Voices of Women Historians weaves together past and present in women’s history, and women in the historical profession. Recording the diverse paths taken to become historians, essays describe how a group of women negotiated the often competing demands of being a woman, a professional, and a political activist during the turbulent 1960s through the challenges of the 1990s. The Coordinating Council for Women in History evolved out of the arrival of a new cohort of women historians who turned their scholarly focus to the recovery of women’s experiences. In so doing, they created and legitimated the field of women’s history. The contributors to this volume, former CCWH officers, mark the thirtieth anniversary of the organisation while commemorating three decades of feminist activism and scholarship. But beyond the celebration of personal and professional progress, this collection contributes to the emerging historiography of women’s history and the literature on women in the professions.
Essays examine the influence of the modern women’s liberation movement and various feminist philosophies on individual lives and academic careers, demonstrating how history and activism were intertwined. Some women began by keeping their writing of history separate from anti-war or civil rights politics; for others the women’s movement led them to women’s history. Those who entered graduate school in the 1960s suffered from overt discrimination as mothers and as women. For some this was the push that catapulted them into the study of women. Some essays suggest that women academics have experienced a life cycle different from their male counterparts, with motherhood restricting, delaying, or transforming career paths. Contributors stand in dialogue with each other, sometimes recounting the same incident from different vantage points, sometimes disagreeing about the major trends in the field.
Contributors represent three generations of women historians situated in different places within the academy and within the field of women’s history, but all of them have dedicated themselves to women’s history and women as historians.