Jump to content

Jill Ker Conway: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
(324 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Australian-American scholar and author (1934-2018)}}
{{inuse}}
<!--- Her surname is KER CONWAY, an unhyphenated double-barrelled name --->
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder <!--For more information, see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]].-->
| name = Jill Ker Conway
| honorific_prefix =
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of Australia|AC]]
| image = File:Jill Ker Conway at Smith.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| order =
| title = 7th President of [[Smith College]]
| term_start = 1975
| term_end = 1985
| predecessor = [[Thomas C. Mendenhall (historian)|Thomas C. Mendenhall]]
| successor = [[Mary Maples Dunn]]
| birth_name = Jill Ker
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1934|10|09}}
| birth_place = [[Hillston, New South Wales]], Australia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2018|06|01|1934|10|09}}
| death_place = [[Boston]], Massachusetts, U.S.
| resting_place =
| occupation = Writer
| nationality = Australian, American
| citizenship =
| education =
| alma_mater = [[University of Sydney]]<br>[[Harvard University]] (PhD)
| spouse = John Conway (d. 1995)
| module =
{{Infobox academic | child=yes
| alma_mater =
| thesis_title = The first generation of american women graduates
| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/302409804/
| thesis_year = 1969
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| influences = <!--must be referenced from a third party source-->
| era =
| discipline = History
| sub_discipline =
| workplaces = [[University of Toronto]]<br>[[Smith College]]<br>[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| main_interests =
| notable_works =
| notable_ideas =
| influenced = <!--must be referenced from a third party source-->
}}
| module2 =
{{Infobox writer | embed=yes
| period =
| genre = [[Autobiography]]
| subject = <!-- or: | subjects = -->
| movement =
| notableworks = ''The Road from Coorain''
| awards = [[National Humanities Medal]] 2012
| years_active =
| module =
| website =
| portaldisp = Yes
}}
}}


[[Image:Jill Ker Conway.jpg|frame|right|]]
'''Jill Ker Conway''' (born [[9 September]] [[1934]]) is an American author and was [[Smith College]]'s first woman president, a post she served for ten years ([[1975]]-[[1985]]).


'''Jill Ker Conway''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|ACh}} (9 October 1934 – 1 June 2018) was an Australian-American scholar and author. Well known for her [[Autobiography|autobiographies]], in particular her first [[memoir]], ''[[The Road from Coorain (book)|The Road from Coorain]]'', she also was [[Smith College]]'s first woman president (1975–1985) and most recently served as a visiting professor at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. In 2004 she was designated a [[Women's History Month]] Honoree by the [[National Women's History Project]].<ref name="WHM">{{cite web | year=2010 | title=Honorees: 2010 National Women's History Month | work=Women's History Month | publisher=[[National Women's History Project]] | url=http://nwhp.org/whm/honorees.php | access-date=14 November 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624015034/http://www.nwhp.org/whm/honorees.php | archive-date=24 June 2011 | url-status=dead }}</ref> She was a recipient of the [[National Humanities Medal]].
== Early life and education ==
Conway was born in [[Hillston]], [[New South Wales]] in the outback of [[Australia]]. Together with her two brothers, Conway was raised in total [[isolation]] on the family owned 18,000-acre tract of land, Coorain, which was eventually expanded into 32,000 acres. On Coorain she lived a lonely life, and grew up without playmates except for her brothers. She was schooled entirely by her mother and a country [[governess]].


==Biography==
Conway she spent her youth working on her father's [[sheep]] farm. Already by age 7, Conway was an important workforce on the farm, she helped with such activities as herding and tending the sheep, checking the perimiter fences and lugging heavy farm supplies around. The farm prospered until a drought that would last for seven years. This drought and her father's worsening health put an increasing burden on her shoulders. But this ended abruptly when she was 11 and her father drowned in an unfortunate [[diving]] accident, while trying to extend the farm's water piping.
Ker Conway was born in [[Hillston]], [[New South Wales]], in the outback of Australia. Together with her two brothers, Ker Conway was raised in near-total [[Solitude|isolation]] on a family-owned {{convert|73|km2|acre}} tract of land called Coorain (the [[indigenous Australians|Aboriginal]] word for "windy place"), which eventually grew to encompass {{convert|129|km2|acre}}. On Coorain, she lived a lonely life, and grew up without playmates except for her brothers. In her early years, she was schooled entirely by her mother, with the aid of correspondence class material for her primary school and early grade school education.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/06/14/619953256/remembering-jill-ker-conway-the-first-female-president-of-smith-college |title=Remembering Jill Ker Conway, The First Female President Of Smith College |work=Fresh Air with Terry Gross |date=June 15, 2018 |access-date=June 15, 2018}}</ref>


Ker Conway spent her youth working the sheep station; by age seven, she was an important member of the workforce, helping with such activities as herding and tending the sheep, checking the [[perimeter fence]]s and transporting heavy farm supplies. The farm prospered until it was crippled by a drought that lasted seven years. This and her father's worsening health put an increasing burden on her shoulders. When she was eleven, her father drowned in a [[Underwater diving|diving]] accident while trying to extend the farm's water piping.
Initially Conway's mother, a [[nurse]] by profession, refused to sell Coorain. But after three more years of [[drought]] she was compelled to move Jill and her brothers to [[Sydney]], to allow her daughter to lead a normal life.


