Review: Reshaping Women's History: Voices of Nontraditional Women Historians

Reshaping Women's History: Voices of Nontraditional Women Historians by Julie A. Gallagher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not everyone has the chance to have a traditional college experience or forge a traditional path in their professional career. In today’s society more and more young adults finish high school and matriculate to a college campus to begin a four-year Bachelor’s program. A portion of those students who complete their undergraduate studies goes on to obtain a Master’s degree in their chosen field. Far fewer complete their educational journey by receiving their Doctorate. The percentage of women who complete the entire curriculum is likely low compared to men, as personal challenges present themselves throughout their adulthood. The low percentage includes women pursuing a Doctoral degree in History. Women who take a non-traditional route to higher education and professional careers are the subject of Julie A. Gallagher’s Reshaping Women’s History: Voices of Nontraditional Women Historians. Gallagher’s work is a compilation of 18 autobiographical essays by women who have persevered through incredible odds to obtain a post-baccalaureate degree in History. They are women who have received the Catherine Prelinger Award

The Catherine Prelinger award is given yearly to a woman who has shown evidence of a non-traditional professional career and has worked on a project to develop women’s role in history. Many of the recipients have interrupted their studies to devote time to family and personal matters. Finances are usually an issue as these women struggle to maintain a home with daunting bills and lack of income. Some have started on a different trajectory in their studies, never expecting to find themselves in the field of history, but by chance have found a passion uncovering the stories of past generations. The Prelinger award is given out by the Coordinating Council for Women in History (CCWH), and the monies received by the recipients have no specific earmark for usage. Some women utilize the money to help pay bills that will relieve them of a financial burden. These financial burdens hinder them from time-consuming research needed to complete a project of turning their dissertation into a published book. Some utilize the money to purchase equipment for recording oral histories, and some spend their money on travel to foreign countries to complete on-site research. However the monies are used these women are relieved of a financial strain so that they may achieve a goal that they believe they could not make. It has allowed them to join the ranks of fellow female historians contributing to an expanding body of scholarly women’s historiography.

Gallagher’s request of the eighteen women who form the body of Reshaping Women’s History is to write their story. They are autobiographical and each woman brings her voice and style to their essay. Some write in a scholarly voice, likely reminiscent of their academic voices, while others write more in a creative stream of consciousness form. These stories evoke passion and heartache for their projects and the hurdles they faced. They are at times raw and open as they lay out the details of their lives and journey toward completing scholarly works supporting women in history. The culminating result is a body of work that encourages other women to persevere through what may seem like insurmountable odds to complete their academic and professional goals. They are a group of women who have stories that need to be told and who can tell the story of other women overlooked in history.

Reshaping Women’s History should be required reading for all women pursuing a degree in history or comparable studies. Some of these women did not start out looking toward a profession in history, but their paths led them there. Reshaping Women’s History is a book that highlights the lack of scholarly work in women’s history and the voices that are still unheard waiting to be uncovered to be written and read by those that follow in their footsteps.

View all my reviews