Elaine Ryan Hedges (August 18, 1927 – June 5, 1997) was an American feminist who pioneered Women's Studies in the 1970s and advocated for curricula encompassing a more inclusive body of American literature which brought together works by ethnic and gendered minorities. A recognized expert in feminist literary criticism, she was awarded ''
The Feminist Press
The Feminist Press (officially The Feminist Press at CUNY) is an American independent nonprofit literary publisher that promotes freedom of expression and social justice. It publishes writing by people who share an activist spirit and a belief in ...
'' Award for Contributions to Women's Culture in 1988 and inducted into the
Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 1998.
Early life
Elaine Ryan was born on August 18, 1927, in
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...
to John Aloysius and Catherine Mary Ryan. Graduating from
Gorton High School
Gorton High School (GHS or G-High) is a public high school for grades 9–12, in Yonkers, New York, operated by the Yonkers Public Schools.
History
The school was erected on its present site in 1923. It is Yonkers' oldest high school campus. Eig ...
in Yonkers in 1944, she went on to further her education at
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
. She graduated summa cum laude in 1948, moving on to obtain a
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in history from
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
in 1950. That same year, she worked at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
as a grader for Perry Miler in the American literature department, where she met fellow student William Hedges. Between 1951 and 1956, she taught at Harvard and
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
, before she and Hedges married in 1956 and relocated to
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
.
Career
Hedges taught at
San Francisco State College
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
, the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
and
Goucher College and had two children, over the next few years. In 1967, she joined the faculty at
Towson State University and then completed her PhD at Harvard in 1970. She taught English and founded the Women's Studies Program at Towson in 1972. Towson developed an interdisciplinary program to transform the curricula of 13 disciplines to incorporate education on women and worked with Sara Coulter to promote a similar model in five of Maryland's area community colleges. Directing the program for nearly 20 years, Hedges fostered a nationwide program to initiate women's studies in universities and colleges and shared her expertise abroad in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, China, as a visiting professor at the
Freie Universitat in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, Germany, and at conferences in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Canada.
Hedges was a founding member of the
National Women's Studies Association
The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) is an organization founded in 1977, made up of scholars and practitioners in the field of women's studies also known as women's and gender studies, feminist studies, and related names in the 21st c ...
and a member of the
American Association of University Professors
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership includes over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations.
The AAUP's stated mission is ...
, the
Modern Language Association of America
The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...
, and the
Women's Caucus for the Modern Languages The Women's Caucus for the Modern Languages (WCML), founded in 1969, is an allied organization of the Modern Language Association (MLA) that organizes sessions at each annual meeting focusing on professional issues of concern to women. The WCML als ...
. In 1988, she was awarded ''The Feminist Press'' Award for Contributions to Women's Culture.
Hedges died June 5, 1997, in Baltimore, Maryland, and was inducted into the
Maryland Women's Hall of Fame the following year.
Publications
In 1973, Hedges published an afterword to ''The Feminist Press'' release of
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's ''The Yellow Wallpaper'', which became a key text for feminist courses throughout the country. In 1976, she wrote a short essay on quilts which was later incorporated into ''In Her Own Image: Women Working in the Arts''. The anthology looked at the relationship between domestic work and artistry, a theme which she pursued for 20 years, publishing several articles in ''Quilt Journal''. In 1980, Hedges wrote ''Land and Imagination: The Rural Dream in America'', which explored the difference between the mythology and reality of rural life for women. In addition to advising, editing and writing for ''The Feminist Press'', Hedges edited the ''Heath Anthology of American Literature''. In all, she published 12 books, including ''Ripening: Selected Works, 1927-1980'' in 1982, a compilation of works by feminist writer
Meridel Le Sueur
Meridel Le Sueur (February 22, 1900, Murray, Iowa – November 14, 1996, Hudson, Wisconsin) was an American writer associated with the proletarian literature movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Born as Meridel Wharton, she assumed the name of her mot ...
and ''Listening to Silences'', a compilation of essays released in 1994.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedges, Elaine Ryan
1927 births
1997 deaths
People from Yonkers, New York
Barnard College alumni
Radcliffe College alumni
American women academics
Harvard University faculty
Wellesley College faculty
San Francisco State University faculty
University of California, Berkeley faculty
Goucher College faculty and staff
Towson University faculty
American feminists
American women's rights activists
20th-century American women journalists
20th-century American women writers
Activists from California
20th-century American journalists
Journalists from New York (state)
Activists from New York (state)
Journalists from California