Description: A Separate Sisterhood examines the personal lives and professional accomplishments of a group of wise and persistent women whose collective work in the early twentieth century crucially influenced educational reform in the New South. Working at the intersection of race, gender, and class, these women fought for educational improvement in a region of exceptional poverty, rural isolation, and racial prejudice. Their work, explored collectively for the first time in this groundbreaking text, demonstrates the roots of early advances in southern literacy education, vocational education, community outreach education, adult education, equal educational opportunity, curricular integrity, public support, and teacher pay equity.
Review Quotes: «This is an important book, one of those rare books which breaks new ground conceptually and raises troubling new questions for progressive educators. Reynolds and Schramm weave a compelling history of Progressive Era women, one that is rich in detail and insightful in its interpretation. They also raise questions about whether women, particularly women of color, were able to develop a voice of critique and empowerment working within dominant progressive discourses. What is particularly important about this book is the authors' suggestion that rather than abandon progressivism, its meaning needs to be reconstructed around counter-narratives and voices from the margins.» (Dennis Carlson, Miami University)