EVA VOM
BAUR HANSL: BRAIN-IDEAS VS LIFE-IDEAS
Bernita A. Bowen
Kellogg
Project
April, 1988
EVA HANSL: A NOT SO ORDINARY WOMAN
There seems to have been little about Eva vom Baur Hansl
that was ordinary--except the situation in which she found
herself as an educated American woman in the first half of
the
twentieth century. Born
in
of six daughters in a middle class family of German
origins. She
graduated from Barnard in 1909 and began a career in journalism
writing for the New York Times, Sun, and Tribune. After
graduation from college, she was named a member of the Board of
Directors of the
Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, which
some years later merged with the New York State Employment
Service. (Lobach, n.d.)
Around 1920, Eva married Raleigh Hansl and
traded a full-
time career for motherhood and homemaking by 1924. Perhaps
societal restructuring during a time of suffragettes and a
World
War coupled with a
personal restructuring between college
graduation, journalism career, and motherhood brought Eva to a
point of conflict or dysjuncture. This point represented
uncharted territory for other women as well. Her letters,
writings, and speeches all seem to indicate she found herself
caught between the many shifting roles, ideologies, and
attitudes
of a changing twentieth century.
Eva Hansl's
written materials span a period of over fifty
years beginning with her 1909 journalism career. Their formats
varied from newspaper articles (1911-1916) to speeches,
lectures,
and seminars given at
and 1939, and for numerous parents' and women's groups
over
an even larger span of years.
Her attempts at educating covered many
types of adults. Her
educational writings were not restricted to only lectures and
speeches, however.
Hansl frequently wrote magazine articles for
Harper's, Ladies Home
Journal, Coronet, acted as editor for the
fledgling Parents' Magazine, and published a study for the
Journal of the National
Association Women Deans and Counselors
which traced careers and histories of women who dropped out
of
jobs for a period of homemaking. (The Eva Hansl Collection, Box
1) This type of writing spanned a period of
years from the early
1920s
through 1962. It served to illuminate issues such as
women's multiple roles in American society and the conflicts
these roles raise socially and economically. An offshoot issue
resulted regarding the needs throughout society for part-time
study for academic credit.
Additionally, Eva Hansl published a book
in 1949, Trends in
Part Time Employment of
College Trained Women, which used her
vast collection of research for the purpose of suggesting
"a
campaign for research and action necessary to produce changes
in
our economy" with part-time employment for educated
women seen as
the "vocational link between higher education and
the family"
(Hansl,
1949, p.7). This was the first book written on part-time
work. It not only
defined issues for women, and charted possible
conflicts or resolutions in diagram-like format, but also
viewed
such subjects in relation to the larger society. The book
enlightens and informs through a balanced blend of theory and
data with implications for practice. Hansl ends by calling women
to a recognition of issues and a solidarity in acting on
them.
She offers a specific plan
for "Research, Propaganda, and Action"
on all fronts using resources at hand such as husbands,
education, local groups, counseling, and job placement
opportunities. (Hansl, 1949,
pp.47-48)
WOMEN'S CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
In recognizing such problems for many
women plus her own
situational and attitudinal conflicts, Hansl took the first step
in helping others.
She has been described as wanting "the best
of all worlds for all women" (Lobach
n.d., p.7).
Whatever had
impact on the lives of women interested her, and she
energetically acted on that interest. She spent over fifty years
researching, writing, and travelling in
order to meet what she
perceived as a need by educated American women for
consciousness-
raising and change.
Her resultant education of adults was aimed
at defining and recognizing these women as a political
force,
economic factor, and unique social group with changing
multiple
roles.
Her attempts at consciousness-raising and
her dialogue for
change seem to have been based on two main approaches: research
and education, for and about women. Though her primary target
was the educated American female, her research and areas
of
interest were more broadly defined as anything pertinent to
the
lives of women.
