A Woman's Education: The Road from Coorain Leads to Smith College
by Jill Ker Conway
Jill Ker Conway Autobiography (3)
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"The author of the best-selling The Road from Coorain and True North now gives us the third book in her remarkable continuing memoir - describing the pleasures, the challenges, and the constant surprises (good and bad) of her years as the first woman president of Smith College." "The story opens in 1973 as Conway, unbeknownst to her, is first "looked over" as a prospective candidate by members of the Smith community, and continues as she assesses her passions and possibilities and agrees to show more the new challenge of heading the college in 1975. The jolt of energy she gets from being surrounded by several thousand young women enables her to take on the difficulties that arise in dealing with the diverse Smith constituencies - from the self-appointed protectors of the great male tradition of humanistic learning to the equally determined young feminists insisting on change. We see Conway juggling the needs and concerns of faculty, students, parents, trustees, and alumnae, and redefining and redesigning aspects of the college to create programs in line with the new realities of women's lives. We sense the urgency of her efforts to shape an institution that will attract students of the 1990s and beyond." "Through it all we see Jill Ker Conway coping with her husband's illness, and learning to protect and sustain her inner self. As the end of a decade at Smith approaches, we see her realizing that she has both had her education and made her contributions, and that it is time now for her to graduate."--BOOK JACKET. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Jill Ker Conway has left us with quite a trilogy of autobiographies. In so doing, she has divided her life into thirds – growing up on the Australian outback, coming of age in North-American academe, and gaining a feminist voice as president of the elite Smith College.
This work examines her experiences at Smith College. She poured her soul into learning to articulate an authentically feminine institutional voice in a world of coeducation. Instead of seeing women’s education as fading from the world, she embraced the single-gender nature of her task and emphasized women’s roles in virtually all fields.
As an educated male, I’ve often had mixed feelings about feminism. I am 100% for women’s advancement in society. Like Conway, I show more find women provide a unique and strong contribution in the history of just about every sphere of human activity. However, I am uncomfortable with a feminism that seeks the advancement of women through the denigration of men’s roles. Like Conway, I think we do better when we march and reason together.
This work will leave some readers feeling empty. It focuses on Conway’s leadership of an elite academic institution. While authentic, it is relatively devoid of drama. Those used to following plot twists won’t find much here. Conway’s perspective is about active self-expression and self-development.
After reading this trilogy of autobiographies, I find that I like Conway. She seems full of life and like someone who I’d like to have dinner with sometime. Her perspective of life is one which all people – not just women – can gain from. She is an intellectual (as am I), and those who appreciate a vibrant life of the mind will appreciate this trilogy. show less
This work examines her experiences at Smith College. She poured her soul into learning to articulate an authentically feminine institutional voice in a world of coeducation. Instead of seeing women’s education as fading from the world, she embraced the single-gender nature of her task and emphasized women’s roles in virtually all fields.
As an educated male, I’ve often had mixed feelings about feminism. I am 100% for women’s advancement in society. Like Conway, I show more find women provide a unique and strong contribution in the history of just about every sphere of human activity. However, I am uncomfortable with a feminism that seeks the advancement of women through the denigration of men’s roles. Like Conway, I think we do better when we march and reason together.
This work will leave some readers feeling empty. It focuses on Conway’s leadership of an elite academic institution. While authentic, it is relatively devoid of drama. Those used to following plot twists won’t find much here. Conway’s perspective is about active self-expression and self-development.
After reading this trilogy of autobiographies, I find that I like Conway. She seems full of life and like someone who I’d like to have dinner with sometime. Her perspective of life is one which all people – not just women – can gain from. She is an intellectual (as am I), and those who appreciate a vibrant life of the mind will appreciate this trilogy. show less
I read her third book recently, A Woman's Education, which is smaller and less strictly a memoir in a way. It describes her years at Smith College, and goes in depth into how it was to administer a small independent school. It wasn't all easy, not at all. What infuses the book is her caring about students and their education, on a very deep, serious level. This book I am keeping! 5 stars.
Read more: http://pondpond.blogspot.com/2012/06/bunch-of-books.html#ixzz1x4BSVCts
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Read more: http://pondpond.blogspot.com/2012/06/bunch-of-books.html#ixzz1x4BSVCts
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
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Author Information
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Jill Ker Conway was born Jill Kathryn Ker in Hillston, New South Wales, Australia on October 9, 1934. She received a history degree from the University of Sydney in 1958 and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1969. She took a teaching post at the University of Toronto. She became a dean in 1971 and a vice president in 1973. In 1975, she became the show more first woman to be named president of Smith College. She left Smith in 1985 to become a writer. She wrote three memoirs entitled The Road from Coorain, True North, and A Woman's Education. In 2002, the PBS program Masterpiece Theater used The Road from Coorain as the basis for a film. She also wrote When Memory Speaks: Reflections on Autobiography. She edited several books including Written by Herself: Autobiographies of American Women and In Her Own Words: Women's Memoirs from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. In 2013, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She died on June 1, 2018 at the age of 83. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Woman's Education: The Road from Coorain Leads to Smith College
- Original publication date
- 2001
- Important places
- Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
- Dedication
- In memory of John
- First words
- [Prelude] If we're lucky, the places and people that can give our lives an aura of magic potential enter our experience at the right moment to sustain our dreams.
On a stormy day in November 1973, walked back across the campus to Simcoe Hall, the University of Toronto's administration building, which nestled behind the dome of Convocation Hall, looking out across a spacious circle of ... (show all)green, toward the amazing Victorian excess of University College, the gentler lines of Hart House, the men's union, and the nondescript international style of the overcrowded humanities library. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Whatever it was, I knew I had to concentrate on getting the opening chords right, because those are the ones one never gets to play a second time.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Prelude] Yet Archie and Ada and their large view of how one approached life lingered on the fringes of consciousness, and the cool leafy New England hill towns sometimes shimmered like a mirage in the desert on Toronto's most sweltering summer days.
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Sexuality and Gender Studies, History
- DDC/MDS
- 378.0092 — Society, government, & culture Education Higher education (Tertiary education)
- LCC
- LD7152.7 .C66 .C66 — Education Individual institutions – United States United States Women's colleges
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 219
- Popularity
- 148,901
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.68)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 2
