Importance of Women & Regional History
I am in the middle of reviewing Eileen M. Wirth’s book From Society Page to Front Page: Nebraska Women in Journalism for an Iowa history journal.
It is an important book and I enjoyed her closing messages:
“I had no idea how many women of achievement in journalism and other fields have been overlooked even in state and regional histories where they might be expected to appear.” (p 163) Further, she wrote “We cannot understand the history of women in the United States unless we consider local and regional dimensions because family obligations have limited the geographic and career mobility of the vast majority of American women.” (pg 164)
Her writing reminded me of my post blog about tenure requirements marginalizing women in history. As I wrote, focusing on local women’s page editors meant that I would have to work twice as hard to get tenure. What made that even more difficult was that so many of the women were in Florida during the 1950s and 1960s – specific regional history.
So, to earn tenure, I published in the national journals and presented at national conferences. Yet, I also worked to develop my own regional specialty so the women’s page editors of Florida would not be forgotten.
I did this by presenting at state history conferences, such as the Florida Conference of Historians and the Florida Historical Society Meetings. It was at these regional conferences that I told the stories of several unknown yet significant women in their communities: Gloria Biggs, Edee Greene, Bevereley Morales, Anne Rowe and Janet Chusmir. Two of these presentations ended up in the FCH’s Annals: Journal of the Florida Conference of Historians.
I wrote a magazine article about the community of progressive Florida women’s page editors.
In one of my favorite projects, I had Fort Lauderdale women’s page editor Edee Greene’s name added to an online history of radio in Central Florida. She had worked at WSUN before she was married.
I published two articles in the peer-reviewed Florida Historical Quarterly. One article about Miami Herald women’s page editor Marie Anderson. Another was about Sen. Lori Wilson and the fight to pass the E.R.A. in Florida. Yet, under tenure guidelines, each of these is considered half of a publication.
None of the above activities were significant in my tenure packet. Instead, I had to get tenure so that I could truly specialize in the women who brought me to this state. We need to do a better job of explaining why regional women are worthy of study.
