Shattering the Myths: Women in Academe.(Review)

Shattering the Myths: Women in Academe, by Judith Glazer-Raymo. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, 237 pp., $38.00 hardbound.

In the opening pages of Shattering the Myths, Judith Glazer-Raymo describes her transformation from suburban housewife and mother to professor of education at Long Island University. It is an inspiring story, told in a straightforward yet engaging style.

The progression of events that sent Glazer-Raymo steadily up the ladder of higher education began with a volunteer position in her local PTA. From there, she was elected to the school board, and eventually became its first female president. During her service, she developed a proposal for a new community high school and won much acclaim for convincing reluctant officials to adopt it. With her growing reputation came an invitation from a university president to join his staff. It was but the first of a long and impressive list of professional positions she would hold in the field of education.

After earning a doctoral degree in higher education administration at New York University, Glazer-Raymo was sought out again--this time by the dean of education at Long Island University. She was hired into a tenure-track position at its C.W. Post campus, where today she holds the rank of full professor.

Her account is also intriguing for what it does not contain. Glazer-Raymo mentions not a single incident of discrimination against her during a career spanning more than thirty years. Nor does she describe unkind words or disapproving glances from male colleagues resentful of her presence or influence. Given her many successes, one might expect her to praise, if only faintly, the system that has allowed her star to rise.

Instead, she damns it with none at all. After noting the many milestones in her professional life, she informs us that these experiences "have evoked a more scholarly interest in the gendered construction of the academy [and] the ways in which the policy environment impedes women's ability to eradicate barriers to their advancement."

It is disheartening to see a woman who has not lacked for recognition or opportunity embrace the language of oppression chic, but in doing so, she prepares the reader for what is to come. Her purpose, she says, is to examine "the issues that continue to deny women full economic, political, and social equality." Primarily, she seeks to do justice to her title-that is, to "shatter the myth" that females in the United States have achieved anything close to academic equity with males.