Initially Jill Ker Conway's mother, a [[nurse]] by profession, refused to leave Coorain. But after three more years of [[drought]], she was compelled to move Jill and her brothers to [[Sydney]], where the children attended school.
Conway found the local state school a rough environment. The [[British]] manners and accent ingrained by her parents clashed with her peers' Australian habits provoking [[wikt:taunt|taunts]] and [[wikt:jeer|jeers]]. This resulted in her mother enrolling her at [[Abbotsleigh School]], a prestigious private girls school, where Conway found [[intellectual]] challenge and social acceptance. After finishing her education at Abbotsleigh, she enrolled at the [[University of Sydney]] where she studied [[History]] and [[English]] and graduated with honours in [[1958]]. Upon graduation, Conway sought a prestigious trainee post in the [[Foreign Service]], but the conservative all-male committee was intimidated by her she was refused for being, as she learned later, "too good looking" and "too intellectually aggressive."


Ker Conway found the local state school a rough environment. The [[United Kingdom|British]] manners and accent ingrained by her parents clashed with her peers' Australian habits, provoking [[wikt:taunt|taunts]] and [[wikt:jeer|jeers]]. This resulted in her mother enrolling her at [[Abbotsleigh]], a private girls school, where Ker Conway found [[intellectual]] challenge and social acceptance. After finishing her education at Abbotsleigh, she enrolled at the [[University of Sydney]], where she studied [[History]] and [[English studies|English]] and graduated with honours in 1958. Upon graduation, Ker Conway sought a trainee post in the [[Department of External Affairs]], but the all-male committee turned down her application.
After this setback she travelled through Europe with her now emotionally volatile mother. In [[1960]] she decided to strike out on her own and move to the [[United States]]. At age 25, she was accepted into the [[Harvard University]] history program. There she assisted a [[Canada|Canadian]] professor, John Conway, who became her husband until his death in 1995. Conway received her [[Ph.D.]] at Harvard in [[1969]] and taught at the [[University of Toronto]] from [[1964]] to [[1975]]. Her book ''[[Jill Ker Conway#True North|True North]]'' deals about her time in [[Toronto]].


After this setback, she travelled through Europe with her now emotionally volatile mother. In 1960, she decided to strike out on her own and move to the [[United States]]. At age 25, she was accepted into the history program of [[Harvard University|Harvard University's]] [[Radcliffe College]],<ref name=":0" /> where she devoted her studies to [[women's history]], not yet an established historical discipline, and wrote her dissertation on [[Jane Addams]] and the establishment of [[Hull House]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gillis |first=Anna Maria |date=2012 |title=Jill Ker Conway, National Humanities Medal |url=https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/national-humanities-medals/jill-ker-conway |website=National Endowment for the Humanities}}</ref> Her interest in Addams and Hull House was sparked by her neighbor and friend, former Librarian of Congress, [[Archibald MacLeish|Archibald Macleish]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Platt |first=Rutherford H. |date=June 5, 2018 |title=Rutherford H. Platt Recalls Jill Ker Conway's study of Jane Addams |work=The Daily Hampshire Gazette |url=https://www.gazettenet.com/Rutherford-Platt-remembers-achievements-of-Jill-Ker-Conway-17961382 |access-date=August 3, 2023}}</ref> At Harvard, she also assisted a [[Canadians|Canadian]] professor, John Conway, who was her husband from 1962 until his death in 1995. Ker Conway received her [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] at Harvard in 1969 and taught at the [[University of Toronto]] from 1964 to 1975. Her book ''[[#True North|True North]]'' details her life in [[Toronto]].
== Smith College ==
[[Image:Smith college campus center 20040912.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Smith College]] [[campus]]]]
In [[1975]] Conway became the first woman president of Smith College, the largest [[women's college]] in the [[United States]]. Located in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], Smith is a private [[liberal arts college]] and is the first and only women's college in the U.S. to grant its own degrees in [[engineering]].


