Susan Ware
Susan Ware (born August 22, 1950), is an independent scholar, writer and editor who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Hopkinton, New Hampshire. The author of eight biographies, two edited collections, and co-editor of a textbook, Ware is a specialist on twentieth century women's political and cultural history, and the history of popular feminism.[1]
Ware graduated from Wellesley College in 1972. She matriculated in the graduate program in history at Harvard University in the fall of 1972, completed her A.M in 1973, and earned a Ph.D. in history at Harvard in 1978. She served as a lecturer at Harvard from 1973-1978, and in the next eight years taught at Tufts University, the University of New Hampshire, and Harvard. In 1986, she was appointed as an assistant professor of history at New York University. Ware attained the rank of associate professor with tenure before she left in 1995 to pursue a full-time career in writing, editing and speaking. Since leaving NYU she has taught at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[2]
In 2014, upon the retirement of historian Nancy Cott, Ware was appointed as Senior Advisor to the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, while the Library searches for a new director.[3]
In her early work as a political historian, Ware established herself as an authority on women in the federal government during the New Deal.[4] Her revised dissertation, Beyond Suffrage: Women and the New Deal (Harvard University Press, 1981) was the first historical monograph to show the pivotal role played by feminist progressive reformers like Frances Perkins and Molly Dewson in implementing social welfare at the federal level. As Nancy F. Cott wrote in a review of Ware's book, perhaps its most vital contribution to the field of women's history was its emphasis on "historical generation" and its recognition that political women "relied on each other for mutual support, advice and patronage"—much as political men did.[5] Ware's research on women has been influential across fields. Political scientist Jo Freeman rated Ware's follow-up volume, Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism, and New Deal Politics, as "excellent". Ware showed how Dewson not only brought hundreds of women into the federal government, but also revolutionized presidential campaign practices to such an extent that presidential advisor James Farley referred to her as "the General".[6]
Since becoming an independent scholar, Ware has published three books and edited four. In 2001, she became the general editor of Notable American Women, a multi-volume reference work that documents the history of women in the United States, Under Ware's direction, Harvard University Press published Volume 5 of this crucial biographical resource in 2004. Since 2012, Ware has been the general editor of American National Biography Online, published by Oxford University Press.
Ware is married to Donald R. Ware, chair of the Intellectual Property Department at Foley, Hoag LLP in Boston.
References
- ↑ Lee, A.C. (February 21, 2013). "Symposium on 'Feminine Mystique,' and More". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ↑ "Researching and Interpreting Women's History". Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ↑ "Susan Ware Appointed Senior Advisor to the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study". Retrieved 15 October 2014.
- ↑ Geissinger, Mike (November 13, 1987). "Washington Talk: Women in Government; Tales of the Pioneers". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- ↑ Cott, Nancy (Summer 1982). "Review of "Beyond Suffrage: Women in the New Deal"". Signs. 7 (4): 897–900. doi:10.1086/493931.
- ↑ Freeman, Jo (March 1989). "Review, "Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism and New Deal Politics"". The American Political Science Review. 83 (1): 273.