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Kate Fansler Mystery #6
Death in a Tenured Position
When Janet Mandelbaum is made the first woman professor at Harvard's English Department, the men are not happy. They are unhappier still when her tea is spiked and she is found drunk on the floor of the women's room. With a little time, Janet's dear friend and colleague Kate Fansler could track down the culprit, but time is running out....
208 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 11, 1981
12 people are currently reading
409 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Cross
47 books57 followersA psuedonym of Carolyn G. Heilbrun.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
December 7, 2019
Three stars for merit, not for my enjoyment of reading this book. I can't really state the reason I am sad after reading this one without spoiling the book for others. Actually, I would recommend skipping this Kate Fansler book unless you have loved all the preceding books as I have.
On the face of it, Kate is called for help to Harvard by the first female English professor in Harvard's history. There is a bit of fun she did have in her portrayals of the male ruling class of the institution. They were, of course, horrified to be granted a million dollars only if they appointed a female to join them. From the search committee: "The dame we seek ought to be well established and, if possible, not given to hysterical scenes." Reed was "junketing about the world to advise on police methods," leaving Kate without excuse when called on by the selected Harvard English professor to come to her aid.
The initial plea came from member of a Lesbian group, predictably portrayed in motley clothing with aggressive dog, to bring up other problems this old classmate of Kate's was experiencing...now the lone female professor at Harvard. Very melodramatic and perfectly unbelievable behavior was enacted by the male professors of the English Department such as sneaking vodka into the woman's campari until she was unconscious whereupon she was transferred to a bathtub. That was just a small part of the scene that met Kate's arrival and only a small part of what she was to unscramble.
After attempts to uncover who was behind some dirty tricks, the ill-chosen female professor is found dead. Arrested for the crime is the former husband who was also a college boyfriend of Kate's. Kate hires her expensive lawyer friend and begins her investigation.
This was published in 1981.
On the face of it, Kate is called for help to Harvard by the first female English professor in Harvard's history. There is a bit of fun she did have in her portrayals of the male ruling class of the institution. They were, of course, horrified to be granted a million dollars only if they appointed a female to join them. From the search committee: "The dame we seek ought to be well established and, if possible, not given to hysterical scenes." Reed was "junketing about the world to advise on police methods," leaving Kate without excuse when called on by the selected Harvard English professor to come to her aid.
The initial plea came from member of a Lesbian group, predictably portrayed in motley clothing with aggressive dog, to bring up other problems this old classmate of Kate's was experiencing...now the lone female professor at Harvard. Very melodramatic and perfectly unbelievable behavior was enacted by the male professors of the English Department such as sneaking vodka into the woman's campari until she was unconscious whereupon she was transferred to a bathtub. That was just a small part of the scene that met Kate's arrival and only a small part of what she was to unscramble.
After attempts to uncover who was behind some dirty tricks, the ill-chosen female professor is found dead. Arrested for the crime is the former husband who was also a college boyfriend of Kate's. Kate hires her expensive lawyer friend and begins her investigation.
This was published in 1981.
August 30, 2015
Talking, talking, talking. So much talking. So many characters saying so many things as wordily as humanly possible. Don't get me wrong, they were usually talking about interesting things, and I don't mind a lot of talking in novels in general. But mystery novels should have more action than talking, and this one was about 90 percent talking, 10 percent action. This is the fourth Amanda Cross mystery I've read but, I believe, the earliest one I've read in terms of when she wrote them. Now I'm wondering if I was too easy on her other novels, or if she just got better at writing them as time went on. Probably the latter, but that didn't make this one any more fun to read.
August 28, 2015
I read all the Amanda Cross mysteries a long time ago. I really enjoyed them, particularly for whatever author or issue she was examining in the course of the mystery. I seem to have run into a fair amount of people who find them wanting in some way, but I didn't. I also really like the nonfiction she wrote under her real name, Carolyn Heilbrun.
