Description
Book SynopsisTells the story of female students' early mixed-gender encounters at four institutions: Iowa Agricultural College, the University of Nebraska, Oregon Agricultural College, and Utah State Agricultural College. This work illuminates the diversity of other courses of study available to female students, including the sciences, literature, and law.
Trade Review"
Bright Epoch is an engaging work that puts to rest the idea that coeducational land grant education somehow stifled, rather than empowered, western women. . . . Well worth reading."—Pamela Riney-Kehrberg ,
Kansas History"
Bright Epoch is overall an important, well-conceived and well-developed study of women's coeducation experiences at several early land grant colleges. . . . This is a must read for historians of women, education, rural life, and the Midwest and West."—Ginette Aley,
Nebraska History"The book makes a valuable contribution to the study of women's higher education. This examination of western land-grant institutions sheds light on a heretofore underrepresented area of scholarship."—Lisa R. Lindell,
South Dakota History"Radke-Moss has mined the universities' special collections to provide both written descriptions and illustrative photographs. . . . Ultimately, her well-told story should encourage others to unearth similar experiences buried in untapped college archives."
—J. H. O'Donnell III ,
CHOICE"This long-overdue study of coeducational land-grant colleges fills an important niche in several areas of social and regional history. As a result,
Bright Epoch provides a solid foundation onto which historians of both women and the West can build further analyses."
—Kristin Mapel Bloomberg,
Great Plains Quarterly"
Bright Epoch is an excellent history because it tells of a past that reminds readers that universities should not be just domestic skill shops but rather places of debate, discourse, and great educational opportunities for all students."
—Brian S. Collier,
Western Historical QuarterlyTable of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables and Graphs
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Making a Welcome for Women Students: The Discourse of Coeducational Inclusion by Administrators and Students
2. The Place of Women Students: Reading the Language and Practices of Gender Separation
3. The Early Practice of Coeducation: Literary Societies as Laboratories for Separation and Inclusion
4. Women Students' Sociality: Building Relationships with Men and Women
5. Women's Course Work: Farm Wives, Finished Ladies, or Functioning Scientists?
6. Under the Gaze: Women's Physical Activity and Sport at Land-Grant Colleges
7. "The American Eagle in Bloomers": "Student-Soldieresses" and Women's Military Activity
8. Challenging Political Separation: Women's Rights Activism at Land-Grant Colleges and Universities
Conclusion: Bright Epoch: When the Fair Daughters Joined the Ranks
Notes
Bibliography
Index
