4 MAY/JUNE 1999 FOOTNOTES Coffeagues ~enwm6er£4firra fI(cmarovs~y K doctoral students, but Mirra did not. My only only came to knowMirra personallyfairly 5ts a Jewish child whose parents were of their contributions to thesocial sciences, saving I Europeans, Ihad neverhad a teacher who was like contact with herwas thereforeby extending heranalysis ofbias to thelarger issues ofstructural recently, when she showed up at a talk Igaveon me until Iwent to collegeand met Professor Mirra invitations to her to speak at meetings of the and culturalfactors in society. “I was interested in profeminist men at the Barnard Women’s Center Komarovsky. I was intrigued by her dignified graduate student sociology club during my tenure as the big issues”she told me, I was interested in the in about 1988. Shewas so supportive of my manner, her accent, her mysterious intelligence, and its president. I think Iwas not aloneamong the causes of theRussian Revolution” and “the causes work—more than Icould have imagined-and thelargefolders ofyellowing notesshe brought to women graduate students in finding herfascinating of women’s inequality.” read an early manuscript draft ofManhood in eachclass. Not only did Ifeel somehow that wewere both for her research topics that engaged her, for her Komarovskywas neveran activist in the Americaout of interest. tied by background, but subconsciously Imust have personal beauty, andfor thelovely lilt of herRussian traditional sense. Shedid not participate in And so I’d like to also remind thesociological imagined that if Itried hard, Icould become likeher. accent. One very special keen memory of herwas as organizations but she did consult with such policy community ofhercontribution to thestudyof I’m not sure I understood everythingshe talked the chair ofa special session on the relationship makersas Eleanor Roosevelt. And, of course, she men and masculinity as well. Her PhD about—blue-collar marriages, cultural lag, and between history and sociology at the Eastern was active in making women’s roles in societyand dissertation, published in 1940 as TheUnem- more. But Iknew she was thebest and that’s what I Sociological Society in New Haven, at which Igave theanalysis ofattitudes toward them into the ployed Man and His Family, was a significant wanted to be. There was also, somehow, a sadness my first professional paper. I don’tknowwho university curriculum. Iasked herwhat she thought sociological portrait of the effect of theGreat about Mirra Komarovsky. Although we neverspoke impressed me more—Mirra or the commentator on now (1989)about theplace ofwomen in the Depression on conceptionsof masculinity. She personally, Iknew that she was a widow, a single. my paper. Sam Stouffer. It was also a sourceofsome university and how she thought they were firing. I was thefirst researcher who offered a sociological brilliant woman. Flow difficult that must be, I amusement to myselfand somefriends in the remarked on the small percentage of tenured women analysis ofthe effect of unemployment on men’s mused. audience that she introduced me as “Ms. Kitt” but who heldappointments in the elite universities such feelings about themselves as men. Contrary to all When Ileft Barnard and began graduate studies after Sam’s high praise, she referred to me as “Dr. as Columbia. “It’s been a harderjob than we predictions, what shefound was that the hardest at Brandeis University, Ibegan to write personal Kitt,” some four years before learned that title! thought we’d have,” she said. “Who reads our part ofunemployment was the humiliation they letters to Professor Komarovsky, telling her about Over theyears since then, it was always a work? Otherwomen. We’re ghettoized.” “What is felt at home, not in thepublic sphere. Her my achievements and questions. She answered! pleasure to see and speak with Mirra on therare to be done?” Iasked. Hereyes flashed, as was interviews with those59 menarealso master- With warm, albeit brief, notes. Isent her Rosh occasions when our attendance at ASA meetings typical ofthis passionate and determined woman. pieces of intelligentfieldwork. It stands up well Hashana cards, hinting that Iknew we were both overlapped. It remainsa tribute both to herand to Without equivocation she answered, “push.” today, in theera ofdownsizings and layoffs, as ASA and its members that she was honoredwith themen in studies by researchers like Kathy Jewish. Her very actof responding to me made me Cynthia Fuchs Epstein feel that Iwas entering theworld of sociologists. nomination and election to its presidency. Newman echo Komarovsky’s own subjects. CUNY-Graduate Center Years later, Mary Jo Deegan invited me to write a Alice S. Rossi Michael Kimmel biographical essay for hercompendium onfemale ASA President (1983) SUNY-Stony Brook sociologists.’ Iapproached Professor Komaroosky V~firra..—sociotogist extraordinaire. and finally was able to askherabout her life. She 2i1~~1 Sheprovideda sociological bridgefrom her was reticent, but pleased in theend. She shared her .. u ring theperiod that Mirra Komarovsky studies ofthe Great Depressionto life in thelate I havemany memoriesofMirra, but the muted, hesitantfrustration about neverhaving been served us as our President, theASA, like therest of 20th century. most prominentone is her total dedicationto a member of thefaculty at Columbia University and theacademic world, sufferedfrom thekind of Shewas a powerful, though gentle, voicefor sociology and herequally total persistence in told me about having been steeredawayfrom political and ideological strife that can easilylead to women sociologists. keeping up with thelatest developments to the becominga sociologist “because” shewas a woman incivility. Yet, when President Komarovsky was Shecouldhold herown against any ofhermale endofherlife. Sheremainedcurious about what andJew. lam very happy that she lived to see the chairing meetings of ourgoverning Council, I counterparts “across the street.” was happeningin the discipline long after her daywhen that no longer is thecase. cannot recallan ad hominemaccusation or a voice Shewill be long and lovingly remembered. final retirementfrom Barnard in the late 1980s— a decision, incidentally, that sheregrettedever Shulamit Reinharz raised to interrupt a speaker’s argument. With Matilda White Riley Mirra Komarousky in theChair, rude behavior after. Brandeis University ASA President (1986) would have been inappropriate. When Mirra reachedher 90s, she stopped ‘Editor’s note: See Reinharz’ chapter in Deegan. When her name is invoked, thefirst word that buying tickets to the severalchamber music series which had girem: heran excuseto invite Mary Jo, ed. (1991) Women in Sociolo,~y: A Bia-Bib- will cometo mindfor many will be scholarship;for gI,’jiirra Komarovskywas afeminist tiographicat Sourcebook. New York: Grcenwood Press. others, beauty;for still others, warmth and foremother. Even though shewasn’t actively friends and colleagues. Thereafter, Ivisitedher in supportiveness. For me, thefirst ward that comes to her apartment, and t,ur sessions, which were i~1~ involved in feminist politics, shewas an early and mind is dignity. long-time meniber ofSWS. As thesecondwoman quite regular, were devoted to two topics. One YVLy wifeJudith and 1have beenfriends of was thememories of earlier life that many, older Professor Mirra Komarovskyfor thelast quarter Wh Mirra Komarovsky was chairing a president ofASA (1973-74), she was a visible meeting, I would have been unthinkable to milestone in openingup ASA to women. Her peoplelike to share, but the more important topic century ofher life. Iactuallymet herbriefly when I was tofind out what was new in sociology, or was a graduate student at Columbia University, challengeher competence. At a time when it was an earliest work was prescientfor studies ofgender. what did Ithink about somethingin an article where she taught at Barnard, when 1 was a graduate important contribution to our Association, she Shepublished a classic article, “Cultural Contra- quietly insisted on dignity in its deliberations and dictions in Sex Roles,” in the American Journal shehadjust been reading-ar as Iwill never student at a partyin thelater forties. But it was forget, what exactly did sociologists mean by only whenIreturned to Columbia as a faculty governance. of Sociology in 1946. Herfirst book on women’s issues, Women in the ModemWorld: Their “postinodern.” member that we had regular contact with her, at our Raymond Mack In addition, Mirra continued to attend monthlyhouseat 45 Claremont or on our visits to Education and Their Dilemmas, was published Northwestern University in 1952. undergraduate classes in sociology in a variety of her homeabout ten blockssouth on 106’~ Streetat subjectsat Barnard and Columbia, usually onea Riverside. Her research on thestructure as well as the name ofMirra Komarovskyand citations psychology ofcollege men’s “role strain” over semester, and Ican still see hersitting there After my retirement in 1970 when wemoved to amongfellow students who were 70 years Chapel Hill in North Carolina, wecontinued to visit to her work arerarelyseen in theliterature on the changes in women’s and ,nen’s roles and college sociology ofgender nor among the “theorists” cited women’s paradoxical position (aspiration for career, younger. Shewent to class for thesame reason with her, though much less often, of course, afew that sheasked me questions: to keep up with the timesa year on our visits to New York. But Ialso aniong theclassic works in thefield. Yet her marriage, and motherhood