| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Yards and Gates: Gender in Harvard and Radcliffe History. Ed. by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. xii, 337 pp. $26.95, ISBN 1-4039-6098-4.)
There is little danger that the history of gender at Harvard and Radcliffe will become whiggish. Even readers aware that Radcliffe for mally merged with Harvard in 1999 probably hold vague understandings of a peculiar historical relationship between the two. Harvard graduates may fare better at explaining developments such as the Harvard Annex in 1879, joint instruction in 1947, coresidence in 1970, and the nonmerger merger in 1971, none of which resulted in equal relationships between Harvard's women and men. Knowing that the institutions eventually merged hardly makes it the inevitable, preordained end point in a steady march toward gender equality.	1
This collection of scholarly articles, memoirs, essays, and archival snippets attempts to explain this complicated mutual history. The book resulted from two conferences convened to "elevate historical discourse" (p. ix) as the final merger was negotiated; one suspects it also wishes to affirm Radcliffe's significance even as the school's collegiate identity was disappearing.	2
Harvard's history of gender relationships is extraordinarily variegated. Some features derive from its foundation two centuries before the advent of female higher education. Mid-nineteenth-century decisions to admit women at Oberlin, Mount Holyoke, and Boston University hardly persuaded Harvard to overturn long-standing exclusion; beliefs in women's inferior mental capacity and constrained career choices did not mesh with Harvard's role in certifying men for privilege.	. . .

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