Marian P. Whitney, Professionalism and Progressivism
Faculty Department
History/Political Science
Presentation Type
Powerpoint
Location
K324
Zoom Link
Start Date
26-2-2025 11:10 AM
End Date
26-2-2025 11:30 AM
Description (Abstract)
This presentation will highlight a chapter of a larger project I’m working on about Marian P. Whitney. This chapter follows Whitney as she began her professional journey and became involved with the women’s rights movement in the early twentieth century. It will cover her career, writings, and reform goals, from the beginning of her tenure as the Chair of the German Department at Vassar College in 1905 through the end of World War I. It will weave in a historiography of Progressivism to show the various gendered, regional, and chronological debates involved in studying reformers and their goals and methods in order to situate Whitney within the larger Progressive movement. It will also outline the state of women in higher education during the period and history of Vassar College in order to place Whitney in the growing number of women in academia and to understand the culture of her specific institution. This chapter adopts a gendered view of Whitney’s experiences and traces the intellectual influences and development of her belief in separate education for women. I argue that the support Whitney received at Vassar from the beginning of her career enabled her to become more active in the women’s rights movement.
Keywords
Marian P. Whitney, Progressive Era
Related Pillar(s)
Community, Service, Study
Marian P. Whitney, Professionalism and Progressivism
K324
This presentation will highlight a chapter of a larger project I’m working on about Marian P. Whitney. This chapter follows Whitney as she began her professional journey and became involved with the women’s rights movement in the early twentieth century. It will cover her career, writings, and reform goals, from the beginning of her tenure as the Chair of the German Department at Vassar College in 1905 through the end of World War I. It will weave in a historiography of Progressivism to show the various gendered, regional, and chronological debates involved in studying reformers and their goals and methods in order to situate Whitney within the larger Progressive movement. It will also outline the state of women in higher education during the period and history of Vassar College in order to place Whitney in the growing number of women in academia and to understand the culture of her specific institution. This chapter adopts a gendered view of Whitney’s experiences and traces the intellectual influences and development of her belief in separate education for women. I argue that the support Whitney received at Vassar from the beginning of her career enabled her to become more active in the women’s rights movement.
Short Biography
Sheryl Gordon is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History & Political Science Department at Molloy. She recently had an article published in Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research entitled “The Limits of Labels: Jane Addams and her Views on Self-Determination and Imperialism, 1899–1923.” She also has a book under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing Plc entitled Marian P. Whitney and the Problem of Being a Prominent Person in the Progressive Era.