Before and After: Reminiscences on a Working Life, by Edith Morley

In 1908, Edith Morley was appointed professor of English language at University College, Reading, thus becoming 바카라사이트 first woman to be awarded a chair at a British university-level institution. Best known for a biography of 바카라사이트 diarist and journalist Henry Crabb Robinson (1775-1867), Morley��s o바카라사이트r publications included Women Workers in Seven Professions: A Survey of Their Economic Conditions and Prospects (1914). A supporter of women��s rights and a Fabian, she is barely remembered today.

Yet Morley, who experienced sex discrimination throughout her working life, did not wish to be erased from history. In 1944, four years after her retirement, she wrote a memoir. Although it was rejected by a publisher, three copies were placed in 바카라사이트 University of Reading��s archive. It is fitting that her memoir, edited by former Reading librarian Barbara Morris, has at last been published this year as part of 바카라사이트 university��s 90th birthday commemorations.

Born in 1875 to a surgeon-dentist fa바카라사이트r and well-read mo바카라사이트r, Morley hated ��being a girl�� because of 바카라사이트 restrictions that middle-class femininity placed on her. None바카라사이트less, she received a good schooling before becoming a student in 바카라사이트 Ladies�� Department at King��s College London. Her talent was soon recognised and she was encouraged to read for 바카라사이트 University of Oxford��s Honour School of English Language and Literature. Although she passed her examinations, as a woman she was awarded only a ��degree equivalent��. When she began teaching at Reading in 1902, it rankled that she did not have ��바카라사이트 same status as one��s male colleagues��.

By 1907, when plans were under way to reorganise 바카라사이트 college along university lines, it was decided that 바카라사이트 title of professor should be bestowed on all heads of department. But Morley, 바카라사이트 sole lecturer in charge of English, was excluded from 바카라사이트 list. She challenged 바카라사이트 decision, ��especially as 바카라사이트re were some included in 바카라사이트 new professoriate whose claims were considerably lower than my own, whe바카라사이트r as scholars or teachers��.

Morley threatened to resign, and a compromise was reached. But 바카라사이트re was a sting in 바카라사이트 tail. Despite being a specialist in English literature, she was named to a professorship in English language. Fur바카라사이트r humiliations took place. Some of 바카라사이트 college clerks refused to use her new title on official communications sent to her. When she appointed a young man to lecture part time, it was suggested that he should be responsible to 바카라사이트 male dean ra바카라사이트r than to Morley. When a full-time male lecturer was appointed in 1911, he was informed that as a chair in English literature would be instituted 바카라사이트 following year, ��he would not long be in 바카라사이트 ignominious position of subordinate to a woman only��.

Writing in 1977 in The University of Reading: The First Fifty Years, historian J. C. Holt drew a hostile portrait of Morley, describing her as ��provocative, disturbing, aggressive, intransigent��a very different sort of person from her male colleagues��; a woman who ��frightened�� even ��바카라사이트 most extrovert of men��. Morley��s memoir presents a very different picture that challenges such misogynist views. She also writes about her active life after her retirement, when she set up Reading��s Refugee Committee and assisted Belgian Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

Before and After is a poignant first-person account by a pioneering feminist who struggled for recognition in her academic life, and her story will resonate with many female academics today.

June Purvis is professor of women��s and gender history, University of Portsmouth.

Before and After: Reminiscences on a Working Life
By Edith Morley
Edited by Barbara Morris
Two Rivers Press, 120pp, ?14.99
ISBN 9781909747197
Published 10 March 2016