Her method, then, was to explore and
disseminate information
on all aspects of women's social, political, economic,
and cultural
interactions in American life.
In the area of research,
her methodology was affected by her constant collecting
of
materials relative to women's interests and accomplishments.
This eventually became
what is known as the "Perspective on Women
in the
Research
Library of
only formed a unique data base from which many women's
groups,
universities, and government agencies borrowed material, but its
collection also served indirectly to publicize women's issues.
This, in turn, served to
create a broad and efficient network
which one university guidance head and student personnel
administrator who knew Hansl described as "cross-fertilizing
the
ideas of many people" (Lloyd-Jones, 1960, p.2).
In the area of education, her methodology
was most directly
affected through lectures and speeches, the creation and
production of three noted radio series, and the publication of
the book which explored 1949 the "effect of
discontinuity in
study and employment" for women who raise
families. (Lobach,
n.d., p.3)
Through this dual focused methodology
Hansl was able to both
gather and disseminate information. In fact, until the end of
World War II she crossed
the country several times for various
purposes. She used
these opportunities to best advantage by
gathering data on women, interviewing educators and labor
relations personnel, and visiting war installations in
conjunction with her radio script work with the WPA, United
States Office of
Education, and War Manpower Commission who
sponsored her. Always
she was seeking and sharing information on
women's issues and interests.
The goals of her methodology were
described by Hansl herself
in terms of finding a "point of intersection"
for educated
women's best interests "where her family, her job, and
her
community all meet" (Hansl, 1949, p.10). Potential critics of
her goals or objectives may fail to realize that though
her
interests covered all women over a wide historical range and in
many economies and geographic locales, her main goal seems
to
have been to choose one small segment--that segment in
which she
saw herself located--in which to activate change. This seems a
prudent strategy. It
allows for (a) a tighter focus on issues
and efficient use of energies, (b) suggests a greater
potential
for success because of the former, and (c) gave Hansl, as
activator, the obvious advantages of having a personal stake
and
an inside view of issues and avenues. In short, she lived the
life of the women she wished to study and aid.
ADVOCACY ACTIVITIES
Hansl did live a life that provided a
personal state in
various advocacy activities.
Specifically, the contextual givens
around which she based her activities were the following:
1.
In the first half of the twentieth century, educated
women in
dilemma was defined as recognition of the fact that women may
need to work, and certainly have the right to work, but
have
difficulty doing this (economically and socially) if they also
must maintain the dual job or role of homemaker.
2.
These women have this need and/or right because work in
our society is measured in terms of dollars and cents.
3.
There are increasing opportunities for both women's
education and employment during this first half century, most
due
to milestones such as suffrage and two world wars. Additionally,
1949 saw a period of high
peacetime employment with a shortage of
technically and professionally trained workers available (college
educated women).
4.
Educated American women could and should be what Hansl
described as salvaged from waste to continue to contribute to
larger society and fulfill an obligation to improve the
image of
and opportunities for all part-time workers. (Hansl, 1949, pp.
16-18)
In short, Hansl acted as both prophet and
"catalytic agent"
in setting and acting on goals. (Lloyd-Jones, 1960, p.1) She
was prophetic in suggesting that on the changing face of
the
world it was probable that more and more educated American
women,
and women in general, would need to work at some point in
their
lives. Her research
suggested economic changes and increased
human longevity as causes for this. (Hansl, 1949)
Hansl saw the value of her own work
through its far reaching
potential benefits to larger society in important social,
political, and economic ways.
She felt, then, that the study and
improvement of the modern woman's lot could be linked to benefits
for American society as a whole.
In terms of advocacy for dynamic social
change, Hansl may be
viewed by today's eyes as fitting under any number of labeled
categories. These views
intertwine with perceptions of her role
as an adult educator.
Hansl's interests and activities in
contexts of sociology and education can be compared with
current
views:
. . . the key
words are struggle and shaping. They
point to
structural issues. Our problems are
systemic
. . . Each aspect of the social process .
