Thread by @develvishist

Dr. Mary Beth Norton, president of @AHAhistorians is about to do a roundtable with Dr. Nicole Maskiell so I'm gonna TWEET about it #twitterstorians

#HistoryCenterUofSC Greatest challenge in grad school? "Being a woman in grad school in 1964. 3 were women. One of us lasted two weeks"

"Of the three women admitted in the 3 years at Harvard, I kept getting called Nancy" Apparently only one woman's name was needed

At the time, colonial history was something you got through "fast" to get to 19 and 20c history. The greatest thing that happened to me at Harvard was meeting Bernard Bailyn

"I had never studied colonial history, but for a graduate seminar I chose Massachusetts Reaction to the Stamp Act (little did I know it was done by eeeeveryone)"

Norton"it sent me to the Massachusetts Historical Society and I underwent a conversion experience [to colonial history]"

"It was like James Otis reached out to me through the archive and said "Norton, why aren't you paying attention to this!?"

On meeting Bailyn he said "you and I are the only people in the world who have read all these pamphlets [at the MHS]" and "this was the beginning of a lifelong friendship"

Why Norton was happy she didn't do her diss on Mercy Otis Warren "I would've had no idea how to do women's history in the 60s!" and she "didn't want to be pigeonholed as a woman doing women's topic"

Maskiell "what was it like being first woman fac member at Cornell?"
Norton "First I was at U of CT (1969) w/ 3 female colleagues, very good to have them"
There were TENURED assistant professors!!!

Norton did not want to teach at schools that talked about women profs/coworkers in a condescending manner

@ Cornell, senior prof would begin faculty meeting with "gentlemen," multiple times, another prof said "we can't have a woman in this department, she will seduce us all"

[sidenote, Dr. Norton is hilarious, a great storyteller, and cracking up the whole room]

"Every member of the department came to my job talk. I thought this was normal....It was not."

For 5 years, Norton was only female prof @ Cornell. For the next 10 years, there were only two women profs @ Cornell. Formed a close bond with the other prof, fought many battles together

Simple advice from Dr. Mary Beth Norton, pres of @AHAhistorians : "Network, network, network."

Knew one woman whose tenure was denied because she didn't network, did not have necessary contacts and no one knew who she was.

Norton's call to graduate students: JOIN THE @AHAhistorians ! Affordable, meet people at the sessions, very important for grad students to network!

"Important connections are also made through people you meet at the archives"

An important reminder for me to read the footnotes: Norton wrote an entire piece for the William and Mary Quarterly just because she found a footnote mentioning "a midwife and some petitions" & investigated her

Q: Anything on CV that's a red flag or advancement?
A: RED FLAGS "Obvious padding on CV, do not assume that ppl reading will get everything important from CV--COVER LETTER IS IMPORTANT--shape it to where you're going "
GOOD THINGS "Member of appropriate & relevant associations?"

"If it's a teaching school, put the teaching paragraph first on a cover letter & vice versa"
"Research the university but don't overdo it"

"Don't use a generic cover letter for fellowship letters either, shape it to the fellowship!"

"ALWAYS explain why your topic is important in fellowships, never just assume the readers will know"

Q: How has field changed for history? Future for women?
A: "CHANGED so much!" Points to women in AHA leadership. AHA goes past R1 schools today, reaches more women.

On jobs outside academia--@AHAhistorians "Where Historians Work" on website, can filter results. AHA also has Career Diversity Project.

If there's one thing I've taken away from Dr. Norton's time at the @UofSCHistory and #HistoryCenterUofSC it's how much can still be found in the archives. Even after 50+ years of research she's still finding new material by going back to the sources

Advice from Bernard Bailyn: "Make sure you go through everything in the U.S. BEFORE you go to England" for research

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