Looking Forward in the Rear View Mirror: Women’s Roles in Libraries Sharon Stoerger, Ph.D. Candidate ACRL Women’s Studie

1. Looking Forward in the Rear View Mirror: Women’s Roles in Libraries Sharon Stoerger, Ph.D. Candidate ACRL Women’s Studies Section Poster Session School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) Indiana University, Bloomington • In the Beginning… • Male domains • Scholarship, teaching, librarianship • Public versus private sphere • Industrialization: rural  urban • ~~~~~~~~~ • First Wave Feminism (1848-1920) • Women as librarians • 1852 – first female library clerks (Boston Public) • 1857 – Boston Athenaeum • The Cult of True Womanhood • Librarianship = feminine ideas • Legitimate work (just like home) • Used to justify poor working conditions • Feminized profession (by 1921; 1930s peak) • Cheap, temporary labor = key • Elite male minority = leaders regardless • Post-World War II • 1944 - GI Bill • Influx of veterans = increase in demand for library services • 1947 – lack of librarians (male and female) • ~~~~~~~~~ • Expansion & the Image Problem • 1950s -1960s • Golden Age of Librarianship • $$ for library construction & development • Image “solutions” • Get rid of the old maid image! (Farrington, 1948) • Stop accepting misfits (Bennet, 1965) • Librarians need to masculinize (Rossi, 1962) • Let’s start recruiting! • 1964 Esquire article, “Young Man, Be a Librarian” • Men + librarianship = quick advancement • Second Wave Feminism (1963-1982) • Important acts & amendments • Equal Pay Act of 1963 Education Amendments of 1972 • The Civil Rights Act of 1964  Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 • Information science + library science (late 1960s-1970s) • Gender neutral term? • “Library science for boys” (Hildenbrand, 1999) • Library activists (e.g., Celeste West) • ALA & the Women’s Movement • Conference speakers - Wilma Scott Heide (NOW) • Groups & organizations – e.g., COSWL (1976) • Studies on women in libraries (Garrison, 1979; Heim & Estabrook, 1983; Schiller, 1974) • Third Wave Feminism (1990s-?) • Women’s Movement  no longer a visibly active force • Hot topics • Women librarians of color • Salaries & related issues…but also author appearances, health & personal finance • Image problem continues  the profession as critic (e.g., Plaiss, 1990) • ~~~~~~~~~ • Is the Revolution Over? • Inroads in academic librarianship • Inadequate treatment of ethnic & racial communities • Children’s librarians, catalogers, school librarians • Family life issues (children) • Underrepresentation in the literature • Conclusion • Women  great strides but… • Incomplete statistics on gender • LCSH – out-of-date • The elite male minority • Writers of library history • Where are the women? • Scapegoats • Denial of female contributions/male attribution Abstract Librarianship is commonly viewed as a feminized profession, but it did not begin that way. In early America, men ruled the public sphere, whereas women ruling in their private, home-based sphere embodied qualities of submissiveness, domesticity, and nurturance. At that time, scholarship was a male domain; thus, librarians were typically male and librarianship was a male profession. With Industrialization and its focus on production and consumption, more men and women had to look for waged work. Because librarianship was aligned with the ideals of “True Womanhood,” it was viewed as respectable work for women, a legitimate way for college educated women to become part of the paid workforce. This poster examines the role of women in librarianship from the 19th century to the present. The work also investigates the issues surrounding this female-intensive occupation and how the focus has changed over time. Contact Information For more information on this session or a copy of the bibliography: Sharon Stoerger sstoerge@indiana.edu