Beth Mintz - Lesbians in Academia: Degrees of Freedom

Lesbians in Academia

Lesbians in Academia

Degrees of Freedom

edited by

Beth Mintz and Esther Rothblum

Published in 1997 by

Routledge

711 Third Avenue,

New York, NY 10017

Published in Great Britain in 1997 by

Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park,

Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2011

Copyright 1997 by Routledge

Design: Jack Donner

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lesbians in academia : degrees of freedom / [edited by] Beth Mintz and

Esther Rothblum.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0415917018. ISBN 0415917026

1. Lesbian college teachersUnited StatesSocial conditions.

2. Lesbian college studentsUnited StatesSocial conditions.

I. Mintz, Beth. II. Rothblum, Esther D.

LB2332.3L47 1997

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent.

Contents

Beth Mintz and Esther Rothblum

Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander

Employment Law and Legal Studies, University of Georia

Christine Cress

Career Services Center, Western Washington University

Mildred Dickemann

Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Sonoma State University

Penelope Dugan

The Writing Program, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Michele J. Eliason

College of Nursing, University of Iowa

Kathryn M. Feltey

Department of Sociology, University of Akron

Maggie Fournier

College of Nursing, University of Southern Maine

Nanette K. Gartrell

Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco

Barbara W. Gerber

Counseling and Psychological Services, State University of New York at Oswego

Charlotte L. Goedsche

Foreign Language Department (German), University of North Carolina at Asheville

Nancy Goldstein

Department of Womens Studies, Harvard University

Batya Hyman

Department of Social Work, Arizona State University West

Sherrie A. Inness

Department of English, Miami University

Julie C. Inness

Department of Philosophy, Mount Holyoke College

Carey Kaplan,

Department of English, St Michaels College

Sandra M. Ketrow

Department of Communication Studies, University of Rhode Island

Kathryn H. Larson

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania

Jan McDonald

School of Education, Pace University

Carol J. Moeller

Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh

Akilah Monifa

Law School, New College of California

Sue Morrow

Department of Educational Psychology, University of Utah

Sally ODriscoll

Department of English and Womens Studies, Fairfield University

Christy M. Ponticelli

Department of Sociology, University of South Florida

Patty Reagan

Department of Health Education and Womens Studies, University of Utah

Amy L. Reynolds

Counseling Psychology Program, Fordham University-Lincoln Center

Raechele L.Pope

Department of Organization and LeadershipTeachers College, Columbia University

Jennifer Rycenga

Comparative Religious Studies Program, San Jose State University

Bonnie R. Strickland

Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Lynn A. Walkiewicz

Center for Humanities and Education, Cazenovia College

Stacy Wolf

Departments of Theatre/Dance and English, George Washington University and

Jill Dolan

Theatre Program and Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, City University of New York

Anonymous

Penelope Dugan

The Writing Program, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Mary Frances Stuck

Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Oswego

Michelle Tokarczyk

Department of English, Goucher College

Suzanne Sowinska

Independent Scholar, Seattle, Washington

Maria C. Gonzalez

Department of English, University of Houston

Roxanne Lin

Department of English, University of Vermont

Phyllis Bronstein

Department of Psychology, University of Vermont

Lynda Goldstein

Departments of English and Womens Studies Program, Pennsylvania State University

Sheila Jeffreys

Department of Political Science, University of Melbourne

As we are lesbians in academia, this book has both personal and professional meaning for us. We dedicate this book to the lesbian faculty at the University of Vermont who were part of our regular social dinners in 19821983 and who made us aware of issues facing lesbians in academia. We would like to thank our departments for their continuing enthusiasm for our work, and our students for continuing to question our assumptions. We would also like to thank Penelope Dugan for the books subtitle, Degrees of Freedom, which she so graciously allowed us to borrow. This book was completed while Esther was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for research on Women and Gender at Stanford University and then a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University.

We owe a special debt to the authors in this book who were willing to share their life experiences as lesbians in academia, as well as to those authors who willingly read a large number of narratives in order to provide the theoretical analysis of the books themes. Finally, we thank Philip Rappaport, formerly at Routledge, for his enthusiasm and support, and William Germano at Routledge for continuing to support this book project.

Beth Mintz and Esther Rothblum

This book has been many years in the making. We, the editors, have known each other since 1982 when Esther joined the faculty of the University of Vermont as a young assistant professor. Beth had recently gotten tenure and it was a time when women faculty were few, lesbians fewer, and out lesbians visibly absent.

We were close friends and racquetball partners, and our locker room conversation consistently turned to attempts to make sense of our situation. Unlike women who entered academia after traditional roles as wives and mothers, we, as many academic lesbians of our generation, had never been married; and we did not have children. In those days universities rarely made allowances for maternity leave or stopped the tenure clock for women with family responsibilities, and in this way we were one of the boys. Our lives in our town (as opposed to the gown) lesbian community allowed for fluidity and integration of our social and professional lives; our nontraditional family status allowed us the flexibility to pursue our careers.

But we were not totally out. While everyone knew, it remained unspoken and the topic had not yet informed our teaching or research activities. The few older lesbians on our faculty were quite closeted and when we heard their stories we understood why. As part of the generation described so well by Kennedy and Davis (1993), being out had serious costs for them and the lesson they had learned was passed on to us. Yet it was an exciting time for women in general in the academy and for lesbians, too. Women, white women at least, were entering academia in much larger numbers; research on lesbians and gay men was increasing in visibility; and women were beginning to write about their experiences in the ivory tower.