July 19, 2018
3,5
Je mets "polar" mais en fait je crois que pour vraiment apprécier ces romans, il vaut mieux ne pas les considérer comme des romans policiers. Ce que je trouve le plus intéressant personnellement, bien plus que l'enquête, c'est le cadre universitaire et le regard légèrement ironique porté dessus.
Je mets "polar" mais en fait je crois que pour vraiment apprécier ces romans, il vaut mieux ne pas les considérer comme des romans policiers. Ce que je trouve le plus intéressant personnellement, bien plus que l'enquête, c'est le cadre universitaire et le regard légèrement ironique porté dessus.
May 9, 2021
I am very interested in what Cross writes about, and what the characters think about, and you would think that a literary mystery is just my speed. But this is very, very dull. What do you call wit without humor? Archness? Academia? There’s plenty of that in here.
I’d love to read this story by someone who is better at people (like Sayers), or mysteries (like Christie), or wit WITH humor (like Christianna Brand or Sarah Caudwell). I understand that she gets better at writing later. I will give the later ones a chance.
I’d love to read this story by someone who is better at people (like Sayers), or mysteries (like Christie), or wit WITH humor (like Christianna Brand or Sarah Caudwell). I understand that she gets better at writing later. I will give the later ones a chance.
February 2, 2014
I am not certain what I think about this. I did not enjoy it very much.
I liked the points of view on feminism, from Janet who thinks it is all nonsense and doesn't believe sexism exists, to the women's separatist commune, to Moon whom if we met him now would seem rather sexist (although if he continued to develop he might have become a respectable feminist ally), to Kate herself who looks at all these shades thoughtfully and considers them in their contexts.
But I thought the mystery itself
Also, Cross is back to the dialogue in long, long, long paragraphs of exposition, which I may forgive when Kate does as it is defined as part of her personality, but when other characters do it, especially characters who really should not speak like that given what we know of their background, it is annoying.
I liked the points of view on feminism, from Janet who thinks it is all nonsense and doesn't believe sexism exists, to the women's separatist commune, to Moon whom if we met him now would seem rather sexist (although if he continued to develop he might have become a respectable feminist ally), to Kate herself who looks at all these shades thoughtfully and considers them in their contexts.
But I thought the mystery itself
Also, Cross is back to the dialogue in long, long, long paragraphs of exposition, which I may forgive when Kate does as it is defined as part of her personality, but when other characters do it, especially characters who really should not speak like that given what we know of their background, it is annoying.
April 2, 2024
I read Death in a Tenured Position many years ago, when I was in university. Now, re-reading it, I get the humour of her many characterizations of certain types of men, who no doubt, were a torture to the feminists in the 70s and 80s. In a lot of ways, this novel is a revenge piece where Cross could vent her anger at the Janet Mandelbaums of the world who did not support feminism because they thought that if they made it, any woman could make it. She also took aim at men who lived in terror of 'female hysterics' in the workplace, men who thought they were being magnanimous to say they had no objection to women who work, as long as home and kids came first. I think you have to be a certain age to appreciate the politics here; if you are too young, you might mistakenly think that Cross was a serious case of paranoia.
Of course, Amanda Cross is the pen name for Carolyn Heilbrun, Columbia University professor, the first woman to receive tenure in the English department. She fought the battles of which she wrote. Her style is wordy, and often pretentious, filled with digressions that only an English professor would make, so she is definitely an acquired taste, and not for everyone. But I like her novels still, even if the cutting edge radical attitude has morphed into a somewhat nostalgic take.
Of course, Amanda Cross is the pen name for Carolyn Heilbrun, Columbia University professor, the first woman to receive tenure in the English department. She fought the battles of which she wrote. Her style is wordy, and often pretentious, filled with digressions that only an English professor would make, so she is definitely an acquired taste, and not for everyone. But I like her novels still, even if the cutting edge radical attitude has morphed into a somewhat nostalgic take.
