens of women connected with universities, she shows how many of these women took the lemons of status they were given and made some significant lemonade.
Mittelman herself can be described in these terms. The wife of an academic dean, she holds a Ph.D. in history. Her dissertation about the liquor industry and the federal government became a book, “Brewing Battles.” In 1986, she and her husband took jobs as “housemasters,” (directors of academic life) at Hampshire College. Unable to find a teaching job, she decided to change directions, went back to school, and got a nursing degree.
During a week off from nursing, she came to the Amherst College library and looked up the papers of the organization known as the Ladies of Amherst, an organization that enrolled every woman married to a faculty member. (One woman, Rose Olver, had been hired to the faculty in 1962, but significant numbers only arrived in 1974. Before that, all faculty were men.) That was the start of a project that she describes as a labor of love. The resulting book, “Dames, Dishes, and Degrees: Faculty Wives in America,” (Cynren Press) is a densely packed account of the history of women’s organizations at colleges and universities. It covers institutions all over the country in the course of the 20th century. It chronicles the careers of many dynamic women, many of whom converted the narrowly conventional “dames” clubs into productive and socially conscious organizations. Among the many extraordinary biographies is that of Patty Boyle, the wife of a professor at the University of Virginia, a white woman who grew up in the Jim Crow South. As Mittelman puts it, “In middle age, she transcended her identity as a faculty wife and the constraints of that role to become a committed integrationist.” The cost was high. She endured a Ku Klux Klan cross-burning and the end of her marriage.
Among the local women Mittelman chronicles are novelist Alison Lurie and historian Polly Longsworth. Charlotte Turgeon, too (1912-2009), was a significant Valley presence. A president of the Ladies of Amherst, Amherst College’s now-defunct organization, she colored both within and outside the lines, running the organization while making a name for herself as a cookbook author. She did not reach the public fame of her friend and Smith College colleague Julia Child, but she carved a strong path of her own.
Amy Mittelman’s book is a serious addition to women’s history. As she writes in her author’s note: “This is a story about women whom history has passed by. With ‘Dames, Dishes, and Degrees,’ I aim to bring them into conversation.”
Amy Mittelman will be speaking at several places over the next few months:
Oct. 1, Jones Library 7-9 p.m.
Oct. 15, Amherst Women’s Club 7-9 p.m.
American Literature Association Symposium Nov. 5-7. She will deliver a paper, “Alison Lurie: Faculty Wife.”
Nov. 14, Holyoke Public Library History Room 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.: “Constance and Donald Green: An Unsolved Mystery.”
Nov. 20, Amherst Historical Society, “History Bites” talk, Bangs Community Center, Amherst 1 to 3 p.m.
Dec. 13, Jewish Community of Amherst, 1 to 3 p.m.
Marietta Pritchard is a former Gazette features editor who lives in Amherst. She was once known as a faculty wife.