From 1975 to 1985, Ker Conway was the president of Smith College. After 1985, she was a visiting professor at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. She received thirty-eight [[honorary degree]]s and awards from North American and Australian colleges, universities and women's organizations.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |title=Jill Ker Conway, 83, Feminist Author and Smith President, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/obituaries/jill-ker-conway-83-feminist-author-and-smith-president-dies.html |access-date=19 June 2018 |work=New York Times |date=4 June 2018 |language=en|last1=Genzlinger |first1=Neil }}</ref>
One of Conway's most notable accomplishments, is a program she instigated to help students on [[welfare]]. At the time many students who were also welfare mothers were not pursuing liberal-arts as accepting Smith's [[scholarship]] meant losing their welfare benefits. The students were forced to choose between supporting their children or furthering their education. By not giving them scholarships but paying their [[rent]] instead, Conway circumvented the state's system. She also gave the students access to an account at local stores, access to [[physician]]s and so on. [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]’s [[Good Morning America]] even profiled graduates of the program, giving it national exposure. Eventually the state of [[Massachusetts]], convinced about the importance of the program, changed its welfare system so that scholarship students wouldn’t lose their benefits.


Throughout her career, Ker Conway served as director on a variety of corporate boards. These include stints of more than a decade on the boards of [[Nike Inc|Nike]], [[Colgate-Palmolive]], and [[Merrill (company)|Merrill Lynch]].<ref name="Board Service">{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=545664&ticker=NKE&previousCapId=24937&previousTitle=APPLE+INC|title=Executive Profile: Jill Ker Conway |publisher=Bloomberg, S&P Global Market Intelligence |access-date=June 15, 2018 }}</ref> Ker Conway was also the first female Chairman of [[Lendlease]].<ref name="Lend Lease's US dreams fade">{{cite web |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/lend-leases-us-dreams-fade-20030530-gdvsj2.html|access-date=March 3, 2024 |title=Lend Lease's US dreams fade|website=[[The Age]]|date=30 May 2003 }}</ref>
Conway also created the Ada Comstock Scholars program. This program allows older women, often with extensive work and family obligations, to study part-time. These women can take classes for a Bachelor's degree at Smith's at a slower pace over a longer period of time.


After 2011, Ker Conway served as the Board Chair of [[Community Solutions]].<ref name="Community Solutions">{{cite web |url=http://cmtysolutions.org/about/board |title=Community Solutions |access-date=16 October 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141016172842/http://cmtysolutions.org/about/board |archive-date=16 October 2014 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> It is a non-profit organization with a focus on homelessness and related issues, based in New York City.
== Writings ==
Conway wrote many books, mainly [[Autobiography|autobiographie]]s.
=== The Road from Coorain ===
[[Image:The Road from Coorain.gif|frame|right|]]
[[Jill Ker Conway#The Road from Coorain|The Road from Coorain]] is Conway's first autobiography and deals with her youth. The book starts off with her early childhood at the remote sheep farm Coorain in [[Hillston]]. Conway writes about her teenage years in Sydney and especially her education at the University of Sydney, where university studies were open to women but the culture was heavily focused on males.


Conway died on 1 June 2018 at her home in Boston at the age of 83.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Obituary – Jill Ker Conway|url=https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/conway-jill-ker-29841|access-date=2021-04-25|website=Obituaries Australia}}</ref>
=== True North ===
=== The Politics of Women's Education ===
=== A Woman's Education ===


== List of works ==
==President of Smith College==
[[Image:Smith college campus center 20040912.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Smith College]] campus]]
*The Road from Coorain ([[1990]])
In 1975, Ker Conway became the first female president of [[Smith College]], the largest [[women's college]] in the [[United States]]. Located in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], Smith, a private [[liberal arts college]], is the only women's college in the U.S. to grant its own degrees in [[engineering]].
*The Politics of Women's Education ([[1993]])
*True North A Memoir ([[1995]])
*Written by Herself ([[1995]])
*A Woman's Education ([[2002]])


Ker Conway launched the [[Smith College#Ada Comstock Scholars Program|Ada Comstock Scholars]] program, initially proposed by her predecessor [[Thomas C. Mendenhall (historian)|Thomas Mendenhall]]. This program allows non-traditional students, many with work and family obligations, to study full or part-time, depending on their family and work schedules. These women can take classes for a bachelor's degree over a longer period of time. Conway House, dedicated in 2006, a residence for Ada Comstock Scholars was named in honor of Ker Conway.
== See also ==
*[[Literature]]
*[[Literature of the United States]]
*[[Feminism]]
*[[Smith College]]


One of Ker Conway's more notable accomplishments is a program she initiated to help Ada Comstock Scholars on [[Welfare (financial aid)|welfare]]. At the time, many students who were also welfare mothers were not pursuing higher education, as accepting a [[scholarship]] would cause them to lose their welfare benefits. The mothers were forced to choose between supporting their children or furthering their education. By not giving them scholarships but paying their [[renting|rent]] instead, Ker Conway circumvented the state's system. She also gave the students access to an account at local stores, access to [[physician]]s and so on. [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s [[Good Morning America]] profiled graduates of the program, giving it national exposure. Eventually the state of [[Massachusetts]], convinced about the importance of the program, changed its welfare system so that scholarship students wouldn't lose their benefits.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Auden D |title=Welfare Women Go Elite |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2202/1940-7890.1006 |journal=Naspa Journal About Women in Higher Education |date=30 January 2009 |volume=1 |issue=1 |doi=10.2202/1940-7890.1006 |s2cid=144632549 |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref>
== References ==
*[http://www.dce.harvard.edu/pubs/lamplighter/1999/spring/lowell.html Studying Women's Lives]
*[http://www.horizonmag.com/1/conway.htm How the girl from Coorain became a scholar with a social consience]
*[http://www.nwhp.org/tlp/biographies/conway/bio.html National Women's History Project - Jill Ker Conway biography]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/coorain/ei_conway.html Jill Ker Conway: A Life]
*[http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/truenorth/conway.html Reading Group Center - Jill Ker Conway]
*[http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/conway/ The Borzoi Reader - Jill Ker Conway]


She also led the creation of the Smith Management Program (now called Smith Executive Education) and the Project on Women and Social Change. She worked to expand the curriculum leading to the development of programs in women's studies, comparative literature, and engineering. Conway took a keen interest in fundraising and under her presidency the endowment nearly tripled from $82 million to $222 million. These efforts enabled several large-scale projects including the construction of the Ainsworth Gymnasium, and expansion of the Neilson Library. The Career Development Office was also expanded under her tenure to better educate alumnae about career opportunities and graduate training.
== External links ==
*[http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/road_from_coorain.asp The Road from Coorain - Discussion questions]


In 1975, Jill Ker Conway was named by ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' as a [[Time Person of the Year|Woman of the Year]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Remembering President Emerita Jill Ker Conway |url=https://www.smith.edu/about-smith/news/remembering-president-emerita-jill-ker-conway |website=Smith College |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref>
{{bio-stub}}


==''The Road from Coorain''==
[[Category:American writers|Conway, Jill Ker]]
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:The Road from Coorain.gif|frame|right|]] -->
[[Category:American university presidents|Conway, Jill Ker]]
{{main|The Road from Coorain (book)}}
Ker Conway started writing her first memoir after leaving Smith College, during her period at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]. ''[[The Road from Coorain (book)|The Road from Coorain]]'' was published in 1989 ({{ISBN|0-394-57456-7}}) and details her early life, from Coorain in [[Australia]] to [[Harvard]] in the [[United States]].

The book begins with her early childhood at the remote sheep station Coorain near [[Mossgiel, New South Wales]]. Ker Conway writes about her teenage years in [[Sydney]] and especially her education at the [[University of Sydney]], where university studies were open to women but the culture was focused heavily on the men. She describes her [[intellect]]ual development and later her feelings when she realizes that there is a [[bias]] against women; based upon her sex, she is denied a [[traineeship]] at the [[Australia]]n foreign service.

In 2001, [[Chapman Pictures]] produced a [[Television movie|television film]], ''[[The Road from Coorain (film)|The Road from Coorain]]'', featuring [[Katherine Slattery]] as the grown-up Jill and [[Juliet Stevenson]] as her mother.

==Awards and honors==
{{expand list|date=September 2012}}
* 1960 Jill Ker Conway was a 1960 [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright]] Postgraduate Scholar in History from the [[University of Sydney]] to [[Harvard University]].
* 1975 In the first year of her presidency at Smith College, Conway was named a "woman of the year", one of a small group of notable women selected for that award by [[Time (magazine)|Time]] magazine.<ref>{{cite web |title=Happy Birthday, Jill Ker Conway « - Smith College Grécourt Gate Smith College Grécourt Gate |url=https://www.smith.edu/news/happy-birthday-jill/ |website=www.smith.edu |access-date=11 July 2018}}</ref>
* 1989 [[L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award]], ''The Road from Coorain''
* Ker Conway was appointed a Companion (AC) in the General Division of the [[Order of Australia]] on 10 June 2013 for her ''eminent service to the community, particularly women, as an author, academic and through leadership roles with corporations, foundations, universities and philanthropic groups''.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/queens-birthday-honours-list-2013-20130609-2nyam.html |title=Queen's Birthday honours list 2013 | date=10 June 2013 | publisher=Sydney Morning Herald | access-date=10 June 2013 }}</ref> On 12 June, she was removed as a 'Companion' and invested as an 'Honorary Companion' of the Order of Australia, because she no longer held Australian citizenship.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.gg.gov.au/australian-honours-and-awards-secretariat-0 | title=Clarification | date=12 June 2013 | publisher=The Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat | access-date=29 August 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904233058/http://www.gg.gov.au/australian-honours-and-awards-secretariat-0 | archive-date=4 September 2013 | url-status=dead }}</ref>
*On July 10, 2013, she received a 2012 [[National Humanities Medal]] from President [[Barack Obama]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/03/president-obama-award-2012-national-medal-arts-and-national-humanities-m |title=President Obama to Award 2012 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal |date=July 3, 2013 |publisher=Office of the Press Secretary, The White House |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=June 30, 2013}}</ref>

==Legacy==
In 2017 the John and Jill Ker Conway residence for veterans was opened in Washington DC.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bahrampour |first1=Tara |title=After years on the streets, homeless vets in D.C. get new building to call their own |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/after-years-on-the-streets-homeless-vets-in-dc-get-new-building-to-call-their-own/2017/01/11/1e502710-d83f-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html |access-date=June 4, 2018 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=January 11, 2017}}</ref>

==Selected bibliography==

===Books===
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = Modern Feminism: An Intellectual History | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | location = New York | year = 1977 | url = http://knopfdoubleday.com/author/5580/jill-ker-conway/ }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Conway | first1 = Jill | last2 = Kealey | first2 = Linda | last3 = Schulte | first3 = Janet E. | title = The Female Experience in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century America: A Guide to the History of American Women | url = https://archive.org/details/femaleexperience0000conw | url-access = registration | publisher = Garland Pub | location = New York | year = 1982 | isbn = 9780691005997 }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = Utopian Dream or Dystopian Nightmare?: Nineteenth-Century Feminist Ideas about Equality | publisher = American Antiquarian Society | location = Worcester, Massachusetts | year = 1987 | isbn = 9780912296890 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Conway | first1 = Jill | last2 = Scott | first2 = Joan W. | last3 = Bourque | first3 = Susan C. | author-link2 = Joan Wallach Scott | title = Learning about Women: Gender, Politics and Power | publisher = University of Michigan Press | location = Ann Arbor, Michigan | year = 1989 | isbn = 9780472063987 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/learningaboutwom0000unse }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = The Road from Coorain | url = https://archive.org/details/roadfromcoorainconw00conw | url-access = registration | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf Distributed by Random House | location = New York | year = 1989 | edition = 1st | isbn = 9780749303600 }}
:: Reprinted as: {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = The Road from Coorain | publisher = Minerva | location = London | year = 1992 | edition = 2nd | isbn = 9780749398941 }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = Written by Herself: An Anthology | publisher = Vintage Books | location = New York | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780679736332 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Conway | first1 = Jill | last2 = Bourque | first2 = Susan C. | title = The Politics of Women's Education: Perspectives from Asia, Africa, and Latin America | publisher = University of Michigan Press | location = Ann Arbor | year = 1995 | isbn = 9780472083282 }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = True North: A Memoir | publisher = Vintage Books | location = New York | year = 1995 | isbn = 9780679744610 }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = Written by Herself: Autobiographies of American Women. An Anthology | publisher = Vintage Books | location = New York | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780679736332 }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = Written by Herself: Women's Memoirs From Britain, Africa, Asia and the United States, volume 2: an anthology | publisher = Vintage Books | location = New York | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780679751090 }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = When Memory Speaks: Reflections on Autobiography | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | location = New York | year = 1998 | isbn = 9780679766452 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/whenmemoryspeaks0000conw }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = In Her Own Words: Women's Memoirs from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States | publisher = Vintage Books | location = New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780679781530 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/inherownwordswom00conw }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Conway | first1 = Jill | last2 = Kennan | first2 = Elizabeth | last3 = Munnings | first3 = Clare | author-link2 = Elizabeth Topham Kennan | author-link3 = Clare Munnings | title = Overnight Float | publisher = Penguin Books | location = New York | year = 2001 | isbn = 9780142000113 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Conway | first1 = Jill | last2 = Marx | first2 = Leo |author-link3=Kenneth Keniston| last3 = Keniston | first3 = Kenneth | author-link2 = Leo Marx | title = Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Humanistic Studies of the Environment | url = https://archive.org/details/earthairfirewate0000conw | url-access = registration | publisher = University of Massachusetts Press | location = Amherst | year = 1999 | isbn = 9781558492219 }}
* {{cite book | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = A Woman's Education | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | location = New York | year = 2001 | isbn = 9780679744627 }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Conway | first1 = Jill (Author) | last2 = Millis | first2 = Lokken (Illustrator) | title = Felipe the Flamingo | publisher = Fulcrum Publishing | location = Golden, Colorado | year = 2006 | isbn = 9781555915476 }}

===Chapters in books===
* {{Citation | last = Conway | first = Jill | contribution = Points of departure | editor-last = Zinsser | editor-first = William | editor-link = William Zinsser | title = Inventing the truth: the art and craft of memoir | publisher = Houghton Mifflin | location = Boston | year = 1998 | pages = 41–60 | isbn = 9780395901502 }}
* {{Citation | last = Conway | first = Jill | contribution = Foreword | editor-last1 = Freeman | editor-first1 = Sue J.M. | editor-last2 = Bourque | editor-first2 = Susan C. | editor-last3 = Shelton | editor-first3 = Christine M. | title = Women on power: leadership redefined | publisher = Northeastern University Press | location = Boston | year = 2001 | isbn = 9781555534783 }}

===Journal articles===
* {{Cite journal | last = Ker | first = Jill | title = Merchants and merinos | journal = Royal Australian Historical Society Journal | volume = 46 | issue = 4 | pages = 206–233 | publisher = Royal Australian Historical Society | date = 1960 | url = http://www2.rahs.org.au/fmi/iwp/cgi?-db=web%20Journal%20History%20Conf%20Index%20&-loadframes }}
* {{Cite journal | last = Conway | first = Jill | title = Women reformers and American culture, 1870-1930 | journal = Journal of Social History | volume = 5 | issue = 2 | pages = 164–177 | doi = 10.1353/jsh/5.2.164 | date = Winter 1971–1972 }} [http://jsh.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/2/164.full.pdf Pdf.]{{dead link|date=May 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|4440989}}
* {{Citation |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/28/conway-speaks-about-views-of-female/?page=single |title=Conway Speaks About Views of Female Body (at Lowell Lecture) |last=Tinley |first=Frances G. |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |date=April 28, 1999 |access-date=June 15, 2018}}
* [http://www.nwhp.org/biographies/ National Women's History Project - Jill Ker Conway biography]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160322060418/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/coorain/ei_conway.html Jill Ker Conway: A Life]
* [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/5580/jill-ker-conway/ Penguin Randomhouse Books - Jill Ker Conway]
* [http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/conway/ A Woman's Education by Jill Ker Conway]
* {{Citation |url=https://www.readinggroupguides.com/authors/jill-ker-conway |title=Reading Group Guides for The Road from Coorain and True North |publisher=The Book Report Network |access-date=June 15, 2018}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040603205556/http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/post/australia/jconway/conwayov.html Excerpts from ''The Road from Coorain'']
* {{IMDb title|id=0290045|title=The Road from Coorain}}
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/coorain/ Masterpiece Theatre - ''The Road from Coorain'', aired May 13, 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160524200111/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/coorain/ |date=24 May 2016 }}
* {{C-SPAN|46222}}
* [https://www.c-span.org/video/?103970-1/when-memory-speaks ''Booknotes'' interview with Ker Conway on ''When Memory Speaks: Reflections on Autobiography'', May 24, 1998.]

{{Time Persons of the Year 1951–1975}}
{{Lendlease}}
{{Nike}}
{{Smith College presidents}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerconway, Jill}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:2018 deaths]]
[[Category:Honorary Companions of the Order of Australia]]
[[Category:American historians]]
[[Category:American memoirists]]
[[Category:Australian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Lendlease]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty]]
[[Category:Nike, Inc. people]]
[[Category:University of Sydney alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto]]
[[Category:National Humanities Medal recipients]]
[[Category:American women historians]]
[[Category:Presidents of Smith College]]
[[Category:Women heads of universities and colleges]]
[[Category:American women memoirists]]
[[Category:People educated at Abbotsleigh]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]

Revision as of 19:58, 9 June 2024

Jill Ker Conway
AC
7th President of Smith College
In office
1975–1985
Preceded byThomas C. Mendenhall
Succeeded byMary Maples Dunn
Personal details
Born
Jill Ker

(1934-10-09)9 October 1934
Hillston, New South Wales, Australia
Died1 June 2018(2018-06-01) (aged 83)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAustralian, American
SpouseJohn Conway (d. 1995)
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
Harvard University (PhD)
OccupationWriter
Academic background
ThesisThe first generation of american women graduates (1969)
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
InstitutionsUniversity of Toronto
Smith College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Writing career
GenreAutobiography
Notable worksThe Road from Coorain
Notable awardsNational Humanities Medal 2012
Literature portal


Jill Ker Conway AC (9 October 1934 – 1 June 2018) was an Australian-American scholar and author. Well known for her autobiographies, in particular her first memoir, The Road from Coorain, she also was Smith College's first woman president (1975–1985) and most recently served as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2004 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.[1] She was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal.

Biography

Ker Conway was born in Hillston, New South Wales, in the outback of Australia. Together with her two brothers, Ker Conway was raised in near-total isolation on a family-owned 73 square kilometres (18,000 acres) tract of land called Coorain (the Aboriginal word for "windy place"), which eventually grew to encompass 129 square kilometres (32,000 acres). On Coorain, she lived a lonely life, and grew up without playmates except for her brothers. In her early years, she was schooled entirely by her mother, with the aid of correspondence class material for her primary school and early grade school education.[2]

Ker Conway spent her youth working the sheep station; by age seven, she was an important member of the workforce, helping with such activities as herding and tending the sheep, checking the perimeter fences and transporting heavy farm supplies. The farm prospered until it was crippled by a drought that lasted seven years. This and her father's worsening health put an increasing burden on her shoulders. When she was eleven, her father drowned in a diving accident while trying to extend the farm's water piping.

Initially Jill Ker Conway's mother, a nurse by profession, refused to leave Coorain. But after three more years of drought, she was compelled to move Jill and her brothers to Sydney, where the children attended school.

Ker Conway found the local state school a rough environment. The British manners and accent ingrained by her parents clashed with her peers' Australian habits, provoking taunts and jeers. This resulted in her mother enrolling her at Abbotsleigh, a private girls school, where Ker Conway found intellectual challenge and social acceptance. After finishing her education at Abbotsleigh, she enrolled at the University of Sydney, where she studied History and English and graduated with honours in 1958. Upon graduation, Ker Conway sought a trainee post in the Department of External Affairs, but the all-male committee turned down her application.

After this setback, she travelled through Europe with her now emotionally volatile mother. In 1960, she decided to strike out on her own and move to the United States. At age 25, she was accepted into the history program of Harvard University's Radcliffe College,[3] where she devoted her studies to women's history, not yet an established historical discipline, and wrote her dissertation on Jane Addams and the establishment of Hull House.[4] Her interest in Addams and Hull House was sparked by her neighbor and friend, former Librarian of Congress, Archibald Macleish.[5] At Harvard, she also assisted a Canadian professor, John Conway, who was her husband from 1962 until his death in 1995. Ker Conway received her Ph.D. at Harvard in 1969 and taught at the University of Toronto from 1964 to 1975. Her book True North details her life in Toronto.

From 1975 to 1985, Ker Conway was the president of Smith College. After 1985, she was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received thirty-eight honorary degrees and awards from North American and Australian colleges, universities and women's organizations.[3]

Throughout her career, Ker Conway served as director on a variety of corporate boards. These include stints of more than a decade on the boards of Nike, Colgate-Palmolive, and Merrill Lynch.[6] Ker Conway was also the first female Chairman of Lendlease.[7]

After 2011, Ker Conway served as the Board Chair of Community Solutions.[8] It is a non-profit organization with a focus on homelessness and related issues, based in New York City.

Conway died on 1 June 2018 at her home in Boston at the age of 83.[9]

President of Smith College

Smith College campus

In 1975, Ker Conway became the first female president of Smith College, the largest women's college in the United States. Located in Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith, a private liberal arts college, is the only women's college in the U.S. to grant its own degrees in engineering.

Ker Conway launched the Ada Comstock Scholars program, initially proposed by her predecessor Thomas Mendenhall. This program allows non-traditional students, many with work and family obligations, to study full or part-time, depending on their family and work schedules. These women can take classes for a bachelor's degree over a longer period of time. Conway House, dedicated in 2006, a residence for Ada Comstock Scholars was named in honor of Ker Conway.

One of Ker Conway's more notable accomplishments is a program she initiated to help Ada Comstock Scholars on welfare. At the time, many students who were also welfare mothers were not pursuing higher education, as accepting a scholarship would cause them to lose their welfare benefits. The mothers were forced to choose between supporting their children or furthering their education. By not giving them scholarships but paying their rent instead, Ker Conway circumvented the state's system. She also gave the students access to an account at local stores, access to physicians and so on. ABC's Good Morning America profiled graduates of the program, giving it national exposure. Eventually the state of Massachusetts, convinced about the importance of the program, changed its welfare system so that scholarship students wouldn't lose their benefits.[10]

She also led the creation of the Smith Management Program (now called Smith Executive Education) and the Project on Women and Social Change. She worked to expand the curriculum leading to the development of programs in women's studies, comparative literature, and engineering. Conway took a keen interest in fundraising and under her presidency the endowment nearly tripled from $82 million to $222 million. These efforts enabled several large-scale projects including the construction of the Ainsworth Gymnasium, and expansion of the Neilson Library. The Career Development Office was also expanded under her tenure to better educate alumnae about career opportunities and graduate training.

In 1975, Jill Ker Conway was named by Time as a Woman of the Year.[11]

The Road from Coorain

Main article: The Road from Coorain (book)

Ker Conway started writing her first memoir after leaving Smith College, during her period at MIT. The Road from Coorain was published in 1989 (ISBN 0-394-57456-7) and details her early life, from Coorain in Australia to Harvard in the United States.

The book begins with her early childhood at the remote sheep station Coorain near Mossgiel, New South Wales. Ker Conway writes about her teenage years in Sydney and especially her education at the University of Sydney, where university studies were open to women but the culture was focused heavily on the men. She describes her intellectual development and later her feelings when she realizes that there is a bias against women; based upon her sex, she is denied a traineeship at the Australian foreign service.

In 2001, Chapman Pictures produced a television film, The Road from Coorain, featuring Katherine Slattery as the grown-up Jill and Juliet Stevenson as her mother.

Awards and honors

  • 1960 Jill Ker Conway was a 1960 Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar in History from the University of Sydney to Harvard University.
  • 1975 In the first year of her presidency at Smith College, Conway was named a "woman of the year", one of a small group of notable women selected for that award by Time magazine.[12]
  • 1989 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, The Road from Coorain
  • Ker Conway was appointed a Companion (AC) in the General Division of the Order of Australia on 10 June 2013 for her eminent service to the community, particularly women, as an author, academic and through leadership roles with corporations, foundations, universities and philanthropic groups.[13] On 12 June, she was removed as a 'Companion' and invested as an 'Honorary Companion' of the Order of Australia, because she no longer held Australian citizenship.[14]
  • On July 10, 2013, she received a 2012 National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.[15]

Legacy

In 2017 the John and Jill Ker Conway residence for veterans was opened in Washington DC.[16]

Selected bibliography

Books

Reprinted as: Conway, Jill (1992). The Road from Coorain (2nd ed.). London: Minerva. ISBN 9780749398941.

Chapters in books

  • Conway, Jill (1998), "Points of departure", in Zinsser, William (ed.), Inventing the truth: the art and craft of memoir, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 41–60, ISBN 9780395901502
  • Conway, Jill (2001), "Foreword", in Freeman, Sue J.M.; Bourque, Susan C.; Shelton, Christine M. (eds.), Women on power: leadership redefined, Boston: Northeastern University Press, ISBN 9781555534783

Journal articles

  • Ker, Jill (1960). "Merchants and merinos". Royal Australian Historical Society Journal. 46 (4). Royal Australian Historical Society: 206–233.
  • Conway, Jill (Winter 1971–1972). "Women reformers and American culture, 1870-1930". Journal of Social History. 5 (2): 164–177. doi:10.1353/jsh/5.2.164. Pdf.[dead link]

References

  1. ^ "Honorees: 2010 National Women's History Month". Women's History Month. National Women's History Project. 2010. Archived from the original on 24 June 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  2. ^ "Remembering Jill Ker Conway, The First Female President Of Smith College". Fresh Air with Terry Gross. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  3. ^ a b Genzlinger, Neil (4 June 2018). "Jill Ker Conway, 83, Feminist Author and Smith President, Dies". New York Times. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  4. ^ Gillis, Anna Maria (2012). "Jill Ker Conway, National Humanities Medal". National Endowment for the Humanities.
  5. ^ Platt, Rutherford H. (5 June 2018). "Rutherford H. Platt Recalls Jill Ker Conway's study of Jane Addams". The Daily Hampshire Gazette. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  6. ^ "Executive Profile: Jill Ker Conway". Bloomberg, S&P Global Market Intelligence. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  7. ^ "Lend Lease's US dreams fade". The Age. 30 May 2003. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  8. ^ "Community Solutions". Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  9. ^ "Obituary – Jill Ker Conway". Obituaries Australia. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  10. ^ Thomas, Auden D (30 January 2009). "Welfare Women Go Elite". Naspa Journal About Women in Higher Education. 1 (1). doi:10.2202/1940-7890.1006. S2CID 144632549. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  11. ^ "Remembering President Emerita Jill Ker Conway". Smith College. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  12. ^ "Happy Birthday, Jill Ker Conway « - Smith College Grécourt Gate Smith College Grécourt Gate". www.smith.edu. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  13. ^ "Queen's Birthday honours list 2013". Sydney Morning Herald. 10 June 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  14. ^ "Clarification". The Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat. 12 June 2013. Archived from the original on 4 September 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  15. ^ "President Obama to Award 2012 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal". Washington, D.C.: Office of the Press Secretary, The White House. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  16. ^ Bahrampour, Tara (11 January 2017). "After years on the streets, homeless vets in D.C. get new building to call their own". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jill_Ker_Conway&oldid=1228164414"