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Susan Cayleff (born 1954) is an American academic and emeritus professor at
San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...
, having taught there from 1987 to 2020. She was one the inaugural members 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 ...
Lesbian Caucus and served on the organization's Coordinating Council between 1977 and 1979. She founded the Women's History Seminar Series at the
University of Texas Medical Branch The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In Febr ...
, in Galveston, Texas; the Graduate Women's Scholars of Southern California in 1989; and was a co-founder of the SafeZones program at San Diego State University. Much of her research focused on women and health. She analyzed both how cultural and traditional beliefs shaped women's quest to find health solutions and the difference between beliefs and how institutional medical policies impacted women. Several of her works examined how alternative medical practices enabled women to become economically, socially, and politically active. Her book ''Babe: The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias'' was nominated for both the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
, a finalist for the
Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...
, and won the GLAAD Outstanding Book Award in 1996. Her contributions to social equality and inclusion were recognized with the Ashley L. Walker Social Justice Award of the San Diego Human Relations Commission in 2018. The Cayleff and Sakai Faculty Chair of the Pride Center at San Diego State is named in honor of her and Carrie Sakai.


Early life and education

Susan E. Cayleff was born in 1954 in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts to Freda "Fritzi" (née Katz) and Nathan Cayleff. She had one sister, Joanie and the family lived in
Brockton, Massachusetts Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population is 105,643 as of the 2020 United States Census. Along with Plymouth, Massachusetts, Plymouth, it is one of the two county seats of ...
, where the sisters' father was operated a hardware store. Cayleff stated that though her parents were committed to the
Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
and activism against anti-Semitism and for Native American and women's rights, she left home in 1973 because of her parents' homophobia and settled in
Provincetown Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...
. She completed a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree
magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
in
women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...
at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
in 1976. The following year, while a student at
Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...
, she attended the inaugural conference 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 ...
, having won a lottery to be a student delegate. She was elected to serve on the Coordinating Council as part of the Lesbian Caucus, along with Tucker Farley, Elisa Buenaventura, and
Toni McNaron Toni McNaron, also known as Toni A. H. McNaron, (born April 3, 1937) is an American literary scholar. She is a professor emerita of English at the University of Minnesota, and the author of several books, including ''Poisoned Ivy'', about lesbophob ...
from 1977 to 1979. In 1978, Cayleff earned her
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
in women's history from
Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...
. Her master's thesis, ''The Eradication of Female Midwifery'' was published in 1978 and explored the history of midwifery within the medical profession. Continuing her education, Cayleff earned a master's degree in American civilization in 1979 and her PhD in 1983 from
Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
. Her doctoral thesis continued with the themes of gender and medicine examining the nineteenth-century
hydrotherapy Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and treatment. The term ...
movement and women's involvement in it. It was published as ''Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women's Health'' in 1987. Her study evaluated women as both users and providers of health therapies and how the traditions regarding their bodies and the environment were perceived and shaped by social norms which defined the doctor-patient relationship. As physicians characterized women as passive, weak, and prone to disease, they asserted authority over their bodies and created strict regimens for women to follow in regulating their menstrual cycles, pregnancies, and childbirth. Scholar Beth A. Robertson noted that Cayleff saw this extreme control and scrutiny as a driving factor in American and Canadian women's search for medical alternatives.


Career

In 1983, Cayleff was hired as an assistant professor of medical humanities at the
University of Texas Medical Branch The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In Febr ...
, in Galveston, Texas. She was the founder of the Women's History Seminar Series at the medical branch's obstetrics of gynecology department in 1984. Her course included making medical students aware of the different needs that their Chicana patients might have. She worked in Texas until 1987, when she took a post as an associate professor at
San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...
, in California. Cayleff founded the Graduate Women's Scholars of Southern California in 1989 to facilitate networking for women scholars. Until 2002, the organization met in her home. In 2007, she co-founded the SafeZones program, a networking and support group for LGBTQIA+ and their allies. In 1993, Cayleff became a professor in San Diego State's women's studies program and was promoted to its chair in 1996. When the
Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) offer noncredit courses with no assignments or grades to adults over age 50. Since 2001 philanthropist Bernard Osher has made grants from the Bernard Osher Foundation to launch OLLI programs at 120 univers ...
was founded to teach students over 50, Cayleff began teaching additional courses in women's history at the facility. Among her other pursuits, Cayleff served on the executive board of the Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies from 1990, and in 1993 became an advisor and mentor to the Hoover High School's Young Women's Studies Club. In 2018, she was honored by the San Diego Human Relations Commission with the Ashley L. Walker Social Justice Award for her social contributions toward equality and inclusion. Cayleff retired in 2020 and that year to recognize the work she and Carrie Sakai had done on inclusiveness, San Diego State created the Cayleff and Sakai Faculty Chair for the university's Pride Center. Upon her retirement, Cayleff and her wife, who she married in 1992, returned to the Cape Cod area.


