- From the publisher : This book is an intensive full-length study of the sociology of academic women. After briefly surveying the history of women in the American academic world, the author, balancing systematic data with personal biographical mate- rials, analyzes the motivations, back- grounds, and career patterns of academic women and evaluates their contributions as teachers and professors and as scholars and scientists, placing special emphasis on their productivity and cre- ativity. She then turns her attention to the roles of academic women as faculty colleagues and as spinsters, wives, and mothers and offers some predictions for the future of American women in academic life. Written with perception and sympathy and displaying a disciplined use of the tools of sociology, this book sheds new light on America's academic women and the world they inhabit. -- Jessie Shirley Bernard (born Jessie Sarah Ravitch, 1903-1996) was an American sociologist and noted feminist scholar. She was a persistent forerunner of feminist thought in American sociology and her life's work is characterized as extraordinarily productive spanning several intellectual and political eras. Bernard studied and wrote about women's lives since the late 1930s and her contributions to social sciences and feminist theory regarding women, sex, marriage, and the interaction with the family and community are well noted.Jessie Shirley Bernard (born Jessie Sarah Ravitch, 1903-1996) was an American sociologist and noted feminist scholar. She was a persistent forerunner of feminist thought in American sociology and her life's work is characterized as extraordinarily productive spanning several intellectual and political eras. Bernard studied and wrote about women's lives since the late 1930s and her contributions to social sciences and feminist theory regarding women, sex, marriage, and the interaction with the family and community are well noted.