Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g78kv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T06:10:36.726Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dynamic Social Norms and the Unexpected Transformation of Women’s Higher Education, 1965–1975

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Stacey Jones
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the gender divide in American higher education narrowed rapidly as women shifted their aims from homemaking to careers. The dynamic-social-norms hypothesis explains why we observe unexpected and rapid rather than gradual change in women’s education and employment. The explanation draws on a theory of social change developed by Timur Kuran that predicts revolutionary rather than incremental shifts in social norms. Critical to the argument is the claim that in some settings the choices of individuals depend in part on the choices of others. In the presence of interdependencies, the potential exists for unexpected and rapid transformations, such as that occurring in higher education between 1965 and 1975.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , Fall 2009 , pp. 247 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2009 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aigner, Dennis, and Cain, Glen G. (1977) “Statistical theories of discrimination in labor markets.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 30: 175–87.Google Scholar
Akerlof, George (1980) “A theory of custom of which unemployment may be one consequence.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 95: 749–75.Google Scholar
Angrist, Shirley (1966) “Leisure and the educated women.” American Association of University Women Journal 60: 10–12.Google Scholar
Astin, Alexander (1987) The American Freshman: Twenty Year Trends, 1966–1985. Los Angeles: University of California, Higher Education Research Institute.Google Scholar
Banerjee, Abhijit (1992) “A simple model of herd behavior.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 107: 797–818.Google Scholar
Bennett, Judith (1997) “Confronting continuity.” Journal of Women’s History 9: 73–94.Google Scholar
Berger, Margaret (1980) Litigation on Behalf of Women: A Review for the Ford Foundation. New York: Ford Foundation.Google Scholar
Bertrand, Marianne, Luttmer, Erzo, and Mullainathan, Sendhil (2000) “Network effects and welfare cultures.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 115: 1019–55.Google Scholar
Bikhchandani, Sushil, Hirshleifer, David, and Welch, Ivo (1992) “A theory of fads, fashion, custom, and cultural change in informational cascades.” Journal of Political Economy 100: 992–1026.Google Scholar
Bix, Amy (2000) “‘Engineeresses’ invade campuses: Four decades of debate over technical coeducation.” Technology and Society Magazine 19: 20–26.Google Scholar
Blau, Francine (2000) “On becoming and being an economist,” in Michael, Szenberg (ed.) Passion and Craft: Economists at Work. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press: 20–38.Google Scholar
Campbell, Jean (1973) “Women drop back in: Educational innovation in the sixties,” in Rossi, Alice S. and Calderwood, Ann (eds.) Academic Women on the Move. New York: Sage: 93–124.Google Scholar
Carter, Michael, and Carter, Susan (1981) “;Women’s recent progress in the professions;.” Feminist Studies 7: 477–504.Google Scholar
Cass, James, and Birnbaum, Max (1965) Comparative Guide to American Colleges for Students, Parents, and Counselors. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Cass, James, and Birnbaum, Max (1969) Comparative Guide to American Colleges for Students, Parents, and Counselors. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Cass, James, and Birnbaum, Max (1981) Comparative Guide to American Colleges for Students, Parents, and Counselors. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Chafe, William (1972) The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Role, 1920–1970. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, Mary T., and Pencavel, John(1993) “Trends in market work behavior of women since 1940.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 46: 653–76.Google Scholar
Costa, Dora L., and Kahn, Matthew E. (2000) “Power couples: Changes in the locational choice of the college educated, 1940–1990.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 115: 1287–1315.Google Scholar
Cross, K. Patricia (1974) “The woman student,” in Furniss, W. Todd and Graham, Patricia Albjerg (eds.) Women in Higher Education: Papers Presented at the 1972 Annual Meeting of the American Council on Education. Washington, DC: American Council on Education: 29–49.Google Scholar
Degler, Carl (1964) “Revolution without ideology: The changing place of women in America,” in Lifton, R. J. (ed.) The Women in America. Boston: Beacon: 193–210.Google Scholar
Duncan, Otis, and Duncan, Beverly (1955) “A methodological analysis of segregation indexes.” American Sociological Review 20: 210–17.Google Scholar