Research

Cayleff wrote six books and numerous articles about women's health. Several of these works explored how attending baths, or water cure spas, allowed women to gather and share their health experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, along with other women's health issues and opened opportunities for them to become social reformers. Among the movements Cayleff identified that emerged from the hydrotherapy movement were dress-reform, physical education,
temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...
, and
vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism may ...
. Articles like Prisoners of Their Own Feebleness': Women, Nerves and Western Medicine'' continued her earlier work on doctor's perceptions of women's weakness, and explored the ways in which experts evaluated women's sexuality, including linking mental deficiencies with homosexuality. Other works, such as ''Self-Help and the Patent Medicine Business'', analyzed how different ethnic and cultural groups beliefs shaped women's own perceptions of their health and treatment. Works such as the volume ''Wings of Gauze: Women of Color Experience Health and Illness'', co-edited with Barbara Bair, explored the federal and institutional health policies used to control the health of
women of color The term "person of color" (plural, : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "White people, white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily a ...
. The essays chosen from African-, Asian-, Native American and Latina contributors evaluated the intersection of health policy and practices with gender, poverty, and race. Later works, such as ''Nature's Path: A History of Naturopathic Healing in America'' (2016) explored how natural health movements expanded into the twentieth century and continued to be transformative for women's socio-political development. It discussed the body autonomy women gained for themselves and their families from associations with natural healers and philosophers, in spite of the cultural reliance on scientific expertise of medical practitioners and pharmaceutical science. The book traced the rise of
allopathic Allopathic medicine, or allopathy, is an archaic term used to define science-based modern medicine. Citing: ''Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine'' (2008) and ''Mosby's Medical Dictionary'', 8th ed. (2009). There are regional variations in usage of th ...
and
naturopathic Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of pseudoscientific practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturop ...
theories, looking at the use of
patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...
, social and class differences in available health care, the rise of
vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...
s, as well as the use of animals for experimentation, combining an overview of history and science as it impacts the search for health solutions. Cayleff has written two biographies of
Babe Didrikson Zaharias Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (; Didrikson; June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball and track and field. She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer Ol ...
. Her second book, ''Babe: The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias'' was published in 1995 and explored the relationship of Zaharias and her husband
George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
. The book also examined the relationship of Zaharias and fellow golfer
Betty Dodd Elizabeth Hobart Dodd (April 11, 1931 – July 8, 1993) was an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour. Dodd was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1931 to General Francis and Margaret Dodd. She began the game of golf at age 11 in 1 ...
, contrasting their emotional commitment with her marital bond. Cayleff's biography of Zaharias used a feminist approach to evaluate Babe's own history juxtaposed with the history of
women's sport The participation of women and girls in sports, physical fitness and exercise, has been recorded to have existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, and stage of econ ...
and analyzed the politics that surrounded women's sexuality and work in her era. ''Babe'' was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
, was a finalist for the
Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...
, and won the GLAAD Outstanding Book Award in 1996. She sold the movie rights to a film based on the book, and in 2014 screenwriter
Donald Martin Don Martin may refer to: * Don Martin (cartoonist) (1931–2000), cartoonist for ''Mad Magazine'' * Don Martin (footballer) (1944–2009), English professional footballer for Northampton Town and Blackburn Rovers * Don Martin (basketball) (1920– ...
was working on the project.


Selected works

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References


Citations


Bibliography

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