In 1880, forty-three women walked into the president’s office at the University of Kentucky (UK) and signed the student register, becoming the first female students at a public college in the commonwealth. But gaining admittance was only the beginning. For the next sixty-five years—encompassing two world wars, an economic depression, and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment—generations of women at UK claimed and reclaimed their right to an equitable university experience. Their work remains unfinished.
Drawing on yearbooks, photographs, and other private collections, Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880–1945 examines the struggle for gender equity in higher education through the lens of one major institution. In the face of shifting resistance, pioneering women constructed opportunities for themselves. Terry L. Birdwhistell and Deirdre A. Scaggs highlight three women—Sarah Blanding, Frances Jewell Mc Vey, and Sarah Bennett Holmes—who fought for access to basic facilities that were denied to UK women for decades, including housing and study spaces. By examining the trials and triumphs of UK’s first female undergraduates, faculty, and administrators, this book uncovers the lasting impact women had on higher learning in the early days of coeducation.
Table of Content
Introduction
First Women and the Will to Succeed
Frances Jewell Mc Vey and the Refinement of Student Culture
Sarah Blanding and the Modern College Woman
Economic Depression and an Uncertain Future
World War II and the Illusion of Equality
Epilogue
About the author
Terry L. Birdwhistell is founding director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History and served as Dean of University of Kentucky Libraries. He is a former president of the Oral History Association and is coauthor of Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945.
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