Eisenmann, Linda (2006) Higher Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945–1965. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, Cynthia (1973) “Structuring success for women: Guidelines for gatekeepers.” Journal of the National Association of Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors 37: 34–42.Google Scholar
Folbre, Nancy (1993) “’Guys don’t do that”: Gender groups and social norms.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, Anaheim, CA, December.Google Scholar
Frank, Robert (1996) “The political economy of preference falsification: Timur Kuran’s Private Truths, Public Lies .” Journal of Economic Literature 34: 115–23.Google Scholar
Friedan, Betty (1976) It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women’s Movement. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Goldhaber, Samuel Z. (1972) Medical School Admissions: A Raw Deal for Applicants. Science 1: 332–34.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia (1990) Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia (1997) “Career and family: College women look to the past,” in Ronald Ehrenberg and Francine Blau (eds.) Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace. New York: Russell Sage Foundation: 20–58.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia (2004) “The long road to the fast track: Career and family.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 596: 20–35.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia (2004) “The long road to the fast track: Career and family.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 596: 20–35.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia, and Katz, Lawrence (2002) “The power of the pill.” Journal of Political Economy 110: 730–70.Google Scholar
Harvard University Gazette (1999) “‘Women in Lamont’ marks alumnae gift for renovation.” May 13.Google Scholar
Harvey, Brett (1993) The Fifties: A Women’s Oral History. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Huber, Joan (1973) “From sugar and spice to professor,” in Rossi, Alice S. and Calderwood, Ann (eds.) Academic Women on the Move. New York: Sage: 125–35.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Jerry (1989) Revolving Doors: Sex Segregation and Women’s Careers. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Janeway, Elizabeth, ed. (1973) Women: Their Changing Roles. New York: New York Times Company.Google Scholar
Jencks, Christopher, and Riesman, David (1968) The Academic Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jones, Stacey (2004) “The unexpected transformation of women’s higher education, 1965–1980.” PhD diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Kaledin, Eugenia (1984) Mothers and More: American Women in the 1950s. Boston: Twayne.Google Scholar
Karen, David (1991) “The politics of class, race, and gender: Access to higher education in the United States, 1960–1986.” American Journal of Education 100: 208–34.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1982) The Uses of the University, 3rd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kessler-Harris, Alice (2001) In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kimball, Margaret (1999) Interview for Becoming Stanford: The Making of an American University (documentary). Transcript, SCM 363, Stanford University Archives.Google Scholar
Kreps, Juanita (1975) “Women in academia: Today is different,” in Epstein, Laurily Keir (ed.) Women in the Professions. Lexington, MA: Heath: 15–23.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur (1987) “Preference falsification, policy continuity, and collective conservatism.” Economic Journal 97: 642–65.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur (1988) “The tenacious past: Theories of personal and collective conservatism.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 10: 143–71.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur (1989) “Sparks and prairie fires: A theory of unanticipated political revolution.” Public Choice 61: 41–74.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur (1991) “The East European revolution of 1989: Is it surprising that we were surprised?” American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings 81: 121–25.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur (1995) Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lavine, Thelma (1974) “The motive to achieve limited success: The new woman law school applicant,” in Furniss, W. Todd and Graham, Patricia Albjerg (eds.) Women in Higher Education: Papers Presented at the 1972 Annual Meeting of the American Council on Education. Washington, DC: American Council on Education: 187–91.Google Scholar
McBee, Louise, and Suddick, David (1974) “Differential freshman admission by sex.” Journal of the National Association of Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors 37: 75–77.Google Scholar
Mead, Margaret (1966) “A critical look at women’s options.” Harvard Educational Review 36: 6–9.Google Scholar