January 6, 2018
This mystery, published in 1981, made me remember the struggles that the first women professors hired at universities, especially ones like Harvard (where this takes place), which taught women but rarely hired them. More women are in academic professions now, but they still face resentment and restrictions that male faculty do not.
February 24, 2024
Livre choisi au hasard du rayon polar de ma bibliothèque, parce que la couverture m'a intriguée.
Hé bah... J'ai trouvé ça laborieux. Il est qualifié de "roman ironique", mais malgré cette approche, j'ai trouvé que le point de vue que l'on suit franchement désagréable.
Pour une conclusion un peu "tout ça pour ça", qui aurait pourtant pu être intéressante si elle avait été amenée différemment.
Ce que je lis sur Carolyn Heilburn pourrait pourtant me convaincre que nos partageons des opinions, mais j'ai trouvé le propos trop confus et la lecture globalement peu satisfaisante.
Hé bah... J'ai trouvé ça laborieux. Il est qualifié de "roman ironique", mais malgré cette approche, j'ai trouvé que le point de vue que l'on suit franchement désagréable.
Pour une conclusion un peu "tout ça pour ça", qui aurait pourtant pu être intéressante si elle avait été amenée différemment.
Ce que je lis sur Carolyn Heilburn pourrait pourtant me convaincre que nos partageons des opinions, mais j'ai trouvé le propos trop confus et la lecture globalement peu satisfaisante.
September 1, 2025
This book really has not aged well. I know Amanda Cross is a good writer but the world of academics and the position of women has changed so much since the 1970s that I do not recommend this
Read
December 9, 2022Not much of a mystery, but I loved reading it.
November 1, 2017
I was so looking forward to a mystery by Carolyn Heilbrun and especially one about academia, Harvard, and the women's movement. But this one is a real drag. It supposedly is in the late 70's/early 80's but reads like the 50's. I start grad school at Harvard in the 60's and got my first academic job (Northwestern University) in the 70's and moved to U of Michigan in the 80's. All of my experiences predated the way this book is written.
Calling another woman a "libber" and talking about "frying and eating bras," whoever talked like that? Yes, boring meetings of pompous males--but we learned how to deal with them.
There was a spot in which the book could have become more convincing and that is in explaining how Harvard used assistant professorships for women and then kept them from becoming tenured. (I had experience with that through reviewing a few of these talented women and following the case of one who stood up against Harvard's practices and got a tenured senior position in spite of them.) Harvard would hire talented women (and some men as well) in junior tenure track positions but when they came up for promotion and tenure would advertise the POSITION as if it were a new position. THEN the person coming up through Harvard's ranks for promotion to their "own position" had to prove via the review process that there was no one else in the nation better qualified for the position than this person was. This is different from most other top research universities in the US, although similar to many European universities.
I read a number of reviews that found the beginning of this book OK but the ending disappointing (spoiler alert: I won't tell why). However, I found the redeeming grace of the book in Janet's despair at the end of the book and how Kate discovered it.
I made a mistake in how I read this book. I thought it was the FIRST Kate Fansler mysteries even though the title here in Goodreads is clearly marked the 6th. So I thought Kate's dim personality and activities (as I judge them) were because she was just learning to become a "mystery-solver." But, alas, she is supposed to be an accomplished star. For me, it just doesn't work. I may read one or two more of these brief books just to give Carolyn Heilbrun/Amanda Cross as a fiction writer another chance.
Calling another woman a "libber" and talking about "frying and eating bras," whoever talked like that? Yes, boring meetings of pompous males--but we learned how to deal with them.
There was a spot in which the book could have become more convincing and that is in explaining how Harvard used assistant professorships for women and then kept them from becoming tenured. (I had experience with that through reviewing a few of these talented women and following the case of one who stood up against Harvard's practices and got a tenured senior position in spite of them.) Harvard would hire talented women (and some men as well) in junior tenure track positions but when they came up for promotion and tenure would advertise the POSITION as if it were a new position. THEN the person coming up through Harvard's ranks for promotion to their "own position" had to prove via the review process that there was no one else in the nation better qualified for the position than this person was. This is different from most other top research universities in the US, although similar to many European universities.