. . serves to
affect the
relationships within and among the others.
As a mode of production attempts to
reproduce the
conditions of its
own existence, "it" creates
antagonisms and
contradictions in other spheres. As
groups of people
struggle over issues of gender, race,
and class in each
of these spheres, the entire social
process,
including "the economy," is also affected.
(Apple, 1981, p.27)
Apple goes on to say that
these struggles are not mere
abstractions or static concepts in some social process construct,
but rather they are real and intrinsic in our daily
lives:
"People like us live
them" (1981, p.27).
Here lies the strength and uniqueness of
Eva Hansl as both a
strategist or agent-for-change and educator. In a letter to
Hansl, a reader of one of
her articles published in Harper's in
1927 offers
congratulations. She praises Hansl for
not only
focusing on issues important to women, but for translating
those
issues into language that is both clear and connected to the
realities of women's daily lives. The letter writer says that
Hansl dealt with the facts
that "our brain-ideas often have to be
overthrown by our life-ideas" and that we all have our
"crude
anticipations" of the social process but "Life smashes
in!"
(MacNeille, 1927, p.3).
Through both her research and her personal
involvement in
the issues, Hansl gained a unique capacity to work within
the
system but to struggle with issues and shape some
changes. What
is both honest and vital about Hansl's
struggle and shaping, as
both educator and agent for change, is the fact that it
reflects
her own journey through the social process.
Her issue-oriented focus varied somewhat
as her own roles
and circumstances changed. For example, in 1923 she helped draft
a resolution for a convention of the American
Association of
University Women in
. . . the avowed
purpose of women's education is to
help the
individual to develop her innate capacities
and orient
herself in nature . . . develop her mind as
an instrument and
to equip herself with knowledge . . .
(Hansl & Puffer-Howe, 1923, p.1)
Later, she slightly
re-shaped her focus to include factors such
as motherhood and parenting for women, particularly
educated
women who may feel even more duplicity of role.
Her continued journey through the social
process within
which she found herself living, created more change and she
further re-shaped her focus in 1927. At this time she
participated in the report making of a study and discussion group
comprised of women specialists in sociology, vocations,
economics, child welfare, and psychology. The group's focus was
on "the total life situation of any mother"
whose situation
caused her to find herself in "a variety of
relationships"
including with a husband, children, community, work, and her
own
personhood (Report on the Discussion Group on Mothers and Time,
1927).
Some twenty years later, her focus changed
again to reflect
the circumstances of a post-war economy and the dilemma
of the
woman who wants to or must "keep one hand in [the job
market]
while she rocks the cradle with the other" (Hansl,
1949, p.27).
Rather than view this focus change as
ideological
discrepancy or weakness, it may be seen as a strong point in
Hansl's perceptual activity. Her
flexibility allowed her to
adapt both focus and strategy to ever-changing social,
political,
economic, and cultural contexts of women's issues. Though her
focus allowed for flexibility, her energies were not
scattered--
nor were her goals or the methods used to achieve the
goals.
HER DUAL APPROACH
As stated earlier, Hansl's
goal was to recognize and define
the educated American woman's struggle to find a
"point of
intersection" in her multiple roles in American society,
"to
discover her obstacles and how to remove them," and
"to suggest a
campaign for research and action necessary to produce
changes"
(Hansl,
1949, p.7).
To achieve the above, she chose a
primarily dual approach:
research and education.
Specifically, Hansl's dual approach--and
her achievements--can be exemplified most clearly by two
of her
efforts. first, the ongoing collection of materials which she
gathered over years for the "Perspective on Women in the
Collection. In writing of Hansl's research collection, Lloyd-
Jones said this:
She has maintained files that fairly burst
with clippings
and reports of
all sorts. She has maintained a keen
interest in adult
education, in the changing patterns
of women's lives,
in vocational guidance, and deserves
a great deal of
credit for the role that she has played
in stimulating
people to work in these fields. (1960,
p.2)
The Hansl collection contains a variety of
reference
material, including personal letters, advertisements, long
lists
of biographies and reference books about women which
Hansl had
read and recorded, various brochures, booklets, pamphlets,
and
advertisements--all pertinent to women in history, politics, the
home, and the work force.
It is obvious that Hansl's interest
was intense. It is
also obvious that the value of such a vast
and varied collection was not only in its serving as a
data base
for Hansl and the others with whom she shared this
information in
her lectures and speeches. The collection also served a role in
establishing a broad network through which Hansl not only sought
information, but shared information, encouraged exploration of
ideas and issues, and effectively publicized it all. Another
valuable side effect of the research collection was that Hansl
used it to create human linkages, to put people in touch
with
people. In this
regard, Lloyd-Jones recounts a story about
supervising a doctoral candidate who wanted to work in the field
of adult education, particularly with adult women. Lloyd-Jones
put the student in touch with Hansl, who put her in touch
with a
project with the New York State Business and Professional
Women's
Clubs. Hansl and the
student shared collected data, and later
Hansl nominated the
student for a fellowship grant from the
women's clubs.
(Lloyd-Jones, 1960, p.1)
Hansl herself may have felt that one of
the most valuable
aspects of her research was that it gave her materials of
substance with which to raise the consciousness of women and
American
society--and with which to educate them. certainly
this
value is indicated in what may be considered the highlights
of
her informative and educational achievements--her written
materials and her role in the production of three noted radio
series about women.
Between 1939 and 1943 she combined what
she had learned
through her research, networking, and writing to produce the
radio series. Though
this achievement covered only about four
years of Hansl's lifetime, it
represents a monumental effort
toward the recognition and definition of American women's
roles
and abilities.
Certainly, viewed within the context of American
life at that time, this undertaking must have been both
unprecedented and at least somewhat courageous.
The latter of the three series, called
"Womanpower" and
produced between 1942 and 1943, was probably least educational
in
the broader contexts of Hansl's
usual interests and objectives.
For "Womanpower"
Hansl was loaned to CBS by the
War
Manpower Commission. Though her actual role with the
commission was in its Nutrition Division (another of her
interests), Hansl was asked to supervise this production due to
her knowledge of journalism, radio, and women's
issues. Though
the program focused on women, it may be seen as limited
in its
educational scope since it was described as "the only
official
Government
program to recruit women" (Lobach, n.d., p.4).
Hansl's two
earlier radio series, however, may be viewed as
innovative and somewhat broader in educational scope. Though
these series were done in cooperation with the WPA and the
United
States Office of
Education, and there existed a war time purpose
of showing "the part women have played in the
government" and
"how
women have advanced in government from local to national,"
they appear to have been an effective vehicle for
consciousness-
raising and education as well (Burke, 1940, p.1).
Some forty-seven scripts, including
background research
files for them, were given to
in the Arents Research
Library. An examination of these scripts
shows that though many of the scripts were actually written
by
Jane Ashman (complete with
directions and cues), much of the
research, script outlining, interviewing, publicity, and
promotion was accomplished by Hansl. Broadcast from May of 1939
through 1940 from Station WJZ and the Blue Network of NEC,
the
half-hour shows were a stage for recognizing and defining women
as a political force, an economic factor, and a unique
social
group with multiple roles throughout American history.
For the most part, the script formats were
roughly the same:
(a) a
narrated introduction of the particular episode's topic or
purpose, (b) a storyline which used actors to reveal past and
present attitudes and obstacles surrounding American women,
and
(c) a
speech by or interview with prominent figures of the day
regarding women's interests and abilities. What is extraordinary
about the scripts is the breadth of the topics they cover.
Included were such topics
as the following: "Women as
Teachers,"
"Women in Politics
and Government," "Women Through Space and
Time," "Women
Refugees," "Women and Laws," and "Women in
Agriculture,"
"Women and the Press," "Women The
Providers." This
latter script illustrated the role of Juliet Corson and
other
American women who studied
nutrition for the poor and ways to
feed "the working man" in promoting good
health. "Women as
Voters" and
"Disabled Women" were the topics of other show
scripts, as well as "Women in Sports" and
"Women in Business."
Each of these generated
individual show scripts often done within
broader categories such as "Freedom of Education"
or "Freedom of
Speech,"
reflecting both the times and the shows' sponsors.
The ingeniousness of the series'
educational strategies
seems evident in their structure: they introduced issues,
illuminated attitudes, and produced well-known figures who
discussed the women's roles and frequently ignored
accomplishments. The first
series actually demonstrated Hansl's
position, goals, and methodology. It proceeded as follows:
music, narrator announcing show title, and male and female
actors
opened by talking in a "typical" conversation
which reflected
attitudes such as the inferiority of women and how women should
be allowed no rights in government. The show then proceeded to
describe many notable and accomplished women throughout
American
history, with periodic interjections of other dialogue. These
included a Depression Era dialogue between husband and wife
depicting the wife "going back to work" and the
unemployed
husband's negative attitude, and a dramatized interview with
Amelia Earhart
discussing her husband's support of her multiple
interests and roles. The
show ended in what was then the
present, whereupon the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt closed
the
episode actually speaking from the White House. Most of the
remainder of the series's scripts are
structurally similar:
introduction of issues, exposure of dominant attitudes about
women and the obstacles facing them, with support for
change or
action through linkages to prominent figures or respected
authorities at the show's close.
(Ashman, 1939)
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
In viewing Eva vom
Baur Hansl's research,
writing, and
activities, there is not simple analysis that is possible. The
woman's broad view of women's issues and collection of
materials
on them is astounding.
Her attempts to educate both men and
women about women have been shown to be both energetic and
innovative. Her special
focus on the category of educated
American women, in which
she found herself, put her at the
forefront of research on and exploration of new issues and
roles
for women in the rapidly changing twentieth century.
Perhaps in this light, Eva Hansl also may
be seen as a kind
of prophet. Not
in typically narrow terms as one who predicts
the future, although she did accurately predict many
trends for
women's futures, but in some of the other possible
definitions of
the word suggested by Ohliger (1987b). Perhaps, the simplest and
most apt definition of Hansl and her work is to be found
in a
prophecy which is characterized by clearly seeing some
essential
truth(s) and, as Ohliger described, depending on "choice,
action,
and human spirit" for its completion--affirmative,
and
"realistic"
(Ohliger, 1987a, p.3).
REFERENCES
Apple, M.W. (1981). Reproduction, contestation, and curriculum:
An essay in
self-criticism. Interchange, 12 (2-3),
pp.48-67.
Ashman, J. (1939). Women
in the making of America. (NBC, WJZ,
Research Library.
Burke, W.S. (1940). Memo
from the
Gallant American Women Series
(1940). The Eva Hansl
collection (
University, George Arents Research Library.
Hansl,
E., & Puffer-Howe, M. (1923). Amendment
to Resolution for
AAUW
Convention at
Hansl collection (Box
1).
University, George Arents Research Library.
Hansl, E. (1949). Trends
in part time employment of college
trained women.
Lloyd-Jones, E.
(1960). To whom it may concern (June 8).
The
Eva Hansl collection
(Box 1).
University, George Arents Research Library.
Lobach, K.S. (n.d.). New
Yorker profile suggestion to editor.
The Eva Hansl collection
(Box 1).
MacNeille, P.R. (1927). Letter of congratulations on Harper's
article. The Eva Hansl Collection
(Box 1).
N.Y.:
Library.
Ohliger, J. (1987a). If
winter comes. (One World of Cultures
Series Wayland House,
Campus, February 27). Reprinted in ATE 600, Radical
Thinking in Adult
Education.