Book
A woman's education / Jill Ker Conway.
Record details
- ISBN: 0679421009
- Physical Description: vii, 143 p.
- Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | "A Borzoi book"--T.p. verso. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Conway, Jill K., 1934- Smith College > Presidents > Biography |
- Baker & Taylor
The third book in the author's continuing memoir, which began withRoad from Coorain and True North focuses on her tenure as the first woman president of Smith College. 40,000 first printing. - Baker & Taylor
The third book in the author's continuing memoir focuses on her tenure as the first woman president of Smith College. - Book News
Conway (science, technology, and society; Massachusetts Institute of Technology) continues her memoirs with a third volume recalling her experience as the first woman president of Smith College. There is no scholarly paraphernalia. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) - Random House, Inc.
The acclaimed author of the best-selling The Road from Coorain and True North now gives us the third book in her remarkable continuing memoirâdescribing the pleasures, the challenges, and the constant surprises (good and bad) of her years as the first woman president of Smith College.
The story opens in 1973 as Conway, unbeknownst to her, is first âlooked overâ as a prospective candidate by members of the Smith community, and continues as she assesses her passions and possibilities and agrees to the new challenge of heading the college in 1975. The jolt of energy she gets from being surrounded by several thousand young women enables her to take on the difficulties that arise in dealing with the diverse Smith constituenciesâfrom the self-appointed protectors of the great male tradition of humanistic learning to the equally determined young feminists insisting on change. We see Conway juggling the needs and concerns of faculty, students, parents, trustees, and alumnae, and re-defining and redesigning aspects of the college to create programs in line with the new realities of womenâs lives. We sense the urgency of her efforts to shape an institution that will attract students of the 1990s and beyond.
Through it all we see Jill Ker Conway coping with her husbandâs illness, and learning to protect and sustain her inner self. As the end of a decade at Smith approaches, we see her realizing that she has both had her education and made her contributions, and that it is time now for her to graduate.
