Feminizing the University: The Mobilities, Careers, and Contributions of Early Female Academics in the University of Cambridge, 1926–1955

Abstract

This article examines the role of early female academics at the University of Cambridge in the production and dissemination of knowledge between 1926 and 1955. A statistical comparison of women's use of academic leave of absence with that of their male colleagues reveals that, across disciplines, women were less integrated into (inter)national knowledge networks and thus less visible in their epistemic communities than men because women focused their academic leaves more on research, rarely attended conferences, traveled overseas less often than men, and went more frequently to destinations within Europe than the United States as the new economic hegemon. Biographical case studies of these early female academics demonstrate the importance, variously, of their upper middle-class background, academic excellence, and familial and nonfamilial patronage in developing their careers, overcoming multiple hurdles, and producing intellectual contributions of equal quality to that of their male peers. Conceptually, this article calls for the inclusion of academic travelers from disciplines other than geography into feminist histories of geographical knowledge and argues that rather than stereotyping gender differences, greater comparative research on the experiences of female and male academics is needed to understand the mechanisms of gender inequality within the university.

本文检视剑桥大学的早期女性主义学术圈, 在 1926 年至 1955 年间的知识生产与传播中的角色。女性相较于其男性同僚在运用学术休假上的统计比较显示, 在不同领域中, 女性皆较未被整合进全国 (国际) 知识网络, 因而与男性相较之下, 在其认识群体中较少被看见, 因为女性的学术休假较为专注于研究, 鲜少参加研讨会, 较男性而言更少到海外, 并且更经常前往位于欧洲的目的地, 而非作为新兴经济霸权的美国。这些早期女性学者的自传案例研究, 不一而足地証实了她们来自中上阶级的背景, 优异成绩, 以及源自家庭与非家庭的恩泽, 在发展个人志业、克服多重障碍, 以及生产与男性同僚相等质量的知识贡献中的重要性。就概念上而言, 此一文章呼吁将地理学门之外的学术旅行纳入地理学知识的女权主义历史, 并主张不应对性别差异保有刻板印象, 而是必须对女性与男性学者的经验进行更广泛的比较研究, 以理解大学中导致性别不平等的机制。

Este artículo examina el rol de las mujeres que empezaron su carrera académica en la Universidad de Cambridge en producción y diseminación de conocimiento entre 1926 y 1955. Una comparación estadística del uso dado por las mujeres al sabático académico con el de sus colegas masculinos revela que, a través de las disciplinas, las mujeres estaban menos integradas en redes de conocimiento (inter)nacionales y eran por lo tanto menos visibles en sus comunidades epistémicas que los varones por cuanto aquellas enfocaban más sus ausencias académicas a la investigación, raramente asistían a conferencias, viajaban al extranjero con menos frecuencia que los hombres e iban más frecuentemente a destinos localizados más en Europa que en los Estados Unidos, como nueva atracción económica. Los estudios de caso biográficos de estas académicas principiantes demuestran de varias maneras la importancia de sus antecedentes de clase media alta, excelencia académica y patronazgo familiar o extra-familiar para el desarrollo de sus carreras, superando múltiples obstáculos y realizando contribuciones intelectuales de igual calidad a la de sus colegas varones. Desde el punto de vista conceptual, este artículo propugna por la inclusión de viajeros académicos de disciplinas diferentes a la geografía en las historias feministas del conocimiento geográfico y argumenta que más que estereotipar diferencias de género, se necesita una investigación comparativa más amplia sobre las experiencias de académicos femeninos y masculinos para entender los mecanismos de la desigualdad de género en la universidad.

Key Words:

• academic mobility
• feminization
• gender
• geography
• knowledge production
• university

关键词:

• 学术能动性, 女性化, 性别, 地理, 知识生产, 大学。

Palabras clave:

• movilidad académica
• feminización
• género
• geografía
• producción de conocimiento
• universidad

Acknowledgments

For their helpful remarks on earlier versions of this article and literature recommendations, I extend my sincere gratitude to Janice Monk, Innes Keighren, Cheryl McEwan, Dean Bond, Gavin Brown, Hannah Westall, editor Barney Warf, and two anonymous reviewers. For their encouragement and support to publish my research in the mid-1990s, I am indebted to Helga Kaiser-Minn, Antjekathrin Graßmann, Manfred Sinz, and Britta Klagge. For enriching conversations over the past two decades, I am especially grateful to Mike Heffernan, Tim Freytag, Michael Hoyler, Peter Meusburger, Georgina Endfield, Sarah Holloway, Joanna Bullard, Katherine Gough, and Anna Growe. Material from the Anderson papers is reproduced by permission of the Mistress and Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge; records from the Robinson papers are reproduced by permission of the Master and Fellows of King's College, Cambridge; and documents from the Cambridge University Archives are quoted with kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library. All errors are mine alone.

Notes

¹ Minutes of 24 October 1928, Cambridge University Archives (subsequently CUA), Minutes of Proceedings at a Meeting of the General Board of the Faculties (subsequently GB), Min III.6, 49.

² Minutes of 29 February 1928, CUA, GB, Min III.6, 35.

³ Worts Fund, Minutes of 29 February 1928, CUA, GB, Min III.6, 35; Worts Fund, Minutes of 13 March 1929, CUA, GB, Min III.6, 64.

⁴ Girton College Archive, University of Cambridge, Personal papers of Margaret Anderson, Minnie Baldwin, Margaret C (Nan) Anderson and Frank Anderson (subsequently GCPP Anderson); and Minutes of 22 April 1931, CUA, GB, Min III.6, 120b.

⁵ Margaret Swainson Anderson, Girton Review, Michaelmas Term 1952, 5–6, GCPP Anderson 1/1, 5.

⁶ Mabel C. Wright to Miss Butler, 6 August 1944, GCPP Anderson 1/1.

⁷ Margaret Anderson to Mary Cartwright, 17 January 1951, GCPP Anderson 1/1.

⁸ Obituary of Professor Joan Robinson, The Times, Wednesday 10 August 1983, King's College Archive Centre, University of Cambridge, Personal papers of Professor Joan Violet Robinson (subsequently KCPP JVR), Box 15.

⁹ Obituary of Prof. Joan Robinson, Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 10 August 1983, KCPP JVR, Box 15.

¹⁰ Minutes of 24 November 1954, CUA, GB, Box 308, 65.

¹¹ Ruth Cohen's address at the Memorial Service in King's College Chapel, 29 October 1983, KCPP JVR, Box 15, 2.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heike Jöns

HEIKE JÖNS is Reader in Human Geography in the Department of Geography at Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research focusses on transnational academic mobility and the geographies of knowledge production, the historical geographies of the university, and triadic thought.