I read a number of reviews that found the beginning of this book OK but the ending disappointing (spoiler alert: I won't tell why). However, I found the redeeming grace of the book in Janet's despair at the end of the book and how Kate discovered it.
I made a mistake in how I read this book. I thought it was the FIRST Kate Fansler mysteries even though the title here in Goodreads is clearly marked the 6th. So I thought Kate's dim personality and activities (as I judge them) were because she was just learning to become a "mystery-solver." But, alas, she is supposed to be an accomplished star. For me, it just doesn't work. I may read one or two more of these brief books just to give Carolyn Heilbrun/Amanda Cross as a fiction writer another chance.
November 4, 2013
Amanda Cross is the pen name of Carolyn Gold Heilbrun, an English literature professor who taught at Columbia from the Sixties to the Nineties. "Death in a Tenured Position" is a part of a 14-book series featuring Kate Fansler, an English literature professor from an established New York university.
Kate is asked to investigate the strange case of Janet Mandelbaum, the first female literature professor in the English department at Harvard, who was found drunk and asleep in a bathtub along another woman in a campus building. The obvious suspicion is that the male professors, angered with intrusion of a woman on the male bastion, played a severe practical joke. The plot takes a more serious turn later, as presaged by the title.
Ms. Cross is an acute observer of the politics of gender wars in the Seventies; she most likely participated in gender battles at her university. To me, the portrayal of the social mores of that time is a stronger aspect of the book than the mystery plot, which is quite understated. Despite dealing with issues that are still relevant today, the novel feels somewhat dated. I had a hard time getting "into the book", but once I did, I had to force myself to stop reading at 1 a.m. Overall, "Death in a Tenured Position" has good characterizations and a solid feel of the time and place. Worth reading.
Three stars.
Kate is asked to investigate the strange case of Janet Mandelbaum, the first female literature professor in the English department at Harvard, who was found drunk and asleep in a bathtub along another woman in a campus building. The obvious suspicion is that the male professors, angered with intrusion of a woman on the male bastion, played a severe practical joke. The plot takes a more serious turn later, as presaged by the title.
Ms. Cross is an acute observer of the politics of gender wars in the Seventies; she most likely participated in gender battles at her university. To me, the portrayal of the social mores of that time is a stronger aspect of the book than the mystery plot, which is quite understated. Despite dealing with issues that are still relevant today, the novel feels somewhat dated. I had a hard time getting "into the book", but once I did, I had to force myself to stop reading at 1 a.m. Overall, "Death in a Tenured Position" has good characterizations and a solid feel of the time and place. Worth reading.
Three stars.
April 4, 2022
When Harvard University reluctantly hires a full-time female professor in the English Department, there are many objections to the move in spite of the unquestioned qualifications of the first appointee, Janet Mandelbaum. So nobody is terribly surprised when she is found drunk and passed out in the ladies’ bathroom; however, when she is subsequently found dead in the mens’ bathroom, it becomes up to Kate Fansler, visiting professor at the Radcliffe Institute, to discover what happened. Throw in a handful of misogynists, another handful of radical feminists and the victim’s ex-husband, and well, there’s no end of suspects to contemplate….This is the sixth novel in the Kate Fansler series, which I’ve been enjoying as I come across them. This one was published about five years after the fifth book and is set in 1979; I myself was in university in 1980 (though not, of course, at Harvard) and so find it difficult to believe that at that time, any university would be as against female professors as is exhibited here. However, once past that puzzle, the story itself is quite entertaining and Kate, as ever, is able to get to the heart of the matter with great insight and wit. Unfortunately, these books are not that easy to find and I don’t know when I might obtain a copy of the next book; in the meantime, this one was quite enjoyable on its own. Recommended.
