LYDIA ROBERTS FISCHER: TEACHING FOR THE DURATION

 

During World War II the University of Kentucky began hiring women faculty for the duration of the war.  Lydia Roberts Fischer became one of the first women hired. 

Lydia Roberts, 1928

A Lexington native, her parents owned the L.L. Roberts Furniture Company in a building that is now part of “The Square” in downtown Lexington.  Fischer graduated from UK in 1929 with a degree in mathematics.  While in college she became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board, Theta Sigma Phi (journalism honorary), Pi Mu Epsilon (mathematics honorary), and Kappa Delta sorority.

Following graduation Fischer began working towards a M.A. in mathematics.  Upon learning of her plans to marry while still in graduate school, professors in the mathematics department told Fischer, "Well, that [marriage] does you in.  You won't get your master’s."  Fischer responded without hesitation, "Oh, I think I shall!" - and she did in 1931.  Still, Fischer had no plans for a career other than "housewife and mother" until she divorced her husband in 1937.  As a mother of two small children she knew she must do something "to earn a living" and enrolled in education classes at the university.  

Securing a position teaching math at Lexington's Morton Junior High School, Fischer soon learned that she did not enjoy teaching junior high students and approached UK Dean of Arts and Science Paul Boyd about the possibility of teaching at UK.  Boyd offered her a position teaching math classes.  For the next several years Fischer taught "regular student" mathematics classes during the war while the men faculty in the department taught the A.S.T.P. [Army Specialized Training Program] classes. 

Fischer told me that she never felt discriminated against by the male faculty and administrators until one day she learned that men hired to do the same work as she in mathematics made $250 a month as compared to her $150.  She immediately went to see Dean Boyd and asked about the discrepancy in the salaries.  Boyd responded, "Well, I thought you were just teaching for the love of it anyway."  Fisher replied sarcastically, "the money does help a little bit!"  Following her conversation with the dean, Fischer's salary increased to $250 a month, the same as the men.

Lydia Roberts Fischer, 1968

After the war Fischer began teaching math at Lexington's Lafayette High School where she became recognized as one of the schools outstanding teachers.

Lydia Roberts Fischer was interviewed October 16 and 26, 1989, for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.  The interviews can be found at https://kentuckyoralhistory.org. 

 

Additional information about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the recently published, Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945.

https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/   

World War II and Women's Equality at UK

 

Students Celebrate the End of World War II

Women's Equality Day, 2020, provides an opportunity to look back at the push for women's equality at the University of Kentucky that has spanned nearly a century and a half.  For example, gains made by women during World War II on the UK campus proved to be mostly temporary.

As the war ended "normalcy" again prevailed at UK.  By the late 1940s the percentage of women pursuing higher education at UK actually dropped in comparison to the men.  The gains women had made in leadership roles on campus were systematically reversed both by specific rulings and by default.  Women faculty members, hired to teach "for the duration," found it necessary to find postwar teaching jobs elsewhere.  

Lydia Roberts Fischer, who had been hired to teach mathematics during the war, knew that without a Ph.D. degree she could not continue permanently.  Single and with two young children, she indicated that obtaining a Ph.D. seemed all but impossible.  After leaving UK and taking substitute teaching positions in local public schools, Fischer subsequently obtained a full-time teaching position at Lafayette High School, where she taught until her retirement.

Little evidence exists that women on campus openly resisted the return to pre-war practices.  Only Dean of Women Sarah Bennett Holmes is on record as vocally opposing the most obvious discrimination.  Overall, little overt protests came from either the students or the faculty.  Thus, UK women once again experienced discriminatory rules regarding social life, uncertain academic potential and prospects, and steep challenges to remaining on the faculty. 

Changes taking place in the first half of the 1940s could have set the stage for fundamental shifts; instead, they existed only "for the duration."  The steps towards equality that occurred during World War II would need to be fought again, and again.

Additional information about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the recently published, Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945.

https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/    

Use the code FAU25 for 25% off. 

Honoring Gloria and Otis Singletary on Memorial Day, 2020

Each Memorial Day we pause to honor those women and men who have served in the American Armed Forces.

Dr. Otis A. Singletary, the University of Kentucky's 7th president, served in the United States Navy during World War Two.  Not as well known, Gloria Walton Singletary also served during the war joining the United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve), better known as the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service)

Gloria and Otis, met at Perkinston Junior College prior to the war.  They were married on D-Day, June 6, 1944 in Moss Point, Mississippi at her father's church.   Both had already entered the service and were on leave.  They wore their naval uniforms duirng the wedding and following the ceremony "left for the West Coast."

Otis was assigned to a supply ship that operated in the Pacific out of its home base in San Francisco.  Gloria became a hospital corpsman at the Naval Hospital in San Diego where she worked as a pharmacist's mate.

Years later, Otis recalled that he was not thrilled with the idea of his new bride being in the military.  As he recalled, "I thought maybe we could win the war without Gloria - but she didn't.  Actually, Otis admitted he was "impressed by what Gloria did.  She had some spunk about her even if I didn't like the idea!

DR. JANE HASELDEN, 1903-1991

Jane Haselden, a Lancaster, Kentucky native, graduated from Transylvania University in 1926 with a degree in French.  As a graduation present her parents sent Haselden to study in Paris for a year.  

Following her return to the United States she became a teacher, first in Beattyville, Kentucky and subsequently in her hometown of Lancaster.  While in Beattyville, Haselden achieved some notoriety for coaching the boys' basketball team at the local high school.  

During summers Haselden worked toward a master's degree at Columbia University, a goal she achieved in 1932.  After serving as Dean of Women at both Transylvania University and Murray State Teachers College in Western Kentucky, Haselden completed a Ph.D. in Psychology at UK.

Haselden also held a pilot’s license.  She and Anna Mayrell Johnson jointly owned an airplane and were known to rush out to the local airport during their lunch breaks to fly their plane over Lexington.  One time Haselden even flew her plane over Stoll Field during a football game between Kentucky and Alabama.  

Haselden and Johnson actively participated in the Kentucky chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots affiliated with the National Aeronautic Association in Washington D.C.  Haselden recalled that as the war began "casual flying" came to an end because the war changed things for everyone.   She was one of only three women who were members of the committee which drafted Kentucky's civil aviation regulations.

For additional information see:  

http://libguides.transy.edu/JaneHaselden  (Transylvania University)

Dean of Women Papers, Special Collections Research Center, UK Libraries

Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, UK Libraries
Interview with Jane Haselden, October 17, 1989
https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7ksn012j09
Interview with Jane Haselden, October 27, 1989

https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7z348gj469