Women of Vision: Their Psychology, Circumstances, and Success / Edition 1

by Eileen Gavin PhD, Aphrodite Clamar PhD, Mary Anne Siderits PhD

Overview

"From the reviews:

Women of Vision blends biographical narrative with psychological perspectives on human development, resulting in a moving and passionate book that is suitable for both academic and nonacademic readers. It is a useful tool for teaching purposes or for simple, enjoyable, and informative reading."

—Psychology of Women Quarterly

...a fascinating look of preservation and perceptiveness that is differentiated from its predecessors in its range of disciplines and emphasis...This new 'life course' approach to understanding female leaders gives valuable insight into the lives of these imminent women, furnishing insights into how the social-economic-political milieu and the attitudes and values of the time played a significant role in the lives of these women but also in all our lives. Women of Vision will serve as a springboard for exploration of how the psychologies of individual human lives affect their life-course and as a galvanizing step for many more future women of vision and leadership....The accounts in the book should be of substantial significance for readers interested in gender issues. However, the book will appeal to an even wider audience. Persons hoping to move in new directions in their own lives (e.g., women looking wistfully at new academic and occupational paths after years in stereotypic niches) can surely also find inspiration in the various accounts." —SirReadaLot.org

We all know of women of great vision; women whose efforts and accomplishments have had a major impact on the arts, politics, women's rights, sports, or science. But often we may not understand how they became such powerful agents of change and what sorts of questions we should ask of their pasts to understand how the trajectories of their lives were formed.

In this extraordinary textbook, leading experts cast new light on the role of circumstance, accomplishments, and personality in the development of various twentieth-century women of vision. This is a brand new life-course approach to understanding female leaders and gives valuable insight into the lives of such eminent women as Rachel Carson, Evelyn Gentry Hooker, Georgia O'Keeffe, Eleanor Roosevelt, "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, Ella Fitzgerald, Alice Paul, Lucille Ball, and many others. Study questions and exercises at the end of each chapter further enhance the text.

Women of Vision will serve as the springboard for exploration of how the psychologies of individual human lives affect their life-course and a galvanizing step for many more future women of vision and leadership.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826102539
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/20/2007
Series:	Focus on Women
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Eileen A. Gavin, PhD, taught undergraduate women for 40 years and served four consecutive terms as psychology department chair at the College of St. Catherine where she is now professor emerita of psychology.

Aphrodite Clamar, PhD, is a seasoned senior executive in local, national, and international public relations and advertising. Dr. Clamar is the founder and former president of Richard Cohen Associates, a Manhattan-based publicity firm, with an advertising affiliate.

Mary Anne Siderits, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, full-time faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Marquette University, and adjunct clinical professor at the Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology.

Table of Contents

Contributors
Foreword, Agnes N. O'Connell, PhD
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Women Whose Lives Spanned Two Centuries
• Dancing Women's Freedom: The Story of Isadora Duncan, Miriam Roskin Berger, Ilene Serlin, and Mary Anne Siderits
• Anne Sullivan Macy and Helen Adams Keller: Expressing "Vision" with Fluttering Fingers, Hendrika Vande Kemp
• Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth: The Woman Who "Had It All", Melba J.T. Vasquez
• Alice Paul: Constitutional Amendment Mover and ERA Author, Carole A. Rayburn
• Georgia O'Keefe: American Modernist, Lillian Cartwright
• Mary McLeod Bethune: Voice of Change, Life of Service, Karen Fraser Wyche and Lisa Abern
• Anna Eleanor Roosevelt: The Evolution of an Extraordinary Leader, Agnes N. O'Connell
Part II: Women Who Matured During the "Roaring Twenties"
• Rachel Carson: The Strength of Wonder, Ravenna Helson
• "Be-Going": The Story of Dorothy Day, Mary Anne Siderits
• Sister Annette Walters's Unfinished Dream: "To Make the Universe a Home," Eileen A. Gavin
• Evelyn Gentry Hooker: The "Hopelessly Heterosexual" Psychologist Who Normalized Homosexuality, Joanne Quarfoth Floyd and Lynda Anne Szymanski,
• Athlete of the Century: "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, Lee Joyce Richmond
• Lucille Ball: Visions of Trauma, Crisis, and Comedy, Calvin Saxton
• Grace Brewster Murray Hopper: A Woman Who Dared and Did, Debra Sue Pate
Part III: Women Who Became Adults in the Nineteen Forties
• Ella Fitzgerald: The Singer's Singer, Beverly Greene
• Shirley Chisholm: A Catalyst for Change, Barbara L. Biales
• The Case of the Purloined Picture: Rosalind Franklin and the Keystone of the Double Helix, Michael Wertheimer
Part IV: A Second Look at Our Women of Vision
• A Second Look at Our Women of Vision
Appendix: Study Questions for Chapters 1 to 17
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Though the book was meticulously researched and has been referred to as a 'life course,' complete with an appendix of study questions, it's anything but dry academic reading. The individual accounts of each woman's life take a storytelling approach that pulls the reader into the story. The writers ask (and answer) the questions that allow us to understand why the women's lives developed in the manner they did....The book is a collection of fascinating stories that are rich with detail."
—Michele St. Martin, Editor-in-Chief, Minnesota Women's Press

"Women of Vision makes excellent reading for anyone interested in understanding the development and landscape of the lives and achievements of extraordinary people. It is especially recommended for college coureses in women's studies, developmental psychology, psychology of women, personality, and adulthood and aging, among others, as well as to a more general audience of women and men."
—from the foreword by Agnes N. O'Connell