Thursday, January 04, 2007

True North: A Memoir

True North : A Memoir

Jill Ker Conway

Date: 15 August, 1995   —   $9.75   —   Book

product page

Rating:

Nonfiction, Memoir

This sequel to Road From Coorain continues Ker Conway's journey. She writes of meeting her husband and of becoming a professor; she details how she learned to convey her interest in her studies to her students, and how that led to a professorial role in a new university. She is astonished to find herself offered a new, high position in the university, because despite her studies into the role of women in history, she has forgotten to consider her own merits. However, she is nonetheless surprised when her appointment makes her the center of attention as "the first."

One of the things notable about Ker Conway's life is the de facto feminism— she does her best to equalize pay scales and hire women as a means of doing things fairly, not to undo old wrongs. Her solutions are equitable— such as a means of truly determining a female professor's worth— and her discoveries interesting, such as the fact that when she places an ad for a professorial position, there are women applicants, though there are none when a male places the ad. Nowadays, when feminism has won many of the goals Ker Conway sought, it is important to look at how hard it was only a short time ago.

But in the end, I'll just say that it's interesting, and you should read it. Really.

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