Deans of Women and the Feminist Movement: Emily Taylor’s Activism

Description

“Deans of Women and the Feminist Movement” explores the life of Emily Taylor, Dean of Women at the University of Kansas, who belied the stereotype of an administrator bent on discipline by following in a line of feminist Midwestern deans and fostering feminism before the women’s liberation movement. In the 1950s, Taylor taught students autonomy, even when they resisted it. She peeled back parietal rules, enacted sex education, and counseled unplanned pregnancies and rape victims, while also supporting civil rights, calming New Left student protest, and fusing her work with that of radical feminists. She brought “deaning” to the national stage at the American Council on Education, where she implemented deans’ long-standing women’s leadership strategies to help double women college presidents in a decade. Taylor’s story shows the feminist history in student affairs and how feminist deans foregrounded women’s studies and created professional preparation for college women to combine marriage, motherhood, and paid work.