National Manpower Council (1957) Womanpower. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Newcomer, Mabel (1959) A Century of Higher Education for American Women. New York: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
Newman, Frank (1971) Report on Higher Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Office of Education.Google Scholar
O’Connor, Karen (1980) Women’s Organizations’ Use of the Courts. Lexington, MA: Lexington.Google Scholar
O’Neill, June, and Polachek, Solomon (1993) “Why the gender gap in wages narrowed in the 1980s.” Journal of Labor Economics 11: 205–28.Google Scholar
Parrish, John (1974) “Women, careers, and counseling: The new era.” Journal of the National Association of Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors 38: 11–19.Google Scholar
Patterson, Gardner (1968) “The education of women at Princeton.” Princeton Alumni Weekly 69: 4–56.Google Scholar
Pencavel, John (1998) “The market work behavior and wages of women: 1975–94.” Journal of Human Resources 33: 771–804.Google Scholar
Pye, Kenneth, and Kramer, John (1984) “Solvency and survival after the boom舒a different perspective.” Journal of Legal Education 84: 462–78.Google Scholar
Rees, Mina (1974) “The graduate education of women,” in Furniss, W. Todd and Graham, Patricia Albjerg (eds.) Women in Higher Education: Papers Presented at the 1972 Annual Meeting of the American Council on Education. Washington, DC: American Council on Education: 178–87.Google Scholar
Riesman, David (1965) “Two generations,” in Lifton, R. J. (ed.) The American Woman. Boston: Houghton Mifflin: 72–97.Google Scholar
Rosen, Ruth (2000) The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America. New York: Viking Penguin.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Rosalind (1992) Divided Lives: American Women in the Twentieth Century. New York: Noonday.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Rosalind (1999) “ The‘woman question’ at Columbia.” Paper presented at the Columbia University Seminar on the History of the University, New York, February 17.Google Scholar
Rossi, Alice S. (1987) “Coeducation in a gender-stratified society,” in Lasser, Carol (ed.) Educating Men and Women Together: Coeducation in a Changing World. Urbana: University of Illinois Press: 11–34.Google Scholar
Rossiter, Margaret (1982) Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Royalty, Anne Beeson (1998) “Job-to-job and job-to-nonemployment turnover by gender and education level.” Journal of Labor Economics 16: 392–443.Google Scholar
Rury, John (1991) Education and Women’s Work: Female Schooling and the Division of Labor in Urban America, 1870–1930. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Sandler, Bernice (1973) “A little help from our government: WEAL and contract compliance,” in Rossi, Alice S. and Calderwood, Ann (eds.) Academic Women on the Move. New York: Sage: 439–62.Google Scholar
Schmuck, Patricia (1980) “Context of change: The women’s movement as a political process,” in University of Oregon, Center for Educational Policy and Management, Sex Equity in Education. New York: Academic: 165–83.Google Scholar
Smith, James, and Ward, Michael (1985) “Time series growth in the female labor force.” Journal of Labor Economics 3: S59–S90.Google Scholar
Snyder, Thomas, ed. (1993) 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.Google Scholar
Solomon, Barbara (1985) In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sweet, James (1975) “Recent trends in the employment of American women,” in Epstein, Laurily Keir (ed.) Women in the Professions. Lexington, MA: Heath: 25–66.Google Scholar
Tyack, David, and Hansot, Elisabeth (1992) Learning Together: A History of Coeducation in American Public Schools. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1970) College Educated Workers: 1968–80; A Study of Supply and Demand, Bulletin 1676. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1975) Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1985) Education in the United States: 1940–1983. Special Demographic Analysis, CDS-85-1, by O’Neill, Dave M. and Sepielli, Peter. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Education (1948–62) Earned Degrees Conferred. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Education (1963–2001) Digest of Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Wandersee, Winifred (1988) On the Move: American Women in the 1970s. Boston: Hall.Google Scholar
Wells, Jean (1964) “Women’s job prospects.” American Association of University Women Journal 58: 18–21.Google Scholar
Wright, Gavin (1999) “The civil rights revolution as economic history.” Journal of Economic History 59: 267–89.Google Scholar
Yaffe, Elaine (2005) Mary Ingraham Bunting: Her Two Lives. Savannah, GA: Beil.Google Scholar
Young, Anne McDougall (1980) “Trends in educational attainment among workers in the 1970s.” Monthly Labor Review 103: 44–47.Google Scholar
Zich, Janet (1992) “A woman’s place.” Stanford Business Magazine, June 22–24.Google Scholar