Abstract
This chapter reviews scholarship on the history of women and gender in American higher education published since 2000, using the conceptual framework of a gendered lens which analyzes the impact of gender on structures, events, decisions, and behavior, even when women or men are not present. Historians have made impressive progress applying this lens to curricula, extracurricular activities, college regulations, differential treatment of students, students’ enactments of femininity and masculinity, and the impact of a gendered faculty labor market. Two related themes also appear: women and intersectionality. Regarding women, robust exploration continues, featuring two arguments: commitments to women’s needs were seldom paramount in collegiate decision-making, and historians increasingly see women’s activism as only part of a larger story about markets and institutional self-interest. Regarding intersectionality, greater awareness that overlapping identities affect experience has expanded studies of different groups of students and faculty. Overall, historians have made most progress examining women’s participation, LGBTQ students and faculty, and intersections of higher education with race. Less progress appears around religion, class, and the impact of policy. The field would benefit from additional attention to racial identities beyond white and Black women, to transgender individuals, to campus staff beyond faculty, and to use of theory.
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Eisenmann, L. (2023). Historical Considerations of Women and Gender in Higher Education. In: Perna, L.W. (eds) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol 38. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94844-3_6-1
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