Expanding Women’s Work in the University and Beyond – Carnegie Connections, 1923-1942

Abstract

This paper examines the significance of Carnegie Corporation philanthropic grants for the expansion of women’s work in the academy during the first half of the twentieth century and considers ways in which a Corporation grant for
‘home science education’ helped to expand the work of women as ‘domestic experts’ in the academy and as social reform agents in the wider community. The first part of the paper considers the impact of the rise of philanthropic foundations on the growth of the new ‘experts’ in the late nineteenth century, and challenges previous scholarship claims that attribute the spread of Carnegie models of education and social reform to ‘key men’. Drawing on previously unpublished sources from the Carnegie Corporation Archives it examines the significance of ‘key women’ who served as contacts for the Carnegie enterprise including Ann Gilchrist Strong, Professor of Home Science at The University of Otago, who utilised her relationships with Carnegie and her own professional networks to establish herself as a link with New Zealand universities and as a gate keeper for Carnegie grant and travel programmes. The second section of the paper focuses on a New Zealand case study to illustrate the way that Carnegie philanthropy helped to expand the ‘domestic expertise’ of women in the academy and their role as professional social reformers in contemporary society.