February 11, 2019
From the reviews, it appears that people either love or hate this author. I am one of the ones who love her books. If you want your books to be full of action, then Cross is probably not for you. If you like a thought-provoking, literate, well written mystery, then you will like the Kate Fansler mysteries. In this installment, Kate is called to Harvard to help Janet Mandelbaum who has been appointed a professor because of an endowed chair, but is miserable in the all men world of Harvard. She is found in a compromising position which makes matters worse, and then dies. Who killed her? That is what Kate wants to find out. I love the intelligent writing of Cross which is, to me, a welcome change from the shoot-em-up mysteries that are so popular today.
September 10, 2008
I adore Carolyn Heilbrun, so I thought I'd love this mystery under her pseudonym. This one drags through every preposterous murder scenario it's possible for the human mind to invent, and then settles on the least interesting.
Maybe I blame it for reminding me how dreary sexism was in the 70s -- or how little editing used to be employed. Either way, I'll try reading at least one more Amanda Cross (hopefully, one with a more straightforward murder) before I give up.
Maybe I blame it for reminding me how dreary sexism was in the 70s -- or how little editing used to be employed. Either way, I'll try reading at least one more Amanda Cross (hopefully, one with a more straightforward murder) before I give up.
August 12, 2009
And some people in our book club didn't like Sayers' "Gaudy Night"! I found this very difficult to finish. Very wordy. Kind of preachy about the women's lib issues (quite boring--written in 1981, but living in a slightly earlier time) I simply could not warm up to any of the characters, and didn't even care if the 'victim' had been murdered or not! Not much to like here...
March 24, 2010
The last of the three Amanda Cross books I've been given to read. I liked this one the least, though I still enjoyed reading it. I think another thing that I enjoy about her books are the unusual, eccentric characters one meets. In this book Harvard is almost the villain! Lots of women's issues in it.
February 24, 2020
3.5/5
The mystery here wasn’t anything to sneeze at but I did find the discussion of Harvard’s English department and overall “boys club” vibe to be interesting. Some of the discussions surrounding feminism were absolutely cringeworthy and I’m shocked at how overtly sexist people could be so casually.
The mystery here wasn’t anything to sneeze at but I did find the discussion of Harvard’s English department and overall “boys club” vibe to be interesting. Some of the discussions surrounding feminism were absolutely cringeworthy and I’m shocked at how overtly sexist people could be so casually.
January 11, 2009
This mystery really captured realities about universities and how faculty behave and function together with an historical period (when women were breaking into the professorate in Ivy League Universities in the 1970's).
June 24, 2016
Really enjoyed this. Smart, literate, full of feeling, and written at a high level of polish. The actual mystery isn't much of a mystery. But, whatever, we carry on.
Want to read
February 13, 2019Synopsis: when a woman joins Harvard's English Department, the men are not happy. Then someone spikes her tea. Can Professor Fansler find the culprit?
September 26, 2019
Book #: 40
Title: Death in a Tenured Position (Kate Fansler #6)
Author: Amanda Cross
Popsugar Category: Basic: A book set on a college or university campus
Popsugar Category: Advanced: An "own voices" book
Goodreads Category: A book by an author who has more than one book on your TBR
Goodreads Category: A book that was nominated for or won an award in a genre you enjoy
(Winner 1981 Nero Award for Mystery Novels)
Dagonell Category: An book by an author on your RETAW list
A-Z Title: D for Death
A-Z Author: C for Cross
Format: Hardcover, Local library
Rating: **** four out of five stars
Amanda Cross is the pen name for Carolyn Gold Heilbrun who used the pen name Amanda Cross because she wanted to protect her academic career. She has admitted in interviews that Kate Fansler, the protagonist, is her alter ego. However, this particular novel particularly strikes close to home because the murder victim was the first woman to receive tenure in the English department at Harvard. Carolyn was was the first woman to receive tenure in the English Department at Columbia. This is one of my wife's favorite authors and at one point, we owned all 14 books in the series. So, naturally, when I want to read the novel that has one of my favorite book quotes, our copy goes missing and I have to take it out of the library. RETAW stands for "Read Everything This Author Writes". In this case, just the Amanda Cross novels, as she has an extensive non-fiction bibliography in the field of women's studies. I intend to read the entire Kate Fansler series.
