Mary Ryan papers

Mary Ryan was born and raised in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin where she attended the local Catholic schools. In 1967, she earned a BA in History from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she was active in the Civil Rights and the anti-war movements. She never joined the SDS chapter on campus, in part because of the sexism she saw within that organization. Her senior undergraduate thesis, written at the height of the Vietnam War, was on the history of the peace movement. Originally interested in politics and intending to major in political science, Ryan was encouraged by her history professors at Wisconsin, including the venerable Merle Curti, to consider the field that would become her life's work. She went on to earn her Master's degree at Wisconsin in 1968 and her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1971. Mary Ryan quickly established herself as one of the leaders of the burgeoning field of women's history and a pioneer in the new field of women's studies. She was very much part of the process of legitimizing both fields. She was a member of the collective that founded "Feminist Studies" in 1972,"the first scholarly journal in women's studies and remains a flagship publication with a record of breaking new ground in the field"(http://www.feministstudies.org/aboutfs/history.html). Ryan's award-winning scholarship has been equally instrumental in establishing women's history as a credible field of study. She has published numerous articles and seven books, including the now classic,"Womanhood in America:New Viewpoints"(1975, rev., 1979, 1983);"Cradle of the Middle Class: The Families of Oneida County, New York, 1790-1864"(1982), winner of both the Bancroft and the Berkshire Prize;"Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 1825-1880"(1990); and,"Mysteries of Sex: Tracing Women and Men through American History"(2006). As one of the narrators in the"Living U.S. Women's Historians Oral History Project"(also held by the Sophia Smith Collection), Ryan gives voice to the struggles that so many women academics faced in the 1970s and 1980s as they fought to establish themselves and their field.