Dames, Dishes, and Degrees

In 1921, an anonymous, PhD-holding faculty wife asked in the Journal of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, " Can it be in the divine order of things that one PhD should wash dishes a whole lifetime for another PhD just because one is a woman and the other a man?"

In Dames, Dishes, and Degrees: Faculty Wives in America, Amy Mittelman reveals what took place behind ivy-covered walls, tracing the origins and evolution of faculty wives' clubs across American higher education. These organizations brought together highly educated women whose unpaid labor- from hosting dinners and receptions to mentoring young academic wives- quietly sustained universities while also fostering philanthropy, activism, and political engagement.

Through archival research and biographical portraits, Mittelman explores gender and race, social and cultural history, and the intersection of modern feminism with other reform movements, showing how faculty wives challenged chauvinism and carved out autonomous identities within institutions not designed for them.