Our Rightful Place

"A really great read for those who enjoy history, especially Kentucky history, and its intersection with women's issues."—Bench and Bar Magazine

"Our Rightful Place combines archival documents and rare period piece photographs to enhance our understanding of women as academic pioneers at the University of Kentucky. It also fills significant gaps about regional history and higher education in the South. Scaggs and Birdwhistell bring to life the contributions of women as members of the campus community at the University of Kentucky during the crucial decades from 1880 to 1950."—John R. Thelin, author of A History of American Higher Education, Third Edition

"Birdwhistell and Scaggs highlight the challenges that women at the University of Kentucky faced and the difficult choices they made, and in doing so, reveal how these women operated within gendered frameworks that they both challenged and reified."—Carolyn Renée Dupont, author of Mississippi Praying: Southern White Evangelicals and the Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1975

"Birdwhistell and Scaggs offer a valuable, woman-centered view of the University of Kentucky's early history. Stretching over seven decades, grounded in oral history, and filled with colorful stories of individual women, Our Rightful Place provides readers a tantalizing peek into the day-to-day experiences of the first women who worked and studied at Kentucky's flagship university, documenting their efforts to carve out a space for themselves."—Melanie Beals Goan, author of Mary Breckinridge: The Frontier Nursing Service and Rural Health in Appalachia

"Birdwhistell and Scaggs bring to life the stories of strong women, like Frances Jewell McVey and Sarah Blanding, who led the first seven decades of white public coeducation in Kentucky. These women carved new spaces for females in housing and student life as well as faculty members and institutional leaders. Although many challenges remained in 1950, the women chronicled here laid the foundations of coeducation, including women's career training and intercollegiate basketball, for UK students."—Judith Jennings, coeditor of Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia and author of Why Work?