"Professors of literature collect books the way a ship collects barnacles, without seeming effort. A literary academic can no more pass a bookstore than an alcoholic can pass a bar."
-- Amanda Cross, Death in a Tenured Position, pg. 219
Title: Death in a Tenured Position (Kate Fansler #6)
Author: Amanda Cross
Popsugar Category: Basic: A book set on a college or university campus
Popsugar Category: Advanced: An "own voices" book
Goodreads Category: A book by an author who has more than one book on your TBR
Goodreads Category: A book that was nominated for or won an award in a genre you enjoy
(Winner 1981 Nero Award for Mystery Novels)
Dagonell Category: An book by an author on your RETAW list
A-Z Title: D for Death
A-Z Author: C for Cross
Format: Hardcover, Local library
Rating: **** four out of five stars
Amanda Cross is the pen name for Carolyn Gold Heilbrun who used the pen name Amanda Cross because she wanted to protect her academic career. She has admitted in interviews that Kate Fansler, the protagonist, is her alter ego. However, this particular novel particularly strikes close to home because the murder victim was the first woman to receive tenure in the English department at Harvard. Carolyn was was the first woman to receive tenure in the English Department at Columbia. This is one of my wife's favorite authors and at one point, we owned all 14 books in the series. So, naturally, when I want to read the novel that has one of my favorite book quotes, our copy goes missing and I have to take it out of the library. RETAW stands for "Read Everything This Author Writes". In this case, just the Amanda Cross novels, as she has an extensive non-fiction bibliography in the field of women's studies. I intend to read the entire Kate Fansler series.
"Professors of literature collect books the way a ship collects barnacles, without seeming effort. A literary academic can no more pass a bookstore than an alcoholic can pass a bar."
-- Amanda Cross, Death in a Tenured Position, pg. 219
May 14, 2020
This was a troubling novel when it first came out, and it stands up well as a portrait of feminism in academia in the late 1970s. I read it in the early 1980s when I was a graduate student being awarded a one-year faculty position upon graduation before beginning advanced graduate work, so it really spoke to me. The complex issues at the heart of the plot--featuring a professor who wants nothing more than to be accepted as "one of the boys" by her fellow faculty members even as she is set up by that faculty as the "token female" in a perfunctory nod to feminist studies which leads to her humiliation and eventual death--provides the background to an investigation into other kinds of feminists and all kinds of misogyny, chauvinism, prejudice, activism, and pragmatism. As professor Kate Fansler delves into the people around her dead former colleague, she uncovers uncomfortable attitudes and opinions aplenty, the aggregate weight of which lead to a terrible conclusion.
December 2, 2020
Rereading this excellent series.
Kate goes to Harvard! The plot of this one is almost too convoluted to try to compress. The patriarchal English department at Harvard is forced to hire a (gasp!) female because someone has donated a million dollars to endow a chair to be filled by a woman. They select Janet as the most likely not to make waves, perhaps - their reasoning is not too clear. Of course she is very unhappy about the way she is treated, and at some point asks for Kate, with whom she was an undergraduate years before. When she is discovered passed out in a bathtub in the presence of a member of a lesbian group, Kate begins trying to find out what happened - it is so obviously a set-up. (Reed is off in Africa and doesn't make an appearance here.) Eventually Janet's body is found in the men''s restroom, and the suspect hunt begins, including her ex-husband, a friend of Kate's. This is not one of my favorites, but the story still grabbed me fairly soon upon rereading.
Kate goes to Harvard! The plot of this one is almost too convoluted to try to compress. The patriarchal English department at Harvard is forced to hire a (gasp!) female because someone has donated a million dollars to endow a chair to be filled by a woman. They select Janet as the most likely not to make waves, perhaps - their reasoning is not too clear. Of course she is very unhappy about the way she is treated, and at some point asks for Kate, with whom she was an undergraduate years before. When she is discovered passed out in a bathtub in the presence of a member of a lesbian group, Kate begins trying to find out what happened - it is so obviously a set-up. (Reed is off in Africa and doesn't make an appearance here.) Eventually Janet's body is found in the men''s restroom, and the suspect hunt begins, including her ex-husband, a friend of Kate's. This is not one of my favorites, but the story still grabbed me fairly soon upon rereading.
December 16, 2023
A bit of a dated story, but a period piece on attitudes about woman and gays, some of which survive to this day. Janet Mandelbaum is the first woman professor in Harvard's English Department. The men are not happy. Woman are not very happy either as she does not espouse the feminist views expected of her. She is set up. Her tea is spiked and she is found passed out naked in a bath tub. A lesbian is called to find her and they are in turn caught together sparking rumors. Janet's former friend and colleague Kate Fansler is called in to find the culprit, but the old boy's network and other obstacles interfere with her investigation. Then a greater rragedy occurs muddying the waters. A great mystery.
October 19, 2017
I found a copy of this in the latest local-library book sale. It looked like a late-70s, fun, pulpy mystery but it turns out it's really just a quality mystery, no pulp required. I got two other books by this author at the same sale and I'm looking forward to them. Well played, Amanda Cross. Well played.
Also: even though this book occurs in the late 1970s, the issues it discusses--feminism, systems of oppression, equal-opportunity employment, and so on--are very current, and I heard them talked about in the same way THIS WEEK. (People are STILL "concerned" about hiring women because of menopause. What is it about menopause?)
Also: even though this book occurs in the late 1970s, the issues it discusses--feminism, systems of oppression, equal-opportunity employment, and so on--are very current, and I heard them talked about in the same way THIS WEEK. (People are STILL "concerned" about hiring women because of menopause. What is it about menopause?)
May 10, 2020
This story is the tragedy of Ms. Janet Mandelbaum. An extremely intelligent woman, at the top of her game, who was invited to join a world of insular and misogynistic men. The men were compelled by a professorship that had been endowed to be filled by a woman. Janet believed she was admitted to "the boys club" based on her merits, which she was, but if they'd had a choice the men of Harvard's English Department would never have admitted her.
This Amanda Cross story caused me to reflect on how similar stories played out across many disciplines and fields over and over again. And, while "we've come a long way baby," forty years later, we still have a long way to go.
This Amanda Cross story caused me to reflect on how similar stories played out across many disciplines and fields over and over again. And, while "we've come a long way baby," forty years later, we still have a long way to go.
September 27, 2022
Though the characters in the book deny they are feminists or women's libbers, the author certainly makes no such claim. As always, Cross is at her acerbic best as she writes about a subject she knows well: holding a tenured professorship in a powerful Ivy League school. I presume this is set at Harvard and not Columbia, because certainly our protagonist is treated much better at Columbia. But apparently Harvard's English department has to be drug kicking and screaming into the second half of the twentieth century.
February 11, 2023
This book was published in 1978, and it was interesting to see that so many of the problems that women faculty members were facing back then or some of the same problems. They are still echoing today. The dates were different, but the problems are still the same. Still, it was a bit jarring to hear some of the attitudes of the male faculty members, which seemed to be rooted in attitudes of 100 years ago, not 45 years ago.
It was an interesting story, and I certainly enjoyed reading it. I plan on checking out more of Amanda Cross’s books.
It was an interesting story, and I certainly enjoyed reading it. I plan on checking out more of Amanda Cross’s books.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews