Academic life | Washington State Magazine | Washington State University

Book title We Few, We Academic Sisters in stylized orange and red lines

Summer 2024

WSU academic sisters look back

They launched their careers at Washington State University in the 1960s and ’70s, becoming full professors during a time when reaching that milestone was extremely rare for women. Forty years later, a friend and colleague urged the “Troika,” as they call themselves, to tell their stories in a volume that she then edited.

We Few, We Academic Sisters: How We Persevered and Excelled in Higher Education was published by WSU Press in 2023. The same year, WSU’s department of sociology, where the trio worked, turned 100. The authors and their editor, all longtime friends, took part in the centennial celebration, presenting a panel … » More …

Spring 2013

Academic Motherhood: How Faculty Manage Work and Family

Kelly Ward and Lisa Wolf-Wendel
Rutgers University Press, 2012

Kelly Ward, a Washington State University professor and co-author of Academic Motherhood, contends that a “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture still prevails in academia when it comes to pregnancy.

Sometimes that keeps women from reaching their professional potential and getting the personal support they need.

“Department chairs fear saying the wrong thing, so they say nothing,” says Ward. “The pregnant woman ends up not understanding medical … » More …