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New Book Chronicles Long Journey To Equality For Women At UK

University Press of Kentucky

In 1880, forty-three women walked into the president's office at the University of Kentucky and signed the student register, becoming the first female students at a public college in the commonwealth. But gaining admittance was only the beginning. WUKY wraps up our salute to Women's History Month with a conversation with Terry L. Birdwhistell and Deirdre Scaggs, co-authors of Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880—1945.

From University Press of Kentucky:

Drawing on yearbooks, photographs, and other private collections, Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880--1945 examines the struggle for gender equity in higher education through the lens of one major institution. In the face of shifting resistance, pioneering women constructed opportunities for themselves. Terry L. Birdwhistell and Deirdre A. Scaggs highlight three women -- Sarah Blanding, Frances Jewell McVey, and Sarah Bennett Holmes -- who fought for access to basic facilities that were denied to UK women for decades, including housing and study spaces. By examining the trials and triumphs of UK's first female undergraduates, faculty, and administrators, this book uncovers the lasting impact women had on higher learning in the early days of coeducation.

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