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Flora White

In the Vanguard of Gender Equity

Linda C. Morice

Flora White: In the Vanguard of Gender Equity draws on a collection of personal papers (only recently made available to scholars) to present the life of a colorful New England educator who lived from the Civil War to the Cold War. Throughout her career, White worked to promote the physical and intellectual growth of girls and young women beyond the narrow gender stereotypes of the day. Although White’s name is not a household word, this book represents a newer form of biography in which the life of a lesser-known individual serves as a lens for understanding larger social and cultural developments.

In Flora White’s case, this newer biographical approach produced findings to inform research in both educational history and gender studies. For example, White’s papers correct some longstanding misconceptions about the origins of the progressive education movement and the role women played in it. White’s sources also shed light on the complicated relationships of educated (but marginalized) U.S. women and the prominent men who mentored them. In addition, White’s papers show that--in order to protect herself from those who might find her words objectionable—she used coded language (such as poetry) to counter sexist stereotypes and advance her desire for a fuller life for her students and herself. Although, upon her death, a newspaper obituary praised White for being recognized by “men of note” in educational circles, her efforts to promote the physical and intellectual development of girls and women helped to create opportunity that is still unfolding today.

Lexington Books

Pages: 228 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-4238-8 • Hardback • October 2016 • $109.00 • (£84.00)

978-1-4985-4240-1 • Paperback • May 2018 • $55.99 • (£43.00)

978-1-4985-4239-5 • eBook • October 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

Subjects: History / United States / 19th Century, Education / History, History / Social History, History / United States / 20th Century, Social Science / Gender Studies

Flora White

In the Vanguard of Gender Equity

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Flora White: In the Vanguard of Gender Equity draws on a collection of personal papers (only recently made available to scholars) to present the life of a colorful New England educator who lived from the Civil War to the Cold War. Throughout her career, White worked to promote the physical and intellectual growth of girls and young women beyond the narrow gender stereotypes of the day. Although White’s name is not a household word, this book represents a newer form of biography in which the life of a lesser-known individual serves as a lens for understanding larger social and cultural developments.

In Flora White’s case, this newer biographical approach produced findings to inform research in both educational history and gender studies. For example, White’s papers correct some longstanding misconceptions about the origins of the progressive education movement and the role women played in it. White’s sources also shed light on the complicated relationships of educated (but marginalized) U.S. women and the prominent men who mentored them. In addition, White’s papers show that--in order to protect herself from those who might find her words objectionable—she used coded language (such as poetry) to counter sexist stereotypes and advance her desire for a fuller life for her students and herself. Although, upon her death, a newspaper obituary praised White for being recognized by “men of note” in educational circles, her efforts to promote the physical and intellectual development of girls and women helped to create opportunity that is still unfolding today.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 228 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-4238-8 • Hardback • October 2016 • $109.00 • (£84.00)

978-1-4985-4240-1 • Paperback • May 2018 • $55.99 • (£43.00)

978-1-4985-4239-5 • eBook • October 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

Subjects: History / United States / 19th Century, Education / History, History / Social History, History / United States / 20th Century, Social Science / Gender Studies

Author

Linda C. Morice is professor emerita of educational leadership at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: A Good Name
Chapter 2: Nature Weeps
Chapter 3: Finding Her Voice
Chapter 4: The New Education
Chapter 5: Visionary Women
Chapter 6: A Redeemer
Chapter 7: Doing "Precisely As One Pleases"
Chapter 8: The Best of Her Generation

Reviews

Serendipity for educational biographers might best be redefined as a quick right turn off of Highway 2 to Heath, Massachusetts; a nodding postal worker; a President of the Heath Historical Society; and a curious educational historian following leads about a distant relative. Linda C. Morice is that educational biographer and Flora White (1860-1948), her great grandaunt, was a child-centered Progressive-era educator brave enough to critique G. Stanley Hall, who stridently argued against educating women. White lived a life that others should learn about and Morice has produced an exquisite telling of that life. . . . [Before] you add it to your course book list, first make a cup of tea and enjoy a full read of this book. It is written so eloquently that you will be inspired both as a reader and writer of education biography. I feel enriched by coming to know Flora White and grateful for Linda Morice’s acumen for shaping such a compelling narrative.
— Vitae Scholasticae: The Journal of Educational Biography

Flora White: In the Vanguard of Gender Equity is an absorbing approach to education history, wrapped in a biographical narrative that illuminates a slice of American history stretching from seventeenth-century Massachusetts to the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Linda C. Morice’s account of Flora White’s quest to attain 'more life, and fuller' will offer some an engaging introduction to women’s social agency during the Progressive Era, and others new pockets of evidence and lines of thought regarding women’s educational leadership during that period. Readers will surely appreciate Morice’s literary stewardship of the precious resources that preserved access to White’s amazing life story for contemporary audiences.
— Karen Graves, Professor of Education, Denison University

Linda C. Morice has rendered a richly telling biography of Flora White, a little-known though fascinating and multi-faceted educational leader during the Progressive Era. By exploring the ongoing interplay between White's relentless agency and the ever-present strictures on gender throughout her long life, Morice offers a portrait as much about this uniquely powerful woman as about the social and cultural complexities of her time.
— Jackie M. Blount, Ohio State University

In Flora White: In the Vanguard of Gender Equity, Linda C. Morice uses biography to ‘reveal human agency’ though the story of Flora White. It is a story of struggle for voice and identity, punctuated by challenges to class, race, and gender norms of the day. Morice captures Flora White’s life as a form of lived experience shaped by pride, poverty, personal loss, and the love for education as a means for social and political change. It is also a journey for self-awareness, identity, and place for the author as she shares with the reader the advantages and difficulties of writing about a family member. Morice makes a valuable contribution documenting the significant impact of Flora White to American education and progressive education.
— Sam F. Stack, West Virginia University

Flora White’s life as told by Morice is a forceful and persuasive study of human agency, in which a lesser-known but fascinating and multi-faceted individual serves as a lens for understanding larger social and cultural developments, informing both educational history and gender studies.... Linda Morice’s entertaining and easy-going narrative moves backwards and forwards across time...Productive encounters in local archives make unexpected connections, corroborating and amplifying the anecdotal evidence of family history.
— History of Education: Journal of the History of Education Society

Flora White

In the Vanguard of Gender Equity

Linda C. Morice

Flora White

In the Vanguard